Highlanders down Waynesburg, 55-22
CLAYSVILLE — An non-conference loss to Linsly (W.Va.) last weekend left a sour taste in the mouth of the McGuffey Highlanders. Head coach Ed Dalton liked how his team responded in practice this week and it led to 55-22 win Friday night over Waynesburg Central in the Class 2A Century Conference.
“We played a pretty good team,” Dalton said of Linsly. “But I feel if we can keep the right mentality with the challenging schedule that we have played, it will benefit us in the long run.”
That mentality helped McGuffey jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter with two rushing touchdowns. The first came from junior fullback Eric Donnelly from two yards, and the second from senior running back Jeremiah Johnson for three yards.
“We came out of the gates just like we did last week,” Dalton said. “I think we played a little bit better defense this week. We needed to shore up some coverage issues but after they hit us with some things our secondary made some nice adjustments and played well.”
McGuffey’s dominance carried over to the second quarter when the Highlanders scored 21 points and again held Waynesburg (1-3, 2-5) scoreless. Johnson got his second score on an eight-yard run.
“It felt really good to come out and have our offense clicking,” Johnson said. “It felt great seeing the team play so well.”
Johnson ended the night with two scores on six carries for 47 yards. Johnson was also able to contribute in the passing game, adding two catches for 38 yards.
“He had a really nice game tonight,” Dalton said. “He’s playing out of his natural position due to injuries, but he made some big runs for us.”
McGuffey’s fourth score came when junior quarterback Philip McCuen hit senior running back Christian Cipoletti on a 27-yard touchdown pass. McCuen totaled 58 yards through the air and 16 yards on two rushes, one of which was a two-yard touchdown.
“I credit my success to my team, my offensive line, my running backs and everyone running their routes and getting open,” McCuen said. “It’s just a beautiful thing when we come together.”
The Highlanders also mixed freshman quarterback Logan Carlisle into the game and he had an eight-yard TD scamper to give McGuffey a 35-0 halftime lead.
“I always like to help him out when I can,” McCuen said about Carlisle “I’m always giving him tips and he is always making plays.”
Waynesburg coach Aaron Giorgi felt the game could be a learning experience for his players.
“I think they learned a big lesson,” Giorgi said. “I think the kids realize the weight room is very important and we’re going to focus on that more in the offseason.
“I felt we lost the game physically. I thought we had a good game plan as far as defense and offense. I just thing we got a bit overwhelmed physically. They were clearly the stronger team. I think our kids now know they need to get to that level as well to compete with those types of teams.”
McGuffey (4-3, 3-0) will now look to stack wins when they travel next weekend to take on Chartiers-Houston in a Century Conference showdown that has playoff seeding implications.
Waynesburg entered Friday’s game with some momentum after getting its first conference win last week over Fraizer but struggled to get going offensively. The Raiders tallied three second-half touchdowns but it was too little too late.
McGuffey was up 42-0 when Jacob Stephenson got Waynesburg on the scoreboard with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Colby Pauley.
The Raiders scored twice in the fourth quarter on Breydon Woods 78-yard touchdown run and Stephenson’s 54-yard scoring pass to Nate Jones. Woods ran in the two-point conversion after both TDs.
Woods and Stephenson were bright spots offensively for Waynesburg. Woods had 15 carries for 144 yards and Stephenson completed 15 of 18 passes for 204 yards. Chase Fox had seven receptions for 60 yards.
“Jake had a really good game,” Giorgi said. “We just couldn’t finish drives in the first half. We had a key turnover in the second quarter that hurt us. We weren’t efficient enough.”
The Raiders are off next week then host Chartiers-Houston on Oct. 22.
(Rob Burchianti contributed to this story.)