MORGANTOWN — Friday’s high school football game couldn’t have started much better for University High School.
Then things got much, much worse.
The Hawks (1-2) took the opening kickoff against visiting Wheeling Park and quickly moved down the field on seven plays for a drive that ended on a 1-yard touchdown run by freshman Brody Kehler and a 6-0 lead.
UHS then stopped the Patriots (3-1) on back-to-back drives and even had the ball as deep as WPHS 25-yard-line before a pair of bad snaps and a penalty pushed the Hawks out of even field goal position.
Wheeling Park was able to survive the early UHS momentum on its way to a 35-22 victory.
“We just had some mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot,” first-year UHS head coach Eric Snyder said. “We just got to come out and practice more and get some of those things cleaned up.”
UHS had at least six bad snaps in the contest including a snap on a punt that forced the Hawks’ punter to try and throw the ball away and instead ended up with an intentional grounding call.
“That’s just something we are going to deal with as we deal with our youth,” Snyder said. “We had a kid at center that we thought might be at that position for the long term, and he struggled a little bit tonight. But he’s a kid, he’s allowed to struggle. We just need to keep practicing.”
After punting and fumbling on their first two drives, the Patriots found their groove and turned to junior running back Brennan Wack. He scored on a 3-yard run for the first of his four touchdowns on the night as WPHS grabbed the 7-6 lead.
“We were sleepwalking for the first couple of series,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “I was happy with the way we reacted after that, but we shouldn’t have to go through that early struggle to wake us up. Credit to University, they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and they ran a couple of things we hadn’t seen.”
Daugherty said the UHS defense surprised early on by using more man-to-man defense instead of zone. The Patriots had to adjust to that scheme before finally setting in.
Of course, it also helps when Wheeling Park can turn to Wack.
He finished with 167 yards on 18 carries with the four scores.
“Brennan knows when to be physical and make a smaller kid have to wrap him up,” Daugherty said. “He also knows when to run around and use his speed. He’s got both skills and that is rare.”
A 36-yard run by Wack put the Patriots up 35-8 in the fourth quarter, before the Hawks were able to find some footing.
Sophomore quarterback Harrison Helbig connected with Kehler on a 32-yard scoring strike with 6:05 left in the game and then four minutes later that same connection scored on a 5-yard pass.
UHS tried for an onside kick, but the Patriots recovered the ball and ran the clock out.
“I like our kids fight,” Snyder said. “I even told one of my coaches that this team is too young to give up. They just don’t know any better. So, they just keep coming out and playing and playing and playing.”
Helbig finished the night with 265 yards through the air and the two scores. University returns to action on Friday when it travels to Fairmont Senior for a 7 p.m. contest.
Wheeling Park hosts Steubenville on Friday at 7 p.m.
— Story by Eric Herter
Box score
1 2 3 4 F
WP 7 21 0 7 – 35
UHS 6 0 2 14 – 22
First Quarter
UHS – Brody Kehler 1 run (kick block)
WP – Brennan Wack 3 run (Coldin Burkhart kick)
Second Quarter
WP – Wack 1 run (Burkhart kick)
WP – Owen Dobrzynksi-hines 3 pass from Jay Bordas (Burkhart kick)
WP – Wack 3 run (Burkhart kick)
Third Quarter
UHS – Team Safety – ball snapped out of end zone
Fourth Quarter
WP – Wack 36 run (Burkhart kick)
UHS – Kehler 32 pass from Harrison Helbig (Brady Goodenow kick)
UHS – Kelhler 5 pass from Helbig (Goodenow kick)
RUSHING – WPHS: Wack 28-167, Nate Hodge 7-6, Dobrzynski-hodge 1-(-1), Bordas 2-3. UHS: Kehler 10-33, Josh Jorge 1-0, Helbig 9-(-57), Glenn Brown 1-13.
PASSING – WPHS: Bordas 5-10-0 78. UHS: Helbig 24-31-0 265.
RECEIVING – WPHS: Jameson Maynard 1-27, Dobrzynski-hines 1-31, Kolin Wiley 1-17, Wack 1-4. UHS: Brown 8-64, Kaleil Lewis 3-66, Hayden George 4-45, Kehler 6-69.
