Aug 27, 2016 3 min read

WEXFORD – McGuffey senior quarterback Marcus Czulewicz entered his team’s season opener with a reputation for what he could do with his arm.

Saturday at North Allegheny, facing Frazier as part of the Western Pa. Legends Kickoff Classic, what Czulewicz and his teammates did with their legs delivered a win.

Czulewicz finished with three rushing touchdowns, including a 47-yard jaunt, as the Highlanders prevailed, 38-28, in a high-scoring non-conference meeting.

Overall, four of McGuffey’s five touchdowns came on the ground. Such success is what McGuffey coach Ed Dalton expected when playing in what he described as oppressive heat.

“We thought we were bigger up front. We thought we could win the game up front if we spread the field,” Dalton said. “Luckily, it turned out that way.”

Dalton added the offensive line made improvements after halftime, when Frazier failed to cut short any of its four posessions. The first three resulted in touchdowns and the fourth only ended because time ran out.

But for all of McGuffey’s success when it had the ball in the second half, its defense allowed the Commodores (0-1) to stay within striking distance.

Frazier used timely trick plays to fool McGuffey (1-0).

Its first points of the game came when Damon Lovis brought in a 30-yard pass that came off a reverse. Later, Lovis again had a part in his team’s shenanigans when he took a snap for an extra point as the holder and ran into the end zone for a 2-point conversion that put Frazier ahead 21-17 with close to 8:30 to go in the third quarter.

“They’re tired,” Dalton said, describing the negative effect that fatigue had on both communication and effort of his players’ persistent defensive struggles. “Fortunately, so was (Frazier).”

The McGuffey offensive line, which was missing senior guard Justin Vinski, a projected starter, because of an ACL injury, took finishing the game upon itself. Before the offense took the field in the fourth quarter on the scoring drive that would put its lead out of Frazier reach, Dalton told players it was time for them to put the game away.

“Our front said ‘just run it at them,'” Dalton said. “And that’s what we did.”

Though there were few aerial highlights for the Highlanders, what ones there were made an impact.

Midway through the second quarter, Czulewicz threw his first pass, a long ball down right sideline to Adam Townsend, who sprinted to the 1-yard line after the catch before a Frazier defender pushed him out of bounds at the end of a 75-yard connection.

Czulewicz scored on a run on the next play to tie the score at 13-13.

Kicker Teague Nicolella would connect on his second straight extra point attempt of the day to give McGuffey the lead, and then added to it minutes later when a 44-yard field goal attempt held up just long enough to float over the crossbar, making the score 17-13.

In the third quarter, after Frazier had taken a 21-17 lead on Christopher Pierce’s second one-yard TD run and the subsequent two-point conversion, Czulewicz again went to the air, this time connecting with sophomore Christian Clutter for a 46-yard touchdown pass to give the Highlanders a 24-21 lead.

George Smalich put the Commodores back on top, 28-24, with a one-yard touchdown run, but Czulewicz didn’t let that lead stand long, scoring on a 10-yard run with just under two minutes to play in the third, 31-28.