Wash High flexes muscles against Deer Lakes
Washington’s Kenya Davis, right, celebrates with Kurt Adkins, who scored on a 51-yard touchdown run to open the scoring Friday against Deer Lakes.
Wash High’s Isaiah Schoonmaker returns an interception 22 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter against Deer Lakes.
Wash High’s Kurt Adkins celebrates after running the ball 51 yards for the first touchdown of the game against Deer Lakes on Friday, November 6.
Wash High’s Markel Pulliam tries to escape from Deer Lakes’ Michael McGrath during the seocond half of Friday night’s game.
Everybody likes to talk about the offense on Washington High School’s football team, and it really is good. The Prexies’ throwback single-wing-style offense has been putting up statistics usually found only in videogames.
Wash High’s defense, though, is hard to ignore.
The Prexies’ defense pitched three shutouts during the regular season and only one opponent managed to put up double-figure points.
With the calendar turning to November and playoff football starting, you had to wonder if those defensive numbers would continue for Washington.
The answer was a resounding yes.
Washington held Deer Lakes scoreless for the game’s first 46 minutes Friday and the Prexies played a near-perfect first half en route to a 52-7 thumping of the Lancers in a WPIAL Class AA first-round game at Wash High Stadium.
The win sends Washington (10-0) into the quarterfinals against Allegheny Conference champion Freeport (9-1), which routed McGuffey 45-6 in the first round. The sites for the quarterfinals will be announced Monday.
Wash High led 28-0 after one quarter and 42-0 at halftime. The Prexies ran 19 offensive plays in the first half and scored five touchdowns. Even the defense got into the act as linebacker Isaiah Schoonmaker returned an interception 22 yards to give Washington a 28-0 lead late in the first quarter.
“Our defense has been special all year,” Wash High coach Mike Bosnic said. “We try to be physical, fundamentally sound and attack. We have a great group of seniors and great team speed. When you have that mix, good things can happen on defense.
“Every team we play from here on out is going to be very good offensively. There are a lot of prolific offenses in Double-A.”
The first half was a nightmare for Deer Lakes (6-4), which was making only its second playoff appearance in the school’s 47-year history and is without a postseason win. The Lancers had a 16-yard punt that set up Washington’s first scoring drive, lost a fumble, shanked a punt that traveled minus-1 yard and threw the pick-6. That was all in the first quarter.
“Everything in the first half happened the opposite of the way we planned,” Deer Lakes coach Steve Sciullo, a former NFL offensive lineman. “After watching tape of Washington, we knew that could happen. The punts gave them a short field. We probably should have gone for it on fourth down instead of punting.”
Kurt Adkins’ 51-yard run gave Washington a 7-0 lead on the Prexies’ third offensive play. After Schoonmaker recovered a Deer Lakes fumble at the Lancers’ 26-yard line, it took one play for Wash High to make it 14-0. Quarterback Markel Pulliam passed to running back Jordan West for the score.
A shanked punt that went out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage on Deer Lakes’ next possession gave WHS the ball at the Lancers’ 30. Adkins bolted up the middle to the one and West scored one a plunge off right guard to make it 21-0.
Three plays later, Schoonmaker intercepted a pass in the flat, ran across the field and went 22 yards to the end zone to make it 28-0.
“Some teams are big and slow. Some teams are fast but they’re not big. Washington is big, fast and nasty,” Sciullo said.
Before the half ended, Adkins would add a 30-yard TD scamper and West would score on a 10-yard run. Adkins rushed for 124 yards on only four carries and West topped the 1,000-yard mark for the season late in the first half. Adkins and West are the 10th set of teammates in the WPIAL to rush for 1,000 yards in the same season since 1979.
“We had to control the clock and keep the ball,” Sciullo said. “But they didn’t play much offense because they scored on just about every play.”
Wash High used a 36-yard field goal by Max Dragich and a four-yard TD run by Zyan Wallace to make it 52-0.
Deer Lakes ended Wash High’s shutout bid with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter, long after the Prexies had cleared the bench. Hunter Barnes, who rushed for 178 yards and carried on 39 on the Lancers’ 51 offensive plays, scored on a five-yard run. Burns set up the TD by throwing a 30-yard pass on fourth-and-three.
“We don’t mention getting shutouts, but you can tell how important they are listening to our starters on the sidelines cheering for our backups late in the game,” Bosnic said.