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McGuffey rebounds with win over Charleroi

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McGuffey’s Marcus Czulewicz, back, celebrates his touchdown with teammate Connor Thompson during the Highlanders’ game against Charleroi at McGuffey High School.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter McGuffey’s Adam Townsend gets past Charleroi’s Jesse McQuillis at McGuffey High School on Friday, Sept. 11 ,2015

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Charleroi’s Brock Shannon runs for a first down against McGuffey’s defense Friday night.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter McGuffey’s Marcus Czulewicz runs for the first down during a game with Charleroi at McGuffey High School on Friday, Sept. 11 ,2015

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter McGuffey’s Joey Townsend holds on tight to tackles Charleroi’s Sammy Pager during a game at McGuffey High School on Friday, Sept. 11 ,2015

CLAYSVILLE – With the football teams at McGuffey and Charleroi suffering Week 1 losses, the second week of the season became a critical Interstate Conference game for both.

Neither team could afford an 0-2 start, and thanks to a big night from sophomore running back Adam Townsend, the Highlanders found their way to a 35-22 victory.

Townsend rushed for 137 yards and two touchdowns and returned a kickoff 93 yards for a score to provide the firepower for the Highlanders.

“My blockers did a good job,” Townsend said. “I think we did a lot better this week.”

The Cougars got off to a quick start because McGuffey (1-1, 1-1) had some trickery backfire.

The Highlanders tried a double-reverse pass on the first play from scrimmage, but Shaun Sanders was intercepted by Brock Shannon to put the Cougars in great field position.

Five plays later, Shannon made the Highlanders pay as he plunged into the end zone from two yards to give the Cougars an early 6-0 lead.

McGuffey got it back on the ensuing drive. The Highlanders covered 67 yards on seven plays, all on the ground as Townsend and quarterback Marcus Czulewicz rotated carries. Ultimately, it was Townsend who found the end zone from 10 yards out to give the Highlanders a 7-6 edge.

Things stayed that way until midway through the second quarter, when Czulewicz broke a 40-yard touchdown run to up McGuffey’s lead to 14-6.

Unlike a week ago, when Czulewicz did most of his damage through the air, he did it all on the ground, rushing for 100 yards on 10 carries.

Charleroi (0-2, 0-2) pieced together a couple of lengthy drives, mostly on the legs of Shannon, who rushed for 88 yards, but came up without a touchdown.

A big part of the game came as the first half concluded. Charleroi went on a 17-play drive that ate up the final six minutes of the half. But they couldn’t punch it in, settling for a 22-yard field goal from Sean Cole to make it 14-9 at halftime.

Near the end of the half, Shannon went down with a concussion and did not return.

“He will be OK,” said Charleroi head coach Donnie Militzer. “It was more of a precautionary thing, so we held him out.”

Townsend opened the second half with two big plays for McGuffey that set the tone.

On the Highlanders first drive of the third quarter, he broke loose for a 53-yard touchdown to make it 22-9. The Cougars answered with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Geno Pellegrini to Trey Douyon to cut the lead to 22-16. But Townsend returned the ensuing kick 90-yards for a touchdown.

“I just found a hole and ran as fast as I could,” said Townsend.

Highlanders head coach Ed Dalton was not pleased with the team’s effort.

“Terrible,” said Dalton. “We played awful. We set modern football back a 100 years. We have to watch the film, but I would say we ran the ball better. That’s it. We had so many alignment issues, it was like coaching fifth and sixth graders. It wasn’t very good. We are going to practice our butts off this week.”

The Cougars, who lost to McGuffey 45-0 a season ago, kept coming. Pellegrini hit Douyon again, this time with a 53-yard touchdown pass to cut the McGuffey lead to 28-22.

“How about our freshman quarterback?” added Militzer. “He played his guts out and if anyone in the WPIAL doesn’t know who Trey Douyon is, they better learn. He is on another level.”

The Highlanders answered. This time it was Joey Townsend, the older brother of Adam, who ran 53 yards on a sweep for a touchdown to put the game out of reach.

The Highlanders will try and make it two wins in a row next week when they travel to Mohawk.

Charleroi will try and get in the winning column when they play host to Derry Area.

Yet while the Cougars are 0-2, they head home with confidence.

“I love the effort,” said Militzer. “Too bad we didn’t show that last week. Last year, we got our butts kicked. This year we battled until the very end. You don’t like moral victories in terms of wins and losses, but an effort like this should give these kids a lot of confidence going forward.”

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