Wayne running back Justin Gilkerson is all power. He swears he doesn’t have breakaway speed.
Apparently, there’s a big difference when the only thing in front of you is a state championship and the only thing behind you is your county rivals.
Gilkerson rushed for a season-high 160 yards and a West Virginia Class AA state title game-record four touchdowns, leading the Pioneers to a 33-6 victory against Tolsia on Friday night at Wheeling Island Stadium.
Gilkerson, who’s performance earned him the game’s Most Valuable Player honor, turned in the contest’s signature play when he broke free for 54 yards with his team leading 20-6 with less than 9 minutes remaining.
‘‘I knew it would be a tough one,’’ Gilkerson said. ‘‘But I just thought we’d muscle them out, just pound the ball. I’m proud of my offensive line, I couldn’t have done it without them, it’s all them.’’
Gilkerson was caught at the 3, but it hardly mattered.
‘‘I saw 21 (Brandon Stacy) gaining on me,’’ Gilkerson said. ‘‘I thought I was going to make it, but I scored on the next play so.’’
Yes, he did, pushing the score to 26-6, and pretty much touching off a party that doesn’t figure to end any time soon in Wayne County. It is the school’s first football championship.
“He’s a iron-willed kid,’’ Wayne coach Tommy Harmon said of Gilkerson, who was part of a 365-yard rushing effort by the Pioneers.
‘‘Our offensive line broke their will as the game rolled on and our defense played solid the whole game.’’
All of this forced Tolsia into a passing situation, which hurt, considering the Rebels had run the ball nearly 90 percent of the time in a magical season that ended in the Super Six for the first time in school history.
‘‘We had to try and come up and do something we don’t do really well and that’s throw the ball around,’’ Tolsia coach Drew Waller said. ‘‘When we do that, it kinda gets out of hand. They took us out of our game plan.’’
Wayne passers completed 5 of 17 passes for 26 yards and were intercepted twice.
‘‘Wayne’s a good football game, they’re really quick,’’ Waller added. ‘‘We were surprised. We couldn’t move the ball on offense, and they made some big plays on defense.’’
Tolsia had 142 total yards, which barely scratched the surface of its average.
That meant limited opportunities for the state’s leading rusher. On the good side, Tolsia’s B.J. Evans rushed for 110 yards. On the bad side, it was a season-low.
‘‘It made a big difference,’’ Waller said. ‘‘They had a good game plan. They brought a lot of different people up in the box. And any time you get the penalties we did (9 for 71 yards) — we’re not a very good team when it’s first and 15. We just made too many mistakes and we didn’t play good enough to win.’’
Wayne had something to do with that in avenging a regular-season loss to the Rebels.
‘‘When you can control the football offensively, good things happen,’’ Harmon said. ‘‘We knew (Friday night) if we could keep the football a little bit, we could help our defense, and that’s exactly what happened.
‘‘Our coaches great job of putting us in the right defense. Our kids did a great job executing it.’’
Wayne got on the board first when Gilkerson, who had 24 rushing yards at halftime, capped a 12-play, 81-yard drive with a 3-yard plunge.
Tolsia answered with a 12-play drive of its own. Evans accounted for 61 yards on the spurt, including the final 6, as he walked into the end zone .
And then it was all Gilkerson, as he scored on runs of 3, 5, 3, and 1 yard. Justin Followay, who finished with 100 yards on six carries, added a 61-yard scoring burst with 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
With that, they erased some serious title-game frustration.
‘‘Every playoff game we’ve won has been a state championship game,’’ Harmon said. ‘‘We just hadn’t won one here yet. (Friday night) we got that monkey off our backs and we’re happy.
‘‘We’re certainly happy that we’ve got a state runner-up in our county. And we’re happy we’ve got a state champion. And we certainly like it in that order.’’
Untitled Document
Super Six
c/o Bernie Dolan - Director
1976 Park View Road
Wheeling, WV 26003
