Righting the ship: Waynesburg continues strong turnaround with 35-6 win over Uniontown
WAYNESBURG — One of the biggest turnarounds this high school football season in the WPIAL has occurred in Waynesburg.
The Raiders kept it going on Friday night.
Waynesburg Central, coming off an 0-10 record a year ago, got over 200 yards of rushing from Breydon Woods and passing from Jake Stephenson along with a 101-yard receiving game from Jack Ricciuti in rolling to a 35-6 non-conference victory over Uniontown at the Raider Field of Pride.
Waynesburg improved to 6-2 overall. The Raiders jump back into Century Conference play, where they are 2-2 and tied for third place, next week when they host Sto-Rox.
“It just shows the perseverance these young men have and all the hard work they’ve put,” Raiders coach Aaron Giorgi said of his team’s vast improvement.
“All the kids that came back from that 0-10 season were hungry and ready to go. We have a good group of kids in leadership roles as seniors. Our current junior and sophomore classes progressed well in the offseason and we’ve had an infusion of some freshmen who’ve been able to fill significant roles.”
It was the fifth loss in a row for Uniontown (2-6) which has faced a challenging slate of games this season.
“We’ve played a very tough schedule for an independent,” said Red Raiders coach Keith Jeffries whose team defeated Waynesburg 28-14 in 2022. “It’s not like we just picked up a bunch of cupcakes. Waynesburg is a good team, very much improved from last year.”
Waynesburg dominated the opening quarter in taking a 20-0 lead, scoring on each of its first three possessions.
“We talked all week about it was important for us to get out to a fast start and I was really happy with the way our kids came ready to play,” Giorgi said.
The Raiders took the opening kickoff and moved 65 yards on five plays. Stephenson connected with Ricciuti for a 37-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage and ended the drive with a 17-yard touchdown toss to Chase Fox.
Waynesburg forced the Red Raiders into a three-and-out and then went on a nine-play, 79-yard touchdown march capped by Stephenson’s 13-yard pass to Ricciuti. Stephenson completed 5 of 6 passes for 75 yards in the drive.
“We made some nice throws on some checks offensively throughout the game,” Giorgi said. “Jake did a good job of keeping his eyes downfield and Chase and Jack really stepped up and made some big plays for us.”
After another three-and-out, the Raiders took just three plays to move 41 yards for another touchdown, this one coming on a 29-yard run by Woods, the first of his three TDs on the night, for a 20-0 advantage.
Uniontown’s defense stiffened in the second quarter and the score remained 20-0 at halftime and well into the third quarter.
The Red Raiders forced two turnovers in that span with Nick Torbich recovering a Waynesburg fumble on the Uniontown 1-yard line in the second quarter and Notorious Grooms returning an interception 35 yards to the Waynesburg 40 with 6:32 left in the third quarter.
The Red Raiders offense could never quite get into gear, however, and Waynesburg took advantage of Uniontown’s tiring defense with consecutive big plays to put the game away.
The first came with the Raiders facing a third and 13 from their own 3-yard line when Stephenson drilled a 26-yard completion to Fox for a first down.
“Jake showed a lot of poise to step up in the pocket in his own end zone and deliver a nice strike to Chase to get us out of the hole,” Giorgi said.
Woods broke free for a 71-yard touchdown run on the next play and Stephenson’s 2-point conversion pass to Colby Pauley made it 28-0 with 1:45 left in the third quarter.
“Breydon Woods is a gamechanger not only as a rusher but in the passing game as well,” Giorgi said. “He’s absolutely dynamic, just a tremendous player.”
“The second quarter we settled down and started playing better defense,” Jeffries said. “We just could not drive the ball again. We have to be able to sustain drives and we just are not doing that right now. It’s frustrating.”
Woods, who finished with 19 carries for 206 yards, added an 18-yard touchdown run with just under nine minutes left in the game and Dalton Taylor’s third extra point made it 35-0.
Stephenson completed 14 of 19 passes for 224 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Ricciuti had seven catches, Fox added four receptions for 76 yards and Woods caught two passes for 44 yards.
Uniontown averted the shutout with a spectacular play on its final possession as Cam Jackson completed a halfback option pass for a 58-yard touchdown to K’Adrian McLee.
“He threw a nice ball,” Jeffries said. “We actually discussed two years ago about Cam playing quarterback but we felt he’d help us better as a running back. K’Adrian made a nice catch on that play, too.”
Jackson has been hobbled by a foot injury.
“Cam is coming back from a broken foot and he’s not near 100 percent but he’s still playing his butt off,” Jeffries said. “Cam is getting healthier each week and next week we’ll get a couple kids back from some nagging injuries.”
Waynesburg held the Red Raiders to 55 rushing yards on 23 carries and 82 passing yards.
Jackson was limited to 28 yards on 12 carries but did have two catches for 18 yards in addition to his TD toss. McLee completed 3 of 6 passes for 24 yards and had three rushes for14 yards to go with his touchdown reception. The Red Raiders also used William Nedley and Cam Dugan at quarterback at times with McLee moving out to wide receiver.
“We’ve been playing pretty solid defense all year,” said Giorgi who lauded middle linebacker Pauley. “Colby is the leader of our defense. He gets us in the right spots and gets us going.”
Ryon McCartney had a defensive fumble recovery for Waynesburg.
Uniontown ends its season with home games against Carrick and Brownsville.
After hosting Sto-Rox, Waynesburg finishes the regular season at Charleroi.