Waynefield-Goshen’s Drew Breitigam gets ready to let loose a pass during Friday night’s game at Upper Scioto Valley.
Jackelyn Johnson | The Lima News
McGUFFEY — Waynesfield-Goshen was not tested in its first two games of this football season.
In fact, both games were blowouts by halftime.
In its first two contests, W-G outscored its opponents by a total margin of 105-0.
In the first week, W-G rolled past Mississinawa Valley 42-0. Last week, the Tigers dominated Crestline on both sides of the football, en route to a 63-0 shellacking.
Friday night, Waynesfield-Goshen brought its high-powered offense and stingy defensive unit to Upper Scioto Valley for a battle of two unbeatens in the Northwest Central Conference.
However, it did not take long for W-G’s offense to start clicking on all cylinders, as the Tigers jumped out early and pulled away for a 35-6 victory over USV.
With the win, W-G improves to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the NWCC. USV slips to 1-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
Waynesfield-Goshen is the defending NWCC champion. Last season, USV finished second in the conference. In 2021, USV won the conference title, with Waynesfield-Goshen finishing tied with Perry for second.
Friday night, W-G amassed 408 offensive yards (328 passing, 80 rushing). Defensively, the Tigers held the Rams’ offensive unit to 127 yards on the night.
Despite the impressive start to the season for his team, W-G head coach Shane Wireman stressed to his team, coming in, that they needed to be focused.
“Well, anytime you’re playing your rival on the road – you have to come in and give great effort and match their intensity, early,” Wireman said. “We told the guys all week that it’s going to be a hard-fought first quarter. We knew they (USV) were going to throw some punches and try to weather the storm. We finally were able to get some separation in the second half.
“It was a hard-fought game on both sides. They have some nice athletes. And (head) coach (Dustin) Price does a nice job with his guys. They tested us in a lot of areas. We’ll have some things on film that we will need to clean up, starting tomorrow. So, we’ll be focusing on those things, for sure.”
W-G senior quarterback Drew Breitigam was 17 of 28 passing for 328 yards, and had four touchdown passes and two interceptions Friday night. He had TD passes of 10, 57, 40, and 7 yards.
Breitigam spread the wealth around. His top receiver Friday was Dalton Jordan, who hauled in seven passes for 151 yards, and had two TD receptions.
Grant Breitigam caught four passes for 84 yards and had one TD reception, while teammate Carson Barnes had four catches for 62 yards and had a TD for the Tigers.
Wireman has been pleased on how his offensive unit has produced so far this season, especially with the play of his quarterback.
“I think that’s what made our team, the last couple years,” Wireman said. “We have a guy (Drew Breitigam) who can pass the ball. … He’s a good athlete, who can also run the ball at the quarterback spot. And we have good guys on the perimeter.”
Drew Breitigam also rushed for 42 yards on 10 carries.
The other score on the night for W-G was a fumble recovery in the end zone by offensive lineman Layden Porter.
W-G led 14-0 by the end of the first quarter. The Tigers extended their lead to 21-0 by the halftime break.
By the end of third quarter, W-G’s lead had ballooned to 35-0.
USV finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.
With 7:53 left to play in the game, Alex Sanders, who was utilized as both running back and quarterback for the Rams Friday night, ran the ball in from six yards out.
For the game, Sanders rushed for 72 yards on 19 carries.
On the night, W-G had 15 first downs. USV managed to move the first-down marker nine times.
Wireman said he cautioned his players about not letting up this week. He realized USV would come out strong.
“That’s not a knock to the two teams we played early on, but they’re young teams (that we played),” Wireman said. “We knew this was going to be a different caliber of team. And you do worry about it as a head coach – if we are going to be at the level we need to be, coming into this game. You cannot expect an easy game. … We preached that all week.”
Game summary
Score by quarters:
W-G 14 7 14 0 – 35
USV 0 0 0 6 – 6
Scoring:
W-G– Carson Barnes 10 pass from Drew Breitigam (Lane Steinke kick)
W-G–Dalton Jordan 57 pass from Drew Breitigam (Lane Steinke kick)
W-G–Grant Breitigam 40 pass from Drew Breitigam (Lane Steinke kick)
W-G – Fumble recovery by Layden Porter (Lane Steinke kick)
W-G – Dalton Jordan 7 pass from Drew Breitigam (Lane Steinke kick)
USV – Alex Sanders 6 run (pass failed)
W-G USV
15 First downs 9
408 Total yardage 127
80 Rushing yardage 117
328 Passing yardage 10
17-x28-2 Passing (Com-Att-Int) 3-9-0
2-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-1
0-00.0 Punts-Average 3-46.0
3-30 Penalties-Yards 3-20
Individual leaders:
Passing: W-G-Drew Breitigam 17-28-328; USV-Xalex Sanders 2-7-5.
Rushing: W-G-Drew Breitigam 11-42; USV-Alex Sanders 19-72.
Receiving: W-G-Dalton Jordan 7-15; USV-Mason Thompson 1-5.
Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
