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Huskies cruise to win

WEIRTON – Harrison Central quarterback, David Miser, threw four touchdown passes in the first half to lead his Huskies to a 46-14 win over Weir High Friday night at Jimmy Carey Stadium.

The Huskies, hurting after a tough 7-6 loss a week ago, took out their anger on the Red Riders to even their record at 1-1.

Meanwhile, the Red Riders were losing their second of the season and 12th straight.

“Things kind of went our way tonight,” said Huskie coach Justin Kropka. “Weir High kind of ran into an angry football team after last week when things didn’t go our way.”

The Huskies sort of got off to a slow start getting one first period touchdown on a 10-yard Miser to Nico Williams pass, but they turned it on in the second period scoring five unanswered touchdowns to put the game away early.

“We were saying all week that this is a business trip and we weren’t going to get too emotional about it just like we would’ve if things had gone our way last week,” Kropka explained. “People seem to forget that Miser took a year off last year, but he’ll get better and so will this team. We’re such a young ball club.”

It will take a lot of Miser to get any better than he was Friday. The senior signal caller completed 11 of 12 passes for 220 yards and four touchdowns.

“Sometimes we make a lot of dumb mistakes as evidenced in the first half, but those are correctable things,” Kropka continued. “Overall, the effort has always been there, so we’ll correct the little things and as long as we still keep getting the same kind of effort we’ll be fine.”

The Huskies shut down the Red Rider offense in the first half to the point where the only yardage gained was 60 yards on the ground by junior quarterback William Larch. He carried the ball eight times in the first half with his big gainer being a 33-yard scamper. He wound up leading Weir High with 92 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns.

“We didn’t play very well early and it kind of got away from us,” said veteran Red Rider coach Tony Filberto. “And it just kept going, deteriorating and deteriorating. In the first half Harrison Central just totally separated from us. They were better than us.”

Miser found senior wide receiver, Nate Olmstead in the left corner of the end zone on a crossing pattern to begin the second quarter onslaught to make the score 12-0.

As Kropka said, the Huskies made some fundamental mistakes incurring 10 first half penalties for 73 yards, but that was about all that stopped their offense. Harrison Central also had some trouble in the kicking game missing point after kicks on the first three touchdowns.

Olmstead stepped in front of a Larch pass at the Red Rider 42 midway through the second quarter and returned the football to the end zone. Olmstead got a second interception with three seconds left on the first half clock.

Miser connected with sophomore running back Travis Stenson three minutes later for a 20-yard touchdown. By this time, Harrison Central kicker, Geoff Pecar, got things corrected and split the uprights to give the Huskies a 25-0 lead with 3:30 left before the half.

Miser found Stenson open again on a swing pass that covered 45 yards for a touchdown at the 1:32 mark and 31 seconds later Williams blasted up the middle from 22 yards out for another score.

That one was set up when a Red Rider muffed Pecar’s kickoff after Stenson’s first score. The loose football was recovered by Austin Porter at the Weir High 38.

When the blitz was over, Harrison Central went to the locker room with a comfortable 39-0 halftime lead.

Using reserves throughout the second half, the Huskies scored just one touchdown and it came on their first possession of the third quarter. Harrison Central drove 62 yards in eight plays with sophomore fullback, Anthony Risley, going in for the score on a five-yard blast through the middle.

Weir High finally got some offense going as Larch completed his only pass of the game in 16 tosses, a 29-yard connection with freshman speedster, Donovan Spencer. Junior Matt Hartman followed with a 25-yard run that got the Red Riders their deepest penetration into Harrison Central territory.

With the ball at the Huskie 17, freshman fullback, Cody Enrietti, bulled his way for four yards and Larch got 12 more on a keeper that put the ball at the one from where Larch blasted into the end zone on a quarterback sneak. It was the first rushing touchdown for the Red Riders this season.

Senior kicker, Alyssa Shingle booted the extra point.

Then in the fourth quarter, Larch scored again this time on a keeper around the right side from eight yards out. Again, Shingle split the uprights to cap the scoring.

Larch finished the game with 92 rushing yards on 10 carries while Hartman gained 45 yards with four rushes. Sophomore Cameron Davis got Weir High’s other five yards carrying the football seven times in the game.

Weir High continues its home stand with a matchup against Edison Local next Friday while the Huskies get their first home game entertaining Western Reserve.

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