Red Raiders start new win streak
Uniontown started another winning streak Friday with a 28-14 Keystone Conference win over Mt. Pleasant at Bill Power Memorial Stadium. A week after ending a regular-season winning streak that had reached 15 with a tough 9-7 loss at Greensburg Salem, the Red Raiders played lethargically at the beginning, then kicked into high gear in the second quarter behind junior quarterback Ryan Guthrie.
“Ryan make a lot of key plays for us tonight,” Uniontown coach John Fortugna said. “Our offensive line blocked very well and kept our running game going, plus our defense played a strong game, as well. A lot of the credit goes to our coaches. They worked these kids hard all week and it paid off tonight.”
Guthrie completed five of 11 passes for 108 yards and one touchdown, scored himself on a 1-yard run, ran for a two-point conversion and passed for another two-pointer. Junior halfback Bill McLee ran 19 times for 108 yards and two touchdowns. He got 68 of those yards in the second quarter when Uniontown posted 20 points.
McLee opened the scoring on a 3-yard run, capping a drive that featured two third-and-6 conversions. Guthrie passed to Junior Mays for 10 yards on the first one, then ran for seven.
McLee caused a Mt. Pleasant fumble that was recovered by Jeremiah Ditmore and Uniontown was in business again. Again, the Red Raiders converted a pair of third downs en route to the end zone. Todd Jackson ran for nine yards on a Statue of Liberty play for the first conversion before Guthrie passed to Eric Hughes for a 20-yard score on third-and-13. Gurhtie’s 2-point conversion run made it 14-0 eight minutes before halftime.
Uniontown forced a punt, then marched 80 yards to Guthrie’s 1-yard touchdown run that made it 20-0 at halftime. Guthrie fumbled the snap on the third-and-goal play, but calmly picked up the ball and ran around right end for the touchdown.
It looked like a blowout in the making, but the Vikings had other ideas. Uniontown had outgained Mt. Pleasant, 230-28, in the first half, but the Vikings played an inspired second half to keep the score close.
The Vikings marched 61 yards with the second half-opening kickoff and scored on Mike Prinkey’s 1-yard run to cut the Red Raiders’ lead to 20-7. After Ryan Bann recovered a Uniontown fumble, Uniontown’s defense stiffened and forced a punt.
Uniontown then marched 73 yards on 12 plays to ice the game. Guthrie passed for 13 yards to Mays on a third-and-9 before McLee scored on a 3-yard run. Guthrie passed to Mays for the conversion. Mt. Pleasant capped the scoring on freshman quarterback Jeff Marker’s 42-yard scoring pass to Prinkey.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Mt. Pleasant coach Mark Lyons said. “When a team has been down so long, ne of the hardest things to do is play a complete game. We play well in spurts now, but we can’t finish it off. For the last few games, we’ve been scrappy and playing pretty good, but that gets old. We need results.”
“We knew coming in that this was going to be a tough game,” Fortugna said. “When we got up 20-0, we told the kids at halftime not to let up, that this game was not over. We said after seeing film of Mt. Pleasant that they were the best 0-5 team I’ve ever seen on tape. They had us worried.”
The Vikings fell to 0-6 overall and 0-3 in conference games, while Uniontown improved to 5-1, 3-1. Uniontown hosts Blackhawk in a WPIAL crossover game next Friday, while Mt. Pleasant hosts conference leading Belle Vernon.