By Brad Morris
SportingPumpkin.com
After passing for 252 yards and four touchdowns last season against Madison-Plains, Westfall coach Logan Stepp felt he might see a different game plan from the host Golden Eagles on Friday.
“I challenged our offensive line before the game that we would need to run the football in order to win the game, because I felt like Madison-Plains would come in looking to take away our passing game after what we did last season,” he said. “We return a bunch of skill guys and Madison-Plains knew that, so the numbers they put in the box made it advantageous for us to run the football.
“Those guys answered my call, because they were creating holes, cutback lanes and blocking down field.”
The Mustangs rushed for 400 yards and scored five touchdowns via their ground game on their way to a 38-12 non-conference win.
Sophomore Joey Wright had a career-night with 19 carries for 263 yards and four touchdowns, and senior quarterback Bryce Wickline needed just seven carries to cover 123 yards and scored on an 81-run touchdown run.
“Joey has put in the work to be our No. 1 back. When I first met him as a freshman, he told me his goal was to play varsity, but I told him he was a little small,” Stepp said. “Joey had some moments for us last season, but we struggled to run the football for most of the year for a variety of reasons.
“Joey wrestled in the winter to get a little more physical and learn to run through contact and fall forward most of the time and then ran track in the spring, which helped him work on his speed. He’s been a very dedicated guy in our locker room. All we’ve had to work with him on was his technique and football IQ.”
Wright scored on touchdown runs of 60, 7, 1 and 19 yards on the evening.
The Mustangs jumped out to a 12-0 lead after a quarter of play and doubled their advantage to 24-0 at halftime.
Stepp also complimented the play and management of the game by Wickline and his wide receivers.
“There were times when we called a passing play, Bryce saw the numbers in the box were advantageous for us to run the football and he checked to a running play,” he said. “Bryce has come so far as a quarterback from this time last year and he is so unselfish.
“I also have to credit our wide receivers. I know we passed for only 41 yards, but they were the reason why Madison-Plains gave us the look they did on defense and whenever they started to bring more players into the box, we were able to hit them on a couple of passes to take those guys back out of the box.”
The most dramatic play for the Mustangs actually came on the defensive side of the football with a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by senior Trent Walters.
“We worked on the play that Madison-Plains ran all week long and Trent did a great job of pinpointing the ball, catching it and then going the distance the over way for a huge pick six,” Stepp said.
The Mustangs outgained the Golden Eagles 441-183, including holding their hosts to 2.9 yards per carry.
“Our defense has a lot of returners and upperclassmen,” Stepp said. “Conor Geer is our quarterback on defense checking coverages and doing a great job.
“We had a couple of blown coverages that Madison-Plains scored on, which we will work on to fix, but overall, our defensive coordinator Cameron Pavey called a great game.”
Tanner Scheel paced the defense with 11 tackles and Joey Wright added nine.
The Mustangs (1-0) return home next week to host Pickaway County rival Logan Elm (1-0), a 39-23 winner over Zane Trace last night.
“This was a good win, because we showed that we can run and pass the football now as an offense and that is going to make us a harder team to defend,” Stepp said. “Logan Elm is going to be a great test for us, because they have a pretty good football team and coach (Terry) Holbert does a nice job of leading those guys down there.
“Logan Elm will be bigger than us and they are a larger school than us, so we’ll have to be very sound with our technique and executing our game plan on both sides of the football.”
Westfall 38,
Madison-Plains 12
Score By Quarters 1 2 3 4 F
Westfall 12 12 7 7 38
M-Plains 0 0 6 6 12
TEAM STATISTICS
WF MP
First downs 18 15
Rushing yards 30-400 45-132
Passing yard 41 51
Comp.-Att.-Int 7-13-0 6-9-1
Total yards 441 183
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 11-101 10-115
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Westfall — Joey Wright 19-263, Bryce Wickline 7-123, Cade Hall 2-13, Carson Deskins 2-1.
PASSING – Westfall — Bryce Wickline 7-13-0-41.
RECEIVING – Westfall — Trent Walters 4-14, Brydan Gaul 1-11, Mason Wright 1-9, Cade Hall 1-7.
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