This one though, a 74-yard touchdown tote with under a minute to play before halftime, meant a little more.

With his long run, Wack became Wheeling Park’s all-time leading rusher, as the reigning Curt Warner Award winner ran for 258 yards and four touchdowns in a 27-14 WVSSAC Class AAAA first-round playoff victory against Woodrow Wilson on Friday night inside Wheeling Island Stadium.

“The coaches told me at halftime,” Wack said of breaking the school rushing record. “But I think it’s just huge for everybody. Like, the line’s proud of it, I’m proud of it, the whole team’s proud of it. It’s just really great.”

“As far as Brennan Wack goes, I think he’s the Kennedy Award winner,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “That’s my opinion. That kid has missed two and a half games and he’s broken our school record for career rushing. He just had an unbelievable game tonight. He looks to be 100% now, and it’s just nice to see.”

The previous rushing record was held by Boogie Johnson, who racked up 4,010 career rushing yards. Wack, who took over as Park’s tailback just last year, now has 4,182.

Wack started his big day on the very first play of the game; an outside zone handoff which the senior runner housed 60 yards for a lightning-fast score.

Park, though, seeded No. 6 in Class AAAA, would not be in for an easy day at the office against the 10th-seeded Flying Eagles.

Woodrow Wilson embarked on a nine-play, four-minute drive which ended in a 13-yard touchdown run up the gut from Javontae Wynes.

After the next Patriots drive stalled out– penalties plagued Park’s offense badly in the first quarter– the Flying Eagles continued to chew up clock and yardage with a seven-play drive that ended in another Wynes touchdown, this one from six yards out. With two minutes to play in the opening quarter, Woodrow Wilson held a 14-7 lead.

It would be the last score of the game for the Flying Eagles.

“Our defense made some adjustments,” Daugherty said. “[Woodrow Wilson] did a great job in the first quarter. Defense made some adjustments in the second quarter. You can see it kind of worked. Came back out in the second half, I thought we did a phenomenal job on defense.”

Kameron Dietrich and Reuben Rouse each had sacks for Park. Dietrich also had two tackles for loss in an impactful day for the edge defender.

Wack powered in a two-yard touchdown run with just under five minutes to play in the second quarter, but a blocked point-after had Woodrow Wilson clinging onto their lead, 14-13.

With under a minute to play before halftime, and facing a fourth down, Woodrow Wilson tried a 43-yard field goal, but the kick came up short.

The first play back on offense, Wack took another outside handoff, shrugged off a tackler, and sped up the sideline to put Park ahead with 30 seconds on the clock, 19-14.

After a lively offensive first half, defenses took over in the second half. Woodrow Wilson would get their shot to retake the lead, marching down to Park’s two yard-line in a drive that bled over from the third quarter and well into the fourth, a drive that involved a fourth down conversion at midfield on a punt-fake rushing attempt by the Eagles’ Gage Burdette.

Down to the Patriot two yard-line on fourth down, Park got good push up-front, and held Woodrow Wilson to no gain, giving the Patriot offense the ball.

The Patriots let Wack march them down the field– and also sprinkled in a handoff to H-back Nolan Yanchak, who powered upfield 30 yards in a massive play– and Wack put away the game with a 29-yard touchdown dash. Yanchak caught the ensuing two-point conversion.

Neither team had great passing success on Friday, but both were effective in their ground games. For Woodrow Wilson, Wynes finished with 71 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns, Burdette had 96 stripes on the ground, and AJ Thomas rushed for 77 yards. Friday largely came down to trench play.

“You can see they’re pretty good up-front, too,” Daugherty said of the Flying Eagles. “And it caused us problems. I thought [Ja’Marques Manns’] one of the best kids we’ve played all year for them, he plays on both sides of the ball and he maybe started running out of gas. I thought our kids played better as the game went on. We won the line of scrimmage, I thought, for two and a half quarters. I thought they won the line of scrimmage for about a quarter and a half. I think that might have something to do with our schedule, too. In every one of our games, we’ve had to play in four quarter contests and been in dog fights and it showed today.”

Woodrow Wilson head coach Chad Sarrett was proud of his team, which finishes 5-6 on the season.

“A lot of heart. They played tough tonight,” Sarrett said. “They played tough and just came up short in that goal line stand. The Wack kid’s very tough. One of the toughest running backs we’ve played against all year. Just, the offense didn’t perform when they needed to and that’s all on me. These kids play tough, tons of heart. They don’t have anything to hang their heads about.”

For Wack and the rest of Park’s senior class, Friday was the final home game of their careers, as Park will travel to face No. 3 Martinsburg in the Class AAAA quarterfinals.

“It was just amazing,” Wack said of the home game. “It’s surreal. Great last game to be here and I definitely enjoyed it.”