Sep 11, 2015 4 min read

GREENSBURG – The new-look Greensburg Central Catholic offense features a stable of running backs that ran for a combined 31 touchdowns last fall and a future Division I baseball player leading the passing game.

With a new offensive coordinator, Centurions head coach Dan Mahoney was waiting for the opportunity to experiment with his plethora of weapons. Facing an inexperienced Beth-Center defense that keyed on stopping the run, he unleashed a spread attack that flashed big-play ability and made very few mistakes.

Greensburg Central Catholic senior quarterback Tommy Pellis, a University of Pennsylvania baseball recruit, threw five touchdown passes and the Centurions’ defense bent but didn’t break in a 34-20 victory over Beth-Center in a non-conference game Friday night.

Beth-Center did hold the Centurions to just 76 rushing yards, but Pellis threw for touchdowns of 20, 19, 19, 42 and 63 yards – finishing with 179 passing yards while exploiting the Bulldogs’ young secondary that did not include a senior. He completed 10 of 16 passes.

“They took advantage of our young corners, which I would do the same if I was in his situation,” Beth-Center head coach Ed Woods said. “I don’t like using young guys as an excuse, but it is what it is. We’re playing a lot of young kids.”

The Bulldogs (1-1) made several mistakes on special teams and twice failed to score on the Centurions’ goal line – fumbling on the 1-yard line in the third quarter and back-to-back penalties backed them up to the 22-yard line, where they failed to convert on fourth down, in the second quarter.

Though Greensburg Central Catholic (2-0) focused on stopping the run, often putting eight players in the box, Beth-Center senior running back Tony Welsh rushed for 224 yards on a career-high 35 carries with three touchdowns, including two in the second half. He scored on runs of 12, 8 and 9 yards.

He also had more than 130 yards off kick returns and caught two passes for 60 yards.

“They did a lot of good things with their formations and threw some different things at us to get the edge,” Mahoney said. “Once (Welsh) gets a little bit of air, it’s very hard to bring him down and we knew that coming in. He’s a heck of back. He keeps getting stronger and never stops.”

The mistakes started early for Beth-Center, when it fumbled a punt, forcing its first drive of the game to start at its own 2-yard line. The Bulldogs drove to the Centurions’ 40-yard line, but a bad snap on fourth down ended it there.

Two plays later, Pellis threw his first touchdown pass to senior Brian Pevanarnik. The Bulldogs’ second drive advanced to GCC’s end of the field, but with Welsh attempting to convert a fourth down, the snap was high. Pellis capitalized with a 19-yard touchdown and he threw another on the next possession as the Centurions grabbed a 20-0 lead.

The Bulldogs failed to convert on fourth down twice, fumbled another punt to give the Centurions good field position and punted twice in the first half. Welsh’s 8-yard run made it 20-7 midway through the second quarter.

Beth-Center punted on its first drive of the second half, fumbled on the goal line on its second and the Bulldogs muffed a punt return to give GCC the ball. The Centurions capitalized with 14 more points to jump in front 34-7.

“Special teams were horrible,” Woods said bluntly. “That is something I’ve always taken pride in, that phase of the game. We just made way too many mistakes on special teams and they took advantage of them.”

Welsh scored his third touchdown with just 8.4 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but it was too late. Despite committing seven penalties for 90 yards and failing to establish a strong rushing attack, Greensburg Central Catholic’s spread offense was too much.

“We have to be solid and we’re not even close to being where we need to be,” Woods said. “I think we can be pretty good this year, even though we have some young kids in some places. For us right now, we have to focus on being consistent.”