‘Inexperienced’ Prexies pull away from Monessen
MONESSEN — Washington opened its football season with a hard-fought 49-20 win at Monessen Friday night, and Prexies coach Mike Bosnic said his team was able to overcome plenty of mistakes.
“Coming in, we were really inexperienced, and we have some guys out there that, quite frankly, were question marks,” he said. “We made some mistakes, but the kids played hard and overall, I am pretty pleased.”
Monessen coach Wade Brown spoke about the crucial moments of the game, which came in the middle quarters.
“I think we had those bad snaps at the end of the first half (and) they basically got two touchdowns off those,” he said. “Then we threw the pick-six in the third quarter that really put the game out of reach and sealed the deal.”
Late in the first half, the game was tied 14-14, but the Prexies took control of the game.
Washington struck twice in the last two minutes of the half to take a 28-14 lead.
After Daevon Burke, Monessen’s punter, tried to run a fake punt from the four-yard line, Ruben Gordon scored from seven yards out with 1:14 to go in the half and Tyler Crawford’s extra point made the score 21-14.
Gardner followed with a fumble that was recovered by Gordon, and three plays late, Gordon scored on a 30-yard run with 38 seconds left in the half.
Crawford’s extra point gave the Prexies a 28-14 lead at the break.
Earlier in the game, it was Monessen that struck first.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring on a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Daniel Dozier and it capped a nine-play, 44-yard drive.
With the score 6-0, the Prexies answered with a touchdown of their own as Treshawn Porter his Zxavian Willis with a 13-yard scoring strike on the last play of the opening quarter.
Burke, a dangerous special teams player a year ago for the Greyhounds, returned the ensuing kick 87 yards for an apparent touchdown, but Monessen was called for a block in the back.
Taking over at its own 28 instead of looking for a tying two-point conversion, Monessen went backwards.
After consecutive bad snaps out of the shotgun formation on second and third down, Monessen had to punt from its one-yard line and Washington took over at the Greyhounds’ 20.
Two plays later, Eddie Lewis scored from 11 yards out with 6:53 to go in the half and Porter hit Jahvon Woods with the two-point conversion to give the Prexies a 14-6 lead.
Tyvaughn Kershaw raced 66 yards for a Monessen touchdown two plays later, and Dozier hit Lorenzo Gardner with the two-point conversion to tie the game with 6:22 to play in the half before the late Washington run.
The Prexies controlled the second half.
Cayden Cook scored twice in the second half, on a 43-yard interception return and a 15-yard touchdown run.
Willis caught a second touchdown pass from Porter, this time from 31 yards, as well in the second half.
Kershaw added a seven-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, and he finished with a game-high 105 yards on 13 carries.
Washington finished with 312 yards of offense on 48 plays while Monessen had 231 yards on 43 plays.
The Prexies forced four Monessen turnovers and held the Greyhounds on downs one time as well.
“The defense played well, and I put them in a bad spot early in the game going for it in our own end,” Bosnic said. “I thought all night, we gave up some big plays, but overall, I thought they did pretty well.”
Monessen is at Cornell Friday while Washington plays host to Clairton in a non-conference contest.