2009

Big Reds Come Up Short In Wild Contest With Bruins, 43-42

The Brooke Bruins, one of only a handful of teams who owns a winning record against Parkersburg High School in football, returned to their glory days with a wild, 43-42 come-from-behind victory over the Big Reds in the season opener for both teams at Stadium Field.

The Bruins, under new head coach Tom Bruney, scored twice in the fourth quarter to wipe out a 42-30 PHS advantage. The final score came with 3:18 left in the game and Bruney gambled for the two-point conversion, was successful and then watched his defense come up with a clutch fumble recovery with just under two minutes to play to secure the victory.

Allan Wasonga made his official Big Red debut and the Class AA all-stater from Point Pleasant ran up some big numbers. The speedy junior carried the ball 23 times for 247 yards and scored three touchdowns (plays covering 79, 32 and 6 yards). He also had 39 receiving yards on the night for 286 total. Derek Wenzel, Parkersburg's own returning all-stater, played with an injured shoulder but still scored two touchdowns, including an 88 yard kickoff return (his fifth in the last nine games).

PHS had 286 yards rushing and 46 yards passing to go with 12 first downs.

But it was the Bruins who really put up the big numbers with quarterback Cotey Wallace leading the way. Wallace ran for three touchdowns and gained 121 yards on 19 carries while completing 23 of 33 passes for 327 yards and the game's final two touchdowns. In all the Bruins has 28 first downs, 43 rushes for 204 yards, and 531 total yards on 76 plays. They had two receivers gained over 100 yards through the air as Tim Morris caught eight passes for 115 yards and Joseph DiNardo caught nine for 111. Ryan Lazear added 82 yards rushing on 18 carries.

Brooke ran twice as many plays as PHS, 76-38, and had the ball for 31:41 on the clock to just 16:19 for the Big Reds.

The game started well for the Big Reds, holding Brooke to one first down on its first possession and then scoring on their first play from scrimmage of the new season. Chase Garrett broke through to block the Brooke punt and PHS took over at the Bruins' 26. On the first play Jason Phillips went around right end behind the blocking of Zach Stanley to score standing up with 9:36 on the board. Jeff Lantz then kicked the first of his six extra points.

But the Bruins came back to go 85 yards on 10 plays with Wallace going around left end from six yards away with 5:10 left in the first quarter.

After two punts by both teams, PHS got on the board in a hurry as Wasonga broke around left end, cut back and was gone - 79 yards for a touchdown with 8:40 left in the half.

Brooke tied it up four minutes later on a 12 yard run by Wallace but Wenzel answered that with another of his patented kickoff returns, taking the ball on his 12 yard line and going straight up the middle to score untouched with 4:13 on the clock. Brooke responded with a 60 yard kickoff return by Morris. Morris then caught a 26 yard pass to the six yard line and two plays later Lazear powered up the middle from five yards out to make it 21-20. The extra point kick was low.

The Big Reds then turned Wasonga loose and he carried the ball five times for 53 yards to the one yard line, from where Wenzel went over on the quarterback sneak with 14 seconds left to make it 28-20 at the half.

PHS ran just 15 offensive plays in the first half to 39 for the visitors.

Just as they had done to end the half, the Big Reds let Wasonga do his thing to start the second half and the speedster showed his best sidestep moves to gain 33 yards on four carries before bursting over left tackle to go the final 32 yards to the end zone on one carry. That made it 35-20 with 9:03 left in the third quarter.

Brooke bounced back with another long drive, going 69 yards on 16 plays and eating up over six minutes off the clock. On fourth-and-11 from the PHS 33, Wallace found DiNardo for 18 yards to keep the drive alive. Wallace scored from two yards out with 2:47 on the clock and then passed to Nathan Harper for the two-point conversion to make it 35-28.

The Big Reds answered with another Wasonga score from six yards out as he sidestepped and danced over right tackle for his third TD of the night with 10:49 left in a 42-28 game. Wasonga also picked up 39 yards on a screen pass on the drive.  

Wallace was nearly unbelievable on Brooke's next two possessions, completing nine of 10 passes for 141 yards and two scores. The first came when the 6-foot-3 DiNardo out leaped a 5-foot-8 defender in the end zone and the second came as Zachary Hartman got open in the end zone from 15 yards away with 3:18 left in the game. Brooke went for the lead at that point and Wallace found a wide open Shane Paesano in the end zone for the two-point conversion.

PHS got the ball back with 3:15 to go on its own 33 yard line and Wasonga immediately broke loose for 12 yards up the middle. A sideline completion for six yards to Stephen Roush was followed by another nine yard run up the middle by Wasonga as the clock ticked down toward two minutes. On the next play Wenzel pitched left to Wasonga who had trouble handling the ball. He was tackled as he tried to pick up the loose ball and Brooke recovered on its own 39 with 1:50 remaining.

Brooke got a first down an 18 yard run by Wallace before turning the ball over with 6.7 seconds left on the PHS 40. Wenzel's Hail Mary pass was intercepted by Hartman to end the game.

 Brooke..............    7   13    8   15  -  43       Record: (1-0)

 Parkersburg......... 7  21    7     7   -  42       Record: (0-1)

  Scoring Summary:

  1st 09:36 PHS - Jason Phillips 26 yd run (Jeff Lantz kick), 1-26 0:09, BRK 0 - PHS 7

      05:10 BRK - Cotey Wallace 6 yd run (Rusty Kocher kick), 10-85 4:26, BRK 7 - PHS 7

  2nd 08:40 PHS - Allan Wasonga 79 yd run (Jeff Lantz kick), 1-79 0:15, BRK 7 - PHS 14

      04:26 BRK - Cotey Wallace 12 yd run (Rusty Kocher kick), 9-65 4:14, BRK 14 - PHS 14

      04:13 PHS - Derek Wenzel 88 yd kickoff return (Jeff Lantz kick), , BRK 14 - PHS 21

      02:26 BRK - Ryan Lazear 5 yd run (Rusty Kocher kick failed), 4-32 1:34, BRK 20 - PHS 21

      00:15 PHS - Derek Wenzel 1 yd run (Jeff Lantz kick), 7-54 2:09, BRK 20 - PHS 28

  3rd 09:03 PHS - Allan Wasonga 32 yd run (Jeff Lantz kick), 6-71 2:57, BRK 20 - PHS 35

      02:47 BRK - Cotey Wallace 2 yd run (Nathan Harper pass from Cotey Wallace), 16-69 6:07, BRK 28 - PHS 35

  4th 10:49 PHS - Allan Wasonga 6 yd run (Jeff Lantz kick), 8-65 3:58, BRK 28 - PHS 42

      08:31 BRK - Joseph DiNardo 6 yd pass from Cotey Wallace (Rusty Kocher kick), 7-68 2:11, BRK 35 - PHS 42

      03:18 BRK - Zachary Hartman 15 yd pass from Cotey Wallace (Shane Paesano pass from Cotey Wallace), 9-80 2:59, BRK 43 - PHS 42

                                                    BRK      PHS

  FIRST DOWNS...................        28       13

  RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 43-204   33-286

  PASSING YDS (NET).............   327       46

  Passes Att-Comp-Int...........         33-23-0    5-3-1

  TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 76-531   38-332

  Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0

  Punt Returns-Yards............        0-0     1-10

  Kickoff Returns-Yards.........      5-138    6-117

  Interception Returns-Yards....     1-0      0-0

  Punts (Number-Avg)............      3-14.0   3-43.7

  Fumbles-Lost..................          1-0      1-1

  Penalties-Yards...............         11-110     4-48

  Possession Time...............        31:41    16:19

  Third-Down Conversions........   7 of 11   4 of 8

  Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 2   1 of 1

  Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......   6-7      2-2

  Sacks By: Number-Yards.......     0-0      0-0

  RUSHING: Brooke-Cotey Wallace 19-121; Ryan Lazear 18-82; Timothy Morris 4-1;

  Timothy Faulker 2-0. Parkersburg-Allan Wasonga 23-247; Jason Phillips 2-32; Chad

  Collins 2-8; Derek Wenzel 6-minus 1.

 PASSING: Brooke-Cotey Wallace 23-33-0-327. Parkersburg-Derek Wenzel 3-5-1-46.

 RECEIVING: Brooke-Timothy Morris 9-111; Joseph DiNardo 8-115; Zachary Hartman

  3-47; Shane Paesano 2-38; Ryan Lazear 1-16. Parkersburg-Allan Wasonga 1-39;

  Stephen Roush 1-6; Seth Fredrick 1-1.

  INTERCEPTIONS: Brooke-Zachary Hartman 1-0. Parkersburg-None.

  FUMBLES: Brooke-Cotey Wallace 1-0. Parkersburg-Allan Wasonga 1-1.

  TACKLES (Solo-Ast): Parkersburg-Stephen Roush 11-3; Tyler Gibson 6-7; Sonny Zickefoose 6-5; Ben Clark 1-8; Jason Phillips 4-3; Zach Hendershot 2-4; Ryan Black 3-2; Corey Oshe 3-2; John Weber 3-1; Huntar Shank 1-3; Derek Wenzel 3-0; Justin Johnson 0-3; Zach Stanley 1-1; Chase Garrett 0-2; Bryce Warner 1-0; Jimmy Zoller 1-0; Chad Collins 0-1; Daniel Shank 0-1; Robert Kelley 0-1.