Rising to the challenge
Wash High beats Fort Cherry to win the Black Hills Conference
Jamarie Walker had to be helped off the field midway through the fourth quarter after being tackled near the sidelines.
A few minutes later he produced a major blow to Fort Cherry.
Walker scored on a 10-yard run with 5:11 remaining in the game, which gave the Prexies a two-score cushion in a 35-14 win over Fort Cherry and the Black Hills Conference title Friday night.
“I was a little sore from running, because I was running hard and running strong,” Walker said. “All of them carries had my legs hurting. That’s all that was.”
Walker’s touchdown came off a direct snap and finished off a busy night for the senior running back who had 21 carries for 140 yards. Quarterback Travon Moye acted like he had the ball and Walker slipped through for a touchdown.
“That (touchdown) was a trick play. It worked and we scored off it. We just do what we have to do. We deserve this.”
With the win the Prexies finished Class A Black Hills Conference play unbeaten at 6-0 and 9-1 overall. Fort Cherry is 4-2 in the conference and 8-2 overall.
Both teams will learn their playoff seedings when the WPIAL steering committee releases the brackets on Saturday.
After Walker’s touchdown Fort Cherry had one last opportunity to stay in the game after Joey Barna had a long kick return and a horse collar penalty at the end of it gave the Rangers the ball at the Washington 15.
The Rangers got down inside the five-yard line, but Eli Salvini had the ball knocked out of his grasp by Trenton Grooms and Washington recovered a fumble to seal the game.
Ameer Nelson scored on a 75-yard run in the final minute to give the Prexies faithful one last thing to cheer for.
It was a game that everyone at Fort Cherry and Washington had circled on their calendars since the schedule was released by the WPIAL in March and it lived up to its billing.
After a slow burn of a first half, Fort Cherry and Washington’s offenses found their stride, which made for a third quarter filled with fireworks.
Washington led 7-0 at halftime and doubled that advantage early in the third quarter thanks to a turnover.
JaQuay Heyman picked off a Colin Sieg pass at the Washington 27.
A nice run by Walker got the Prexies out to midfield and Blaise Naraskivitch ripped off a run down to the one-yard line, which set up a plunge into the end zone which made it 14-0 Prexies with 8:09 remaining in the third quarter.
Fort Cherry responded with its first scoring drive of the game.
After spending much of the first half running between the tackles, Fort Cherry spread the field with five wideouts and used a 36-yard pass play from Sieg to Joey Barna to set up a three-yard touchdown run by Eli Salvini, which cut the lead to 14-7.
“We were kind of banging our head against the wall trying to run the ball,” Fort Cherry coach Tanner Garry said. “We wanted to give them a new look and see how they’d adjust. We started having some success with it, but they made some adjustments to kind of slow that down too.”
Washington didn’t waste much time finding the end zone on its next drive. The Prexies marched down the field in seven plays and Naraskivitch scored on a two-yard run at the 2:34 mark of the third quarter.
Wash High coach Mike Bosnic credited his linemen for winning the battle in the trenches.
“We knew coming in that would be important,” Bosnic said. “We wanted to win the battle up front and I felt like we accomplished that.”
It took Fort Cherry less than a minute and a half of game time to make it a one-score game again.
Sieg threw a 38-yard pass to Ryan Huey to get into Washington territory. Then he scored on an 11-yard run to make it 21-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
The lone touchdown of the first half came when Ameer Nelson came in motion, took a pitch from quarterback Travon Moye, cut back against the grain and ran through the Fort Cherry defense for a 46-yard touchdown. That made it 7-0 with 8:15 remaining in the second quarter.
The rest of the half was filled with what-ifs and turnovers.
There were two fumbles in the first five plays from scrimmage.
Miscommunication on a pitch play led to the ball hitting the turf on Washington’s third play of the game and Tyler Wolfe pounced on the ball for Fort Cherry.
That set up the Rangers with excellent field position at the Washington 32, but they squandered it. A bad snap on second down saw the ball split Sieg and Salvini and it was recovered by the Prexies’ Alfonso Whittaker.
Following the turnover, Washington drove down to the Fort Cherry 24, but Naraskivitch fumbled and Fort Cherry recovered, negating a scoring chance.
The Rangers went three-and-out following the turnover and Nelson scored for Washington on its next possession.
After not achieving a first down on its first two possessions, Fort Cherry’s offense got into a bit of a rhythm on the third and moved across midfield, but the drive ended when Salvini was stuffed on a 4th-and-1 at the Prexies’ 44.
“It felt like every time we gained momentum we kind of gave it back,” Garry said. “Give credit to them. They performed. We didn’t play our best tonight, but I don’t know if they did either. I know we can put more out there, but we just fell behind before we found some things that worked. But it was too little too late.”
Washington looked like it may turn the turnover on downs into points, but fumbled again.
The Prexies drove to the Fort Cherry 11, but Grooms lost the ball and Fort Cherry recovered.
The teams traded punts from there before heading into the locker room for halftime.
Prior to the game the 2001 WPIAL and state champion Washington team was recognized on the field. About a dozen players on the team and former coach Guy Montecalvo stood at midfield for the 25th anniversary ceremony for their 15-0 season.