The first play of No. 4 Wheeling Park’s day was a pass to Nolan Yanchak, a 46-yard catch-and-run down to No. 13 Musselman’s 14 yard-line. One more play was all that was needed, Brennan Wack racing into the end zone for the first of many quick-hitting Patriot scores.

Wheeling Park defeated the Applemen 43-0 Saturday evening in the first round of the Class AAAA WVSSAC football playoffs at Wheeling Island Stadium.

The No. 4 Patriots were economical on offense against No. 13 Applemen, to say the least, scoring on the first or second play of many a drive. Wheeling Park ran four plays in the first quarter and led 14-0, and ran less than 10 plays in the first half– still holding a 29-0 lead at the break.

“Last time we played them, they defended us similarly,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “We thought we had some big plays but we just didn’t crack on them. Brennan had a great game out that way, but he kind of carried us. It was nice to see our quarterback Jay Bordas and some of the wide receivers make some big explosive plays. We felt like we should’ve done that the last time we played, we just didn’t. This time we did.”

Park’s Jay Bordas completed five of six passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns– a 79-yarder to Kolin Wiley, a 50-yarder to Owen Dobrzynski-Hines and a 38-yarder to Cazh Campbell.

Patriot tailback Brennan Wack toted the rock 10 times for 163 yards and three touchdowns runs of 14, 35 and 27 yards.

It was the second meeting between the Patriots and the Applemen, Wheeling Park taking their regular season meeting 48-13.

“I’m proud of our team,” Daugherty said. “We played this team, I think the third week of the season, and we were young in some areas. You can see our growth from that point to today. We handled the game from the get-go. We didn’t when we played them out there. We won handily out there, but, especially early in the game, it was back-and-forth. It’s a credit to our kids getting better each week little by little.”

After Wack’s first touchdown, Isaac Sands reeled in an interception along the sideline on a Musselman 3rd-and-11. One play later and Wheeling Park was back on the board.

Wiley took a wide receiver screen pass 79 yards up the sideline to the house. Three Wheeling Park plays had yielded 14 Wheeling Park points after the AJ Seals point-after.

Noah Short tracked down a Musselman ball-carrier from behind on a fourth-and-one to force a turnover on downs with 6:24 to play in the second quarter.

Less than a minute later and Wack was on the warpath again, slicing through the Applemen defense for a 35-yard touchdown run. Wack also punched in a two-point run to make it 22-0.

Sands skied for a contested catch-interception to retake possession. Another one-play touchdown drive put Wheeling Park up 29-0, this time a 50-yard touchdown toss on a deep post by Dobrzynski-Hines.

Musselman nearly got on the board in the final seconds of the half, but fumbled it on a QB sneak at the one yard-line, recovered by Sands with five seconds to the break.

Isaac Sands stood out on defense with two interceptions on defense and a fumble recovery. Jed Hunley also came down with a pick to help the Patriots pitch a shutout.

“I thought Isaac had a really nice game- both him and Jed in the back-end, Jed had a pick too,” Daugherty said. “It’s nice to see those two guys get their hands on the ball, they made a handful of tackles too. I thought defensively, we did a better job than the last time we played them- and that was without Jameson Maynard. That’s kind of our captain, our leader, and we were able to play really great defense without him on the field tonight. Hopefully we’re able to get him back next week.”

Park’s Kameron Dietrich had two batted passes on the d-line in the first half alone.

In the second half, Musselman continued to pace long drives, each of which ultimately proving fruitless, and the Patriots kept snapping off explosive plays. Campbell had a 38-yard touchdown reception on a deep cross in the third quarter, and just two minutes later, at the 6:32 mark, Wack ran in a 27-yard touchdown on the first play of Park’s drive.

On a day where everything came up aces for Wheeling Park, one slight blemish was the Patriots being flagged 11 times for 87 yards.

“We won’t win with 87 penalty yards next week, that’s for sure,” Daugherty said. “We’ll have to play a lot cleaner.”

For Park, next week entails No. 5 Huntington (10-1), who defeated University 56-28 in their own first round game.

“I think we have matured throughout the season and we’re starting to see that,” Daugherty said. “We’ve got a different animal coming next week, we know that. Huntington’s been one of the better programs in the state for a long time. We’ve had our battles with them in the past, in the state semifinals, quarterfinals. We know what we’re getting- they’re a very athletic football team coming up next week. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”