[ad_1]
Photo by Christine Mazgaj Wheeling Park running back Zach Lydick runs against St. Clairsville.
Gates Mills, Oh. – Wheeling Park will look to start the 2022 football season 3-0 Friday night when coach Chris Daugherty’s Patriots travel to Gilmore Academy to battle a strong Villa Angela-St. Joseph’s team, which is 2-1 on the season, has not allowed a point since the loss.
Dougherty’s red, white and blue Pittsburgh City School opened the season with a win at St. Clairsville before edging Brashear 42-12 last week at Wheeling Island Stadium. Meanwhile, coach Jeff Rotsky’s Vikings opened with a 34-3 loss to 2021 Division 3 state finalist Badin. Last week was a 49-0 win over Youngstown East.
VASJ also moved up to the third division this season and entered the campaign with a young team consisting of just eight seniors, but with a whopping 40 sophomores on the roster.
The Vikings have a number of high-quality running backs, including sophomore Lamar “Bo” Jackson, who holds offers from Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Kentucky. He is joined in the backfield by junior Amani Powell. Rotsky also has quarterbacks in Kane Cooper or sophomore Keelan Stuball along with junior Andre Spinks, a top threat.
Defensive lineman Domnick Kinks is also considered a VASJ Division I prospect.
“They are a good, well-coached football team that made the Ohio State tournament a season ago and expect to be back there again this year,” Dougherty said. “I think it will be interesting to see how we stack up against them. They have good running and like to run the football. He’s a division one recruit, and even though he’s a sophomore, he really looks the part.
“We know that they do a lot of power with the outside zones and to be successful we have to be physical with them not just a little bit but for a long time.”
The Patriots were shut out by the Bulls a week ago, but a big game offense and defensive effort that included a pair of interceptions and two safeties made the difference. Park also had a punt return for a touchdown on the night.
Quarterback Brett Phillips leads the offensive line and has completed an impressive 24 of 37 passes for 323 yards and four touchdowns in two games, adding 41 yards and a score on the ground last week. Sophomore running back Jere Hawkins has nine catches for 170 yards and three scores, two of which came from 15 and 37 yards last week.
Will James is another threat with five carries for 43 yards and a score. Zach Lydic leads the ground attack with 22 carries for 210 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots were forced to punt two of their possessions last week.
“We have a lot of great playmaking ability from a lot of different kids,” Daugherty said. “It’s just a matter of checking how teams are going to play us week in and week out. It might take us a few weeks to figure things out, but we feel like there are a lot of kids that we can tap into when we want to make a big play.”
In two games, Wheeling Park has outscored its opponents 84-26.
“I really can’t say enough about our defense right now,” Dougherty added. We knew we were losing good linebackers and safeties, and I really didn’t have a good idea of what direction the ball was going to go. But I’m very happy with where we are right now, especially our ability to stop the run in the first two weeks.
But there’s no question we’ll be tested more this week than the first two. This is our first trip this year and it will be the best team we have ever played. They are fast and physical, and should be able to match our speed. We’ll just have to see how it plays out, depending on how things play out it could be something that makes us a much better football team.
[ad_2]
Source link
