B-C seeks marquee win over revenge-minded GCC

A drop from Class AA to Class A made Greensburg Central Catholic one of the teams to watch last fall, and after the Centurions defeated Monessen in Week 1 the hype seemed very real.
The next week brought Beth-Center from the Tri-County South – a game that was merely a minor obstacle toward Heinz Field.
At least that’s what GCC players thought.
Running back Tony Welsh had other plans. He ran for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns to help the Bulldogs shock the Centurions, 29-20.
“I don’t know if our kids realized the quality of Beth-Center’s team,” Centurions head coach Dan Mahoney admitted. “I think we went down there thinking we’d win without having trouble and that wasn’t the case. Beth-Center woke us up and we know they have a good, quality program.”
The Bulldogs’ physical brand of football wore out Greensburg Central Catholic, grinding out almost 200 rushing yards. Mahoney is hoping for a different result tonight when the Centurions get their shot at revenge in a non-conference game at home. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
Beth-Center (1-0, 1-0) lost a stable of strong seniors, including Nico Brown and Jason Stay, from last year’s team but head coach Ed Woods believes not much changed. Welsh, a 6-0, 201-pound senior, surpassed 3,000 career rushing yards last week with 191 and four touchdowns in a rout of Mapletown – one of the Bulldogs’ top competitors in the Tri-County South.
It was believed by some Beth-Center was finally vulnerable. Woods was OK with the oversight. He hopes every team underestimates the Bulldogs, like the Centurions (1-0, 1-0) did a year ago.
“I did hear that and that’s understandable,” Woods said of the talk. “We lost a lot of really good football players last year and that makes sense. People would think we’re down because of all those losses, but you have to remember that we have a lot of kids who were able to play in the third and fourth quarters last year, so they have varsity experience.”
Beating conference opponents by an average of 43.8 points can have that affect. Players such as Frank Dreucci were able to run against opposing defenses while Welsh, Stay and Brown were among the players limited to a half of football.
Now, Dreucci, a senior fullback, is also a target of the Centurions’ defense. He rushed for 100 yards on six carries with a touchdown against the Maples.
When Mahoney watched video of the Bulldogs, he was reminded of Welsh’s performance last season. Though Stay and Brown are gone, he still has another runner to account for.
“They are physical, tough and they’ll come at you the whole game,” Mahoney said of Beth-Center. “(Welsh) is a player I have great respect for. He’s a very tough, hard runner and (Dreucci) is a nice player. We’ve been pounding into our kids’ heads all week that if you don’t wrap up those kids they’re gone. We have to contain those two backs. If we don’t, we’re in deep trouble.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs will be tasked with stopping a versatile spread attack. The Centurions return senior running back Brian Pevarnik, who rushed for 616 yards and 10 touchdowns last fall despite missing time with an injury suffered against Beth-Center.
GCC also has a new weapon the Bulldogs are familiar with. Junior running back Alvin Ross, a transfer from Frazier, rushed for 202 yards on 23 carries against Monessen last week, running for a touchdown and throwing for another.
A 5-10, 160-pound shifty, change-of-pace back, Ross rushed for 1,028 yards and 13 touchdowns with the Commodores last season, including 126 yards against Beth-Center.
“GCC is definitely a playoff-caliber football team,” Woods said. “We’re up for the challenge and we know it’s definitely going to be a hard-fought football game. They have good receivers, the quarterback can throw and the kid from Frazier can break one at any time. They are a dangerous football team.”
After defeating GCC last fall, the Bulldogs stormed the field and celebrated the program’s first marquee non-conference win in several years. It gave them momentum to win the conference title, but the season ended with a devastating 21-20 loss to Riverside in the first round of the playoffs. Beth-Center wants to knock off GCC again and establish itself as one of the top teams in Class A.
“We know they’re a tough team,” Welsh said. “That was probably our biggest win last year, but we are capable of doing it again. We know they’ll be coming back to get revenge, so it’s motivating us more to work harder and not let them beat us.
“We want to keep the tradition going of how Beth-Center football has always been played.”