On Saturday, Wheeling Park’s Jay Bordas threw a pass to Musselman. Bordas threw for 215 yards and three touchdowns in the Patriots’ victory.
WHEELING — After a long layoff heading into the playoffs, the Wheeling Park Patriots got off to a flying start Saturday.
No. 4 Wheeling Park’s first play of the day was a pass to Nolan Janczak for a 46-yard catch-and-run to No. 13 Musselman’s 14-yard line. All they needed was one more play. Brennan Wack ran into the end zone for the first goal of the Patriots’ fast-break scoring.
Wheeling Park defeated Appleman 43-0 in the first round of the Class AAAA WVSSAC football playoffs Saturday night at Wheeling Island Stadium.
To say the least, the fourth-ranked Patriots were economical offensively against No. 13 Appleman, scoring on the first or two plays of many drives. Wheeling Park ran four plays in the first quarter to take a 14-0 lead, played fewer than 10 plays in the first half, and still held a 29-0 lead at intermission.
“They defended us the same way last time we played them,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “I thought we had some big plays, but we didn’t make them. Brennan had a great game, but he kind of carried us. Jay Bordas at quarterback and some of our wide receivers. It was nice to see him play explosively. I felt like he should have done that the last time he played, but he just didn’t do it this time.”
Park’s Jay Bordas completed 5 of 6 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns. That included 79 yards to Colin Wiley, 50 yards to Owen Dobrzynski-Hines and 38 yards to Kaz Campbell.
Patriots tailback Brennan Wack ran eight times for 106 yards and had three touchdown runs of 14, 35 and 27 yards.
In the second meeting between the Patriots and Appleman, Wheeling Park won the regular season matchup 48-13.
“I’m proud of our team,” Dougherty said. “We played this team, I think it was the third week of the season, and we were young in some parts. You can see our growth from there to today. We played from the start of the game. We controlled the game. That wasn’t the case when we played outside. We won easily there, but it was a back-and-forth game, especially in the beginning. This is something the kids are getting a little bit better at each week. Thanks to that.”
After Wack’s first touchdown, Isaac Sands intercepted Musselman along the sideline on 3rd-and-11. One play later, Wheeling Park was back on the board.
Wiley completed a wide receiver’s screen pass 79 yards up the sideline to the home. He had 14 points at Wheeling Park after AJ Shields scored a point in three plays at Wheeling Park.
Noah Short got behind Musselman’s ball carrier on a fourth-and-1 and forced a turnover on downs with 6:24 left in the second quarter.
Less than a minute later, Wack was back on the field, tearing through the Applemen’s defense for a 35-yard touchdown run. Wack also scored a two-run run to make it 22-0.
The Suns skied a catch-interception contest to get the ball back. Another one-play touchdown drive put Wheeling Park up 29-0. This time Dobrzynski-Hines made a 50-yard touchdown toss to the deep post.
Musselman almost got on the board in the final seconds of the first half, but missed on a QB sneak near the 1-yard line and was recovered by the Suns with five seconds to go on the break.
Isaac Sands was outstanding on defense with two interceptions and one fumble recovery. Jed Hanley was also selected to help the Patriots shut out the game.
“I thought Isaac had a really great game. Both him and Jed on the back end, Jed had some picks as well,” Daugherty said. “It’s good to see those two guys getting their hands on the ball. They made a few tackles. Defensively, I thought we did a better job than the last time we played them, but it’s Jameson Maynard. That’s our captain, our leader, and we were able to play really good defense without him on the field tonight. We’ll have him back next week. I hope
Park’s Kameron Dietrich hit two passes on the D-line in the first half alone.
Musselman continued to drive long drives in the second half, but they all ultimately came to nothing, and the Patriots made a series of explosive plays. Campbell had a 38-yard touchdown reception on a deep cross in the third quarter, and just two minutes later, at 6:32, Wack scored a 27-yard touchdown on the first play of Park’s drive.
The only slight blemish on a day that was all aces for Wheeling Park was that the Patriots were flagged 11 times for 87 yards.
“We’re not going to win next week with 87 penalty yards, that’s for sure,” Daugherty said. “We’re going to have to play cleaner.”
Next week, Park will face No. 5 Huntington (10-1), which defeated University 56-28 in its first round.
“I think we’ve grown throughout the season and you’re starting to see that,” Daugherty said. “We’re going to have a different animal next week, we know that. Huntington has been one of the best programs in the state for many years. We’ve played them in the past in the state semifinals, quarterfinals. We know what we’re getting – they’re a very athletic football team that’s going to play next week. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
