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NANTICOKE — Western Wayne was down a starting quarterback.
Nanticoke Area was playing without six starters of its own.
Luckily for the Wildcats, backup quarterback Dylan Walck had some experience playing behind center. And it showed in a big way.
Walck orchestrated Western Wayne to 319 rushing yards with 121 of his own as the Wildcats handed the Trojans a 35-7 setback on Friday night.
“It was just an honor to get back there. I love the position and I love controlling the ball and I like being a leader and I feel like that’s what we were today,” Walck said.
Western Wayne (4-1) dominated the line of scrimmage, outgaining the Trojans (2-3) by more than 200 yards until a late 43-yard touchdown run by Nanticoke’s Joe Ammons.
“We had to take care of some housekeeping issues so we had six starters out tonight, which definitely hurt us up front,” Trojans coach Ron Bruza said. “We played some young kids that I don’t think are quite varsity ready yet. But yeah, they did a nice job up front. That’s where they won the game.”
The Wildcats took little time for their first two scores needing just over 3 minutes to go up 14-0.
On the first drive of the game, they drove 57 yards on just four plays and less than 2 minutes with the drive ending on a 20-yard TD run by Walck, his first of two rushing scores in the game.
After forcing a Nanticoke three-and-out, Western Wayne ran just two plays in 57 seconds on its next stanza with the highlight reel being a 74-yard touchdown run from tailback Kobe Sauter – who had three running scores and a game-high 129 yards – for a 14-0 lead with 7:47 on the clock in the first quarter.
“I give all credit to the offensive line because they stepped up and did amazing. I can’t thank them enough,” Walck said. “Every yard I earned, every yard our running back earned is due to the offensive line.”
Two second-quarter touchdowns pushed the lead to 28-0 at halftime.
The Trojans showed some life on the first drive of the second half driving deep into Western Wayne territory before turning the ball over on downs when QB Colby Butczynski tripped and fell. Western Wayne answered on its next drive to put the game in the Mercy Rule with its fifth TD, Sauter’s third rushing score of the game, for a 35-0 lead.
It was a similar outcome on Nanticoke’s second drive of the second half, showing progress driving 58 yards before turning the ball over on downs once again.
The Trojans’ lone score came in the fourth quarter when Ammons ran in for the score with 5:20 remaining in the game.
Western Wayne 35, Nanticoke 7
Western Wayne`14`14`7`0 — 35
Nanticoke `0`0`0`7 — 7
First Quarter
WW – Walck 20 run (Shepherd kick) 10:07
WW – Sauter 76 run (Shepherd kick) 7:47
Second Quarter
WW – Sauter 3 run (Shepherd kick) 6:15
WW – Walck 1 run (Shepherd kick) 0:00
Third Quarter
WW – Sauter 9 run (Shepherd kick) 2:45
Fourth Quarter
NAN – J. Ammons 43 run (Klepadlo kick) 5:20
Team statistics`WW`NAN
First downs`12`10
Rushes-yards`45-319`30-125
Passing yards`35`65
Total yards`354`190
Passing`2-3-0`6-10-0
Sacks by-yards lost`3-21`1-7
Punts-avg.`2-24.0`3-27.6
Fumbles-lost`0-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`4-35`1-15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING – WW, Walck 2-3-0-35. NAN, Butczynski 6-10-0-65.
RUSHING— WW, Walck 11-121, Sauter 20-128, Janisewski 5-47, Sledzinski 1-5, Hollister 7-17. NAN, J. Ammons 17-107, K. Ammons 1-(minus-3), Butczynski 6-(minus-5), Park 4-12, Kashatus 1-1, Heffron 1-13.
RECEIVING— WW, Sledzinski 1-9, Kuha 1-26. NAN, K. Ammons 5-45, J. Ammons 1-20.
INTERCEPTIONS – none
MISSED FG’S – none