Waynesboro breezes past Big Spring, 35-7
Stifling defense and a relentless run game propelled the Waynesboro Indians to a surprisingly easy 35-7 win over the Big Spring Bulldogs in a Mid Penn Colonial Division football game Friday night at Buchanan Auto Park Stadium.
The Indians jumped ahead early, leading 21-0 after just one quarter. Big Spring couldn’t seem to find a solution to the strong running game of Waynesboro, which produced 289 of their 355 yards in the game. Leading the way for the Indians was Brady Beckner, who had 15 rushes for 157 yards and two touchdowns.
“We definitely should’ve tackled better,” Big Spring coach Cory Hoffman said. “When that guy (Beckner) see’s a gap he’s going to go, and if he miss the tackle he’s gone.”
Just as impressive as the Indians' success on the ground was quarterback Brady Riddell’s play. Riddell picked up numerous first downs on scrambles and connected with wide receiver Cameron Keck for touchdowns of 26 and 28 yards.
“He played how he plays. He sees it well, he runs hard and he’s hard to tackle,” Indian coach Steve Myers said, “He played just the way I expected him to.”
As well as its offense played, Waynesboro’s defense played even better. The Indians held the Bulldogs, a team that was averaging over 300 rushing yards per game, to just 128 yards and shut them out for most of the game.
The defensive line gobbled up almost every rushing attempt by Big Spring (5-2, 3-1 MPC), faltering on only one play - a 71-yard rushing touchdown by Ryan Adams.
“We did a pretty good job of stopping 23 (Adams),” Myers said. “That kid is fast and you saw flashes of that at the end of the game, but shutting him down was a big part of our game plan.”
The pass defense of the Indians (4-3, 3-1 MPC) was also sound, holding Bulldog quarterback Jaret Petty to just two completions for 26 yards and picked him off once on a superb defensive play by Jimmy Hoffman.
Big Spring, who put up 49 points on Greencastle last week, seemed to be outmatched, and struggled to put a significant drive together.
“I don’t know if we’d played against that type of speed yet this season,” Hoffman said. “They are very fast and they flow to the ball well.”
Even the special teams for Waynesboro contributed, collecting a fumble on a kickoff return and almost scoring on a punt return that was called back for a block in the back.
Waynesboro 35, Big Spring 7
Big Spring _ 0 _ 0 _ 0 _ 7 _ — _ 7
Waynesboro _ 21 _ 14 _ 0 _ 0 _ — _ 35
First Quarter
W — Brady Beckner 26 run (George Souders kick), 9:38
W — Cameron Keck 26 pass from Brady Riddell (Souders kick), 1:18
W — Beckner 18 run (Souders kick) 0:32
Second Quarter
W — Keck 28 pass from Riddell (Souders kick), 6:04
W — Riddell 1 run (Souders kick), 0:39
Fourth Quarter
BS — Ryan Adams 71 run (Jared Gump kick), 10:09
Team Statistics
_ BS _ Way
First downs _ 6 _ 13
Rushes-yards _ 17-128 _ 43-289
Passing _ 2-9-1 _ 4-8-0
Passing yards _ 26 _ 66
Total yards _ 154 _ 355
Punts _ 4-37.0 _ 5-39.0
Fumbles-lost _ 1-0 _ 1-1
Penalties-yards _ 3-30 _ 9-92
Individual Statistics
Rushing — BS: Adams 10-86, Jaret Petty 6-41. Way: Beckner 15-157, Forrest Rhine 8-71, Riddell 6-37, Mason Frampton 4-45, Timmy Lewis 3-6, Dylan Cummins 3-0, Hunter Clever 3- (-11), Branden Bibbs 1- (-4).
Passing — BS: Petty 2-9-1-26. Way: Riddell 4-8-0-66.
Receiving — BS: Nick Black 1-18, Joseph Yaukey 1-8. Way: Keck 3-62, Beckman 1-4.
Interceptions — Way, Jimmy Hoffman.