photo by: Nick Henthorn

The Wheeling Park Patriots celebrate a touchdown last Friday during their first-round victory over the Musselman Applemen.

WHEELING – Wheeling Park started their postseason with a bang last week, putting together a convincing 43-0 first-round win over Musselman in a game where the Patriots scored on their first or second play of a drive four times.

No. 4 Park (8-3) would like that explosiveness to continue into their upcoming Class AAAA quarterfinal game against No. 5 Huntington (10-1), themselves coming off an impressive 56-28 victory against University. They’re a team Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty is familiar with in recent years.

“In the last five, six, seven years or so, we’ve played them in the playoffs twice and the regular season once,” Daugherty said in an interview Wednesday. “Billy [Seals] started at Huntington about the same time I took over at Wheeling Park. We’ve known each other, I’ve always followed Hungtington and they’ve always been a good football team with multiple athletes. They make you defend so much of the field. Just a quality program.”

The Highlanders scored five touchdowns in the first quarter against the Hawks, one a 35-yard dash by Keegan Sack, who scored again in the second quarter and finished with 161 yards on 15 carries. The 1,000-yard rusher has scored 29 times this year.

“He’s a good football player, probably one of the better backs we will face all year long,” Daugherty said. “But they have multiple weapons. Not to take away from him at all, but one of the reasons he’s been successful is because you have to worry about a couple wide receivers and a quarterback who’s able to throw it and run it.

“That makes life for a running back pretty nice because you can’t just center-in on stopping him. They have multiple guys that can hurt you. But he is a very, very good back.”

Wheeling Park’s own star running back Brennan Wack ran for 163 yards and three touchdowns against the Applemen, setting up a duel between two of the state’s top runners on Friday.

“I haven’t seen every back in the state, but I’d say that Brennan Wack is the best or one of the best running backs in the state,” Daugherty said. “Huntington’s back is right there too. They’ve both had super successful seasons. They can do multiple things- run with power, run with speed. Sometimes that means it’s going to come down to what defense comes to play and stops the run.”

Wack sits at 1,916 rushing yards and 26 rushing touchdowns.

Huntington’s top receiving option is Tayveon Wilson, who verbally committed to Clemson earlier in the week.

Wheeling Park sophomore quarterback Jay Bordas has 16 touchdown throws and 1,679 yards. Junior wide receiver Kolin Wiley, who housed a screen pass 79 yards for a touchdown against Musselman, has looked the part of a No. 1 receiver for Park this year with 537 yards and seven scores, both team-highs.

Jameson Maynard, another crucial part of Wheeling Park’s passing game at tight end- not to mention their defense at linebacker- missed Park’s game against the Applemen with an injury he sustained during the Patriots’ regular-season finale against John Marshall, but Daugherty is hopeful he will be able to play Friday against the Highlanders.

“We definitely plan on Jameson playing,” Daugherty said. “Last week we knew he was going to be out but he has practiced this week and we’ll see how things go on Friday.”

Wheeling Park and Huntington have met three times previously- in 2013, 2020 and 2021. Huntington holds a 2-1 advantage, and took the two teams’ most recent meeting 48-21. Huntington had been at home for all three of those prior meetings, making this the first time the Highlanders travel north to Wheeling Island Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. Friday.