photo by: Joe Lovell

Wheeling Park’s Amare Johnson tumbles into the end zone for a score after a hit by John Marshall’s Carter Adkins. Johnson rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown as the Patriots finished the regular season with a 31-7 win over the Monarchs.

MOUNDSVILLE – With a West Virginia Class AAA playoff berth, and a pair of streaks, on the line, Wheeling Park had business to take care of Friday night against arch-rival John Marshall and junior quarterback Aiden Davis and his teammates did exactly what they showed up to do and wasted little time doing it.

Davis completed 18 of 22 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns to a variety of receivers and the Patriots’ defense did the rest, limiting the Monarchs to 157 total yards of offense as Wheeling Park extended its wining streak to five games on the season, and 13 over the Monarchs, with a convincing 31-7 thumping at Monarch Stadium.

The victory moves Coach Chris Daugherty’s Patriots to 7-2 on the season and clinches a first-round playoff berth next week at a site to be determined this weekend. Meanwhile, Coach Mark Cisar’s John Marshall squad concludes the campaign with a disappointing 1-9 mark.

“We wanted to come in here and take care of things early and overall, we were able to do that,” Daugherty said. “It was sloppy at times and there were too many penalties, but we got the job done. Now we can go home, get a little rest and find out who we need to get ready for next week.”

Following a botched snap, and incomplete pass, on a John Marshall punt the Patriots took over in great field position at midfield. Park struck big on first down with a 31-yard Aiden Davis pass to Keohn Stephens that moved the ball inside the 20. Sophomore Amare Johnson covered the final two yards five plays later with AJ Seals’ PAT made it 7-0 at 6:44 of the opening period.

Wheeling Park overcame a pair of big penalties on its next possession but still managed to travel 69 yards on nine plays to extend the lead. The Patriots did not need to attempt a third down call on the drive, which ended on the first play of the second quarters on a one-yard burst by senior lineman Derek Croghan that made it 14-0.

Another Monarch punt led to the third touchdown of the half for the Red, White and Blue as the Park moved 80 yards on six plays, again overcoming three penalties, with Aiden Davis lofting a pass deep down the right side to senior Mykel Davis from 20 yards away at 5:10.

The final score of the half was another efficient Patriots’ march, this time 71 yards on seven plays with Stephens catching a pass at the five, dancing around a defender and capping a 12-yard touchdown catch with 39 seconds to go in the half with the score ballooning to 28-0.

Wheeling Park churned up a whopping 322 yards on just 30 plays in the first half, needing to convert just one third down over the first two quarters, while John Marshall managed just 39 yards on 19 plays.

Davis was near perfect in the first half, completing 16 of 17 passes for 253 yards and a pair of scores.

“Aiden (Davis) throws such a catchable ball with a ton of accuracy,” Daugherty said. “And the guys go out and make plays around him.”

The Patriots featured Johnson on its opening drive of the second half, with six carries for 63 yards, but eventually had to settle for a 30-yard field goal from Seals that made it a 31-0 score.

John Marshall got on the board with 6:45 to play on a 10-yard burst from Maverick Lemasters, who finished the night with 94 yards on the ground.

Wheeling Park finished with 426 total yards of offense, with the reserves playing a good portion of the second half.

“John Marshall did some nice things defensively early, but we were able to get settled in and get rolling. Our defense also did another outstanding job (Friday).

For Cisar it was the end of a tough season, but he was proud of his kid’s efforts.

“We put in some new defensive schemes, and we made them drive the ball on us and limited their explosive plays,” Cisar said. “Our kids played hard, but our offense just couldn’t move the chains. We also had some stupid penalties that you will get in a rivalry game.

“This obviously wasn’t the kind of season we wanted, but I am very pleased with the effort of the kids. We had a good group of seniors and some nice younger kids that stepped up.”

The teams did combine for 21 penalties for 220 yards.