Waynesburg knocks off Trojans to remain unbeaten
WAYNESBURG — These are heady times for Waynesburg Central’s football team.
The Raiders had an eye-opening victory over Carmichaels in the opener and followed that with a sloppy effort but a win nonetheless against Jefferson-Morgan that pushed them to 2-0.
On Friday night, Waynesburg ran into its toughest opponent so far in California. So their 27-9 victory over the Trojans in a non-conference game had smiles on most of the faces of the Raiders.
Jack Ricciuti made two spectacular catches for touchdowns, Jake Stephenson threw for more than 100 yards and scored the first TD of the game and Breydon Woods turned on the jets on a 71-yard touchdown run that broke the backs of the Trojans.
“We knew we had to come out like we did at Carmichaels,” said Stephenson. “They blew us out last year so we knew we had to come out and get our revenge.”
Stephenson has been the sparkplug to the Raiders offense this year, using his arm and legs to hurt the opponents.
It’s been quite a different story after Waynesburg failed to win a game last season as Stephenson recovered from a throwing injury and did not play a game.
Ricciuti made two outstanding catches for scores. The first came on a 15-yard crossing pattern as he dragged a defender into the end zone.
The second was aided by a burst of speed that allowed him to break free of the defender and make a 60-yard TD catch.
“I went to the line and gave a check,” Stephenson said. “He ran a fade. I threw it up there and he made the catch. He’s only a freshman. He fights for every yard he gets.”
For California, the only scoring came on a 40-yard punt return and a safety when Dalton Taylor was tackled in the end zone after fumbling the snap on a punt.
“We’ll go in tomorrow morning and look at the film, and fix the mistakes we made today,” said California head coach Ed Woods. “We needed to be more consistent on both sides of the ball. We needed to wrap up when we came in for tackles. We didn’t do that.”
Waynesburg built a 14-7 lead at halftime, breaking off some big plays in the process.
California drove to the Waynesburg 27 when Jake Layhue was picked off by Ross Tennett, setting the Raiders up at their own 35. Three plays later, Stephenson broke free and went over from five yards out to give Waynesburg a 7-0 lead.
Stephenson had a run of 24 yards to start the drive and Woods had a run of 35 yards.
California responded with a 12-play drive that stalled at the Waynesburg 33-yard line. On fourth down, California punted to the Raiders’ end zone.
This time Stephenson found Ricciuti with a 15-yard pass and run for a touchdown and 14-0 lead.
With time running out in the half, Waynesburg was forced to punt from the 19. Lee Qualk fielded it at the Waynesburg 40 and zipped down the right sideline for a touchdown that cut Waynesburg’s lead to 14-7.
Waynesburg thought it scored again with just over two minutes left in the half. Woods bulled through the line and went down on top of a California tackler. Woods got up and ran to the end zone but officials blew the ball dead.