Eagles skate through mud, Falcons

WELLSVILLE — Both the visiting West Franklin Falcons and the Wellsville Eagles came into Thursday night’s season finale winless in district play, so there were no postseason scenarios for either team.  

So the game was about finishing on a winning note, beating an county rival and sending the seniors off with a bang.  

Wellsville managed to do all those things by rolling to an easy 44-3 victory in Wellsville.

Eagle coach Mark Luedtke may have understated things a little after the game when he said, “We played well up front tonight.”

The Eagles completely dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. On offense, that translated to 326 yards rushing on 43 carries, an average of 7.6 per attempt.

On defense in the first half, the Eagles limited West Franklin to just five plays for positive yardage compared to eight for negative yardage. The Falcons had negative five yards rushing for the entire game.

The Falcons opened the game with the ball, but on the third play from scrimmage, Wellsville’s Goober Gardner intercepted to give the Eagles the ball at the 45-yard line of the Falcons.

Nine plays later, Eagle halfback Frederick Weidner took a toss to around the left end and out raced the Falcon defenders to the pylon for a 6-yard touchdown run. The extra point attempt failed, giving the Eagle a 6-0 lead.

Defensively the Eagles continued to dominate forcing the Falcons to punt on each of their next two possessions, but they were unable to extend their lead due to turnovers.

West Franklin’s Cord Cunningham intercepted a pass in the end zone to stop the Eagles second drive and Kyle Nitcher leaped on a fumble to stop the third drive.

The Eagles special teams got the next score when Eagle lineman Jessie Campbell tackled the West Franklin punter in the end zone for a safety following an errant snap.

After the free kick, the Eagles moved the ball 57 yards in six plays for another touchdown. Weidner plunged in from 5 for his second touchdown of the game with 6:57 left in the second quarter.

Three minutes later the Eagles Weidner would complete his hat trick of scores when he broke off a beautiful 33-yard run for a touchdown.

Weidner followed his blocking left, but as the running lanes clogged he broke back to the right. He then blew by the limited backside pursuit for a score. Dalton Hughes ran in the two point conversion making it 22-0. Weidner would lead all rushers in the game with 132 yards rushing on 11 carries.

On the last scoring drive of the first half, the Eagles moved the ball 51 yards  in six play for a touchdown. Hughes got the score this time on a three yard run following his right guard into the end zone.

Wellsville scored their final offensive touchdown nine plays after receiving the second half kickoff. Vince Ryburn scored from five yards out to make the score 38-0.

The Falcons got their initial first down of the game on their first possession of the second half. Three plays later Wellsville’s Bobbie McDaniel intercepted a Falcon pass and raced 50 yards for a touchdown to end the Eagles scoring.

The only Falcon score of the game came with six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Cunningham lined up for a 29-yard field goal, but missed it wide right. The Eagles were then flagged for running into the kicker, giving Cunningham a second chance from the 25. This time the kick was true, and the Falcons avoided being shut out.

“We had several injuries up front, and ended up starting some sophomores and freshmen tonight. We are a young team this year and with the injuries it made us even younger. That makes it awfully hard to be effective,” Falcons coach Chuck Lee said.

The Falcons were winless this season, but Lee feels that things could be much better next season.

“There have been some positives especially against Osage City and Silver Lake, but it hasn’t shown up in the win column. We have basically everyone back next season,” Lee said.

For Wellsville, the end came too soon.

“It is disappointing that we aren’t able to advance into the postseason this year. The win is a good way to end the season, it gives you a good feeling going into the winter sports,” Luedtke said.

“ I feel like we took the next step forward this year, moving from next to last in the league to third in the league. I think we can break through next season. Our district figures to be easier, so we have a better shot to advance.”

Lee echoed Luedtke’s optimism as these two teams will be in the same district next season along with Uniontown and the third Franklin County 3A team Central Heights.