Aug 26, 2017 5 min read

WEXFORD – Head coach Ed Dalton and the McGuffey Highlanders are never going to wow opponents with the complexity of their newly created Wing-T offense.

It might not lead to the excitement displayed by high-flying offensive attacks that have become popular in all levels of football.

The only thing the Highlanders really care about is if it leads to victories.

After a first half in which both teams took the bend-but-don’t-break approach, allowing long, sustained drives, Dalton decided in the second half that there were opportunities to take the consistent lull of a fullback dive and use it to the Highlanders’ advantage.

Digging deep into the playbook, Dalton released the reins on quarterback Marshall Whipkey and he helped McGuffey defeat Frazier, 28-13, in the Western Pennsylvania Legends Football Classic at North Allegheny High School Saturday afternoon.

Whipkey’s day, which started with little more than handing the ball to running backs Adam Townsend and Christian Clutter then following through with his option fake, had the opportunity to use his throwing arm in the second half.

“He can throw and our receivers can catch,” Dalton said. “I really just didn’t think the time, score and field position in the first half allowed for us to be able to throw a lot.”

On the opening play of the fourth quarter, Whipkey extended the McGuffey lead to 21-7 after finding Brendan Crowe behind the Commodores after they bit on a fullback-dive fake for a 47-yard touchdown. After recovering the ensuing kickoff after a Frazier fumble, Whipkey hit Crowe working out of the backfield into the boundary to dive into the end zone for another score only 90 seconds after the first.

“You play a little less defense,” Dalton said about the run-heavy, possession-based offense to keep the opponent’s offense off the field. “That’s one of the factors why it’s important to be able to run the ball. But those passes changed the game. It makes a big difference when you can keep the other team off guard. We block many of the run and pass plays the same and it puts the safeties into somewhat of a conflict. Before you know it the ball is out.”

Frazier’s safeties continued to creep towards the line of scrimmage as the game wore on because they couldn’t stop Clutter and Townsend, who ran for 109 and 123 yards, respectively.

“We weren’t really surprised when they passed,” said Frazier head coach Mike Steeber. “We were just waiting for it to happen and when it did, they capitalized. The way they were moving the ball on the ground, we had to stop that first before worrying about the other stuff.”

Whipkey finished 4 of 5 for 79 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for another 34 yards on four carries.

The game’s turning point might have come on the first possession of the game, when Frazier was denied by the Highlanders’ defense four straight times inside their own three-yard line. Frazier left frustrated after an 18-play drive that nearly took eight minutes off the clock. The Commodores were successful on two third-down conversions and also converted on a fourth-and-seven on a screen pass from JD Celaschi to Brandon Lovis.

“We have a lot of veteran guys on defense and getting that stop was really nice,” Dalton said. “It was a turning point early. It really kept (Frazier) from grabbing all the momentum.”

McGuffey’s offense used the defensive spark and marched 99 yards on seven plays, which was finished by Adam Townsend breaking away for a 32-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter for a 7-0 lead.

Frazier didn’t let its second opportunity into the red zone go to waste as quarterback Celaschi scrambled 10 yards to the corner of the end zone to tie the game at 7-7 with 7:52 remaining in the second quarter

Celaschi picked apart the zone defense for McGuffey in the first half as the Commodores rolled him out and flooded one side of the field on many of his passes. He went into halftime 8-for13 for 143 yards.

“We weren’t containing him in the first half,” Dalton said. “We tried to make him stay in the pocket a little more often in the second half and I thought we did a little bit of a better job with that.”

Celaschi only completed four passes in the second half for 41 yards, finishing 12-for-20 for 184 yards.

McGuffey broke the 7-7 tie in the third quarter after Townsend plunged into the end zone from two yards away with 5:31 remaining in the third quarter.

The lone points the Commodores were able to score in the second half came from an 85-yard fumble return by junior Julian Muccioli with 5:51 left.

For Dalton, there were more things to take into account than just the score. He was thinking about last year and the several season-ending injuries.

“It was like exercising your demons,” he said. “With the exception of maybe a cramp and a hamstring issue, I think we got out of this one pretty injury-free.”