Maroon Knights to play for title at Wheeling Island
Saturday, November 25, 2006
By NICK BEDWAY- for The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register

For the second season in a row, Wheeling Central Catholic and Williamstown have earned the opportunity to meet with the West Virginia state Class A high school football championship on the line.

Both teams scored impressive semifinal victories Friday night and will carry perfect 13-0 records into next Saturday night’s title game at Wheeling Island Stadium≥ In last season’s Super Six finale, the Maroon Knights won their second straight single-A crown and their fourth since 2000 with a 35-20 victory.

Wheeling Central looked more than ready to take the final step toward a three-peat after overwhelming Greenbrier West (10-3) by a 57-22 count on the Pro-Grass Turf at chilly Wheeling Island Stadium. Coach Mike Young’s powerhouse offense rushed for 357 yards in racking up its 18th straight victory dating back to Week 9 of the 2005 season. Meanwhile, the Yellowjackets dispatched previously-unbeaten Mount Hope by a 21-6 count at Williamstown.

‘‘We are one step away from the goal our seniors set for themselves coming into the season,’’ Young said. ‘‘Williamstown obviously has the same goal. It should be a hard-fought state championship game between two very talented football teams.’’

Young, an assistant coach on Central’s 2000, 2002 and 2004 Class A title-winning clubs before succeeding the late Jim Thomas in 2005, couldn’t have been more pleased with the Maroon Knights’ quick start. The state’s No. 1-ranked small school team sprinted in front 28-0 in the first quarter to take all the air out of the Cavaliers’ upset balloon.

‘‘We jumped in front early and never let up,” Young said.

The Maroon Knights coaches were elated to get the ball first as Greenbrier West won the toss but elected to defer until the second half. Following Chris Martin’s 13-yard kickoff return to the 23, Central needed six plays to navigate the distance, with four of the snaps resulting in gains of 13, 17, 13 and 27 yards.

‘‘They tried to take our inside running game away but we were prepared for that happening,” Young said.

Central junior quarterback Alex Peluchette opened his team’s bag of tricks right away with a play fake and a pass along the sideline to wide receiver P.J. Henry that picked up 13 yards. An inside counter to Andrew Grubler netted 17 yards moving the sticks for the second time in as many plays and advancing the football into Cavaliers territory. On the next snap, Central’s all-state tailback Brandon Tucker got his first call of the evening and broke off a 13-yard run to the GW 34.

On third and three at the 27, Chris Martin took an inside handoff, found a huge hole and scampered to the end zone for the touchdown. Mike Duplaga kicked the first of seven straight PATs for a 7-0 reading just 2:26 into the game.

Benefiting from two straight personal foul penalties against the Cavaliers, the Maroon Knights drove 67 yards on their second possession and Tucker went off the left side for the final 5 yards at 4:44.

Junior linebacker Nick Garbark then blocked Trent Walker’s punt, providing a short field for the Central offense. Martin tallied his second touchdown of the opening quarter with a 24-yard run, aided by Tucker’s path-clearing block.

Just 23 seconds after this score, the Maroon Knights got back on the scoreboard again. Henry intercepted a Jaron Childers pass at Greenbrier West 48 and took off up the right sideline without stopping until he crossed the goal line. Duplaga’s PAT made it a 28-0 Central advantage with 1:42 still to play in the first quarter.

Even though there was still plenty of game remaining to be played, Cavaliers coach Lewis McClung knew his team had been put in an impossible situation.

‘‘We just don’t have the kind of offense to come back from that kind of deficit,” McClung said with a sigh. ‘‘We didn’t play well and we especially didn’t execute early in the game. The penalties really hurt us, even though I kept telling them to get their minds back on playing football,” McClung added.’

In the first quarter, Greenbrier West managed 25 yards of offense while being flagged five times for 55 yards. For the game, the Cavaliers had 103 yards stepped off for 12 penalties.’’

Another personal foul in the second quarter led to Central’s fifth touchdown, Grubler walking in untouched from 8 yards out to complete a 62-yard, nine-play march.

Trailing 35-0 with the clock winding down toward halftime, Greenbrier West moved Walker from tailback to quarterback also shifted into a shotgun formation. Walker, who entered the game having rushed for more than 2,400 yards this season, was effective taking the direct snap and picking out some holes in the dominate Wheeling Central defensive line. He carried for 33 yards on the scoring march that began at the Cavaliers 31, but then connected with Childers for the touchdown from 23 yards out.

Walker, who finished the game and his high school career with a 146-yard night for his 25 carries, then ran in the bonus points to trim the deficit to 35-8 at the half.

In the second half, Walker found the end zone two more times, returning a punt 55 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter and then scoring from 18 yards out a quarterback keeper. He sustained a hip pointer on the the last touchdown run and tried to return to the game after Greenbrier West had recovered the onside kick with 40 seconds remaining. However, one play later he came out for good.

‘‘Walker’s an impressive back,” said Young. ‘‘He runs hard and with a lot of determination. But we knew that after playing against him last year.”

Central opened the 2005 playoffs by defeating Walker and his Cavalier meetings in another high-scoring game at Charmco.

The Maroon Knights added two touchdowns in the second half before Coach Young turned things over to the backups. Tucker, displaying a neat cut, scored on a 15-yard run early in the third quarter. Peluchette the connected on a bootleg pass to Justin Lang, boosting the advantage to 49-8.

Central also got a touchdown in the fourth quarter as Chris Klemm tiptoed down the sideline from 34 yards out and second-team QB Zeke Taylor fired a pass to Zach Foose for the two-point conversion.

Moving ever closer to the 2,000-yard rushing mark for the season, Tucker had 16 carries but netted 130 yards and two touchdowns. Martin made the most of his four carries, picking up 61 yards and also racking up a pair of six-pointers.