Crouse sparkles in Waynesburg鈥檚 win over West Greene
WAYNESBURG 鈥� Just call Teagan Crouse the eraser.
Waynesburg Central didn鈥檛 play a clean, perfect game in its football opener against visiting West Greene on Friday night but Crouse made sure that few of the miscues were costly with a sparkling performance in the Raiders鈥� 50-6 victory.
Crouse completed 9 of 10 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns and ran for three scores to help Joe Kuhns make a triumphant return to coaching after a year off.
鈥淲e came out a little jittery,鈥� Kuhns said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 to be expected in the first game. There were some execution issues.
鈥淲e鈥檝e just got a couple guys that can make up for mistakes every once in a while. Teagan is one of them. If we don鈥檛 do the right action or block the right guy, he鈥檚 got the ability to make people miss and make plays.鈥�
Crouse鈥檚 favorite target was receiver Jack Ricciuti who hauled in four passes for 159 yards, including a 91-yard touchdown. Zachery Jiblits had two receptions for 49 yards, Jeffery Blair caught a pair of passes for 25 yards and Ross Tennant had a 3-yard touchdown reception to go with an 8-yard scoring run.
鈥淛ack is a matchup nightmare,鈥� Kuhns said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 going to get doubled a lot this season mostly because of what he did tonight, but we鈥檝e got other guys in Jiblits and a kid that鈥檚 hurt right now, Ace Litwinovich, who鈥檒l be coming back in a couple weeks. We have weapons. But up front we鈥檝e got a lot of work to do yet on both sides of the ball.鈥�
The Pioneers converted a short fourth-down play with a plunge by freshman quarterback Joel Rizor on their opening drive and attempted another fourth-down play soon after but a high snap gave the Raiders the ball at West Greene 17.
That led to Crouse鈥檚 first TD run on a 13-yard scramble. Nate Ricciuti booted the first of his six extra-point attempts and Waynesburg was ahead to stay, 7-0.
The Pioneers moved the sticks once on their next drive but were foiled on another fourth-down play when Jack Ricciuti tackled Rizor for a 1-yard loss at the West Greene 39. Crouse scored on a 27-yard run four plays later to make it 14-0 after one quarter.
After a three-and-out by the Pioneers, Crouse capped a four-play drive, highlighted by a 49-yard completion to Jiblits, with a 9-yard run with 9:01 left in the second quarter.
Rizor completed an 8-yard pass to Kyle Cunningham on a third-and-6 play on West Greene鈥檚 next drive but Waynesburg鈥檚 defense broke up a fourth-day pass and Crouse went to work again from the Pioneers 39.
Crouse completed passes of 30 and 14 yards to Ricciuti, who made a leaping grab along the right sideline on the former, in a four-play march the he finished with a 3-yard TD pass to Tennant to make it 28-0.
Crouse and Ricciuti weren鈥檛 done yet in the first half. Taking over at their own 20 after a West Greene punt, the Raiders struck again when Crouse lofted a long throw down the left side that Ricciuti caught in stride for a 91-yard touchdown and a 35-0 halftime lead.
Pioneers third-year coach Beau Jackson knew his Class A squad faced a stiff challenge in the Raiders, who were a playoff team in Class 2A last year.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e got good athletes over there,鈥� Jackson said. 鈥淲e had trouble getting off the field on defense. On the offensive end we couldn鈥檛 get third-down conversions. I think a lot of it on both sides of the ball was just they鈥檙e a lot faster than we are. We knew with Crouse at quarterback and Ricciuti at receiver along with Jiblits that they could cause some problems for our defense.
鈥淚 think anybody in the stands probably saw our game plan was keep it on the ground, keep the clock rolling. We thought if we had a chance it was going to be between the tackles. We converted a couple early. We had a bad shotgun snap and even had a few under center that were bobbled and we鈥檝e got to fix that.鈥�
Kuhns wasn鈥檛 completely satisfied at halftime despite his team鈥檚 large lead.
鈥淚 told them in the locker room we want to be process driven not results driven and we didn鈥檛 run the ball very well,鈥� Kuhns said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to focus on that this week and see if we can get better at that aspect of the game.鈥�
Waynesburg opened the second half with a five-play, 64-yard drive that featured a 24-yard pass by Crouse to Ricciuti, a 22-yard run by Roan Tustin and an 18-yard pass by Crouse to Blair, and was capped by Tennant鈥檚 6-yard touchdown run.
West Green responded with its best drive of the night, an 11-play, 56-yard march, highlighted by Rizor鈥檚 11-yard completion to Matthew Wassil on a fourth-and-7 play. Jacob Orndoff capped the drive with an 8-yard touchdown run with eight seconds left in the third quarter.
鈥淚t was encouraging to see us continue to play hard, put together a nice drive and get a touchdown there from Jacob,鈥� Jackson said.
The Raiders鈥� final drive lasted 11 plays, again covered 64 yards, and was finished off with a 1-yard TD burst by Jackson Brunell.
Crouse was the Raiders鈥� leading rusher with six carries for 70 yards.
Rizor paced West Greene with 16 carries for 29 yards and Cunningham, also a freshman, had 10 attempts for 26 yards.
Jackson cautioned his players to not get discouraged by the loss.
鈥淚 told them it鈥檚 just one game so let鈥檚 not put our heads down about it,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 like the way we performed and executed but again that鈥檚 a good team over there we played. I told our seniors that our coaching staff is going to give us everything that we have and I hope that they respond to that as well.鈥�
Kuhns, whose first head coaching job was at Waynesburg from 2009 to 2011 followed by stints at California and his alma mater Beth-Center before joining the PennWest California coaching staff, last coached in high school with the Bulldogs in 2021.
鈥淚 think I鈥檓 a little more calm now than when I was doing it before,鈥� Kuhns said. 鈥淚 just want to have fun, don鈥檛 stress about it. If these kids can perform like this then I won鈥檛 be stressed much I guess,鈥� Kuhns added with a laugh.
Kuhns鈥� son Colby is a member of the Raiders鈥� staff.
鈥淢y son鈥檚 coaching with me now and he got to call the JV offense (in the fourth quarter),鈥� Kuhn said. 鈥淗e told me hey, that鈥檚 cool, and I told him now you know why I love it so much.鈥�
As for what he told his team after the victory, Kuhns said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the first one. The fuse is lit for the 2025 season. Let鈥檚 keep it burning.鈥�