Oct 21, 2016 4 min read

The final score wouldn’t indicate it, but offense was at a premium Friday night when Burgettstown and Washington squared off in a matchup of two of the top three teams in the WPIAL AA’s Century Conference.

Unless you were Washington’s Isaiah Robinson. Then the offense was easy to come by.

Robinson touched the ball just four times in the first half but had 244 yards on those four touches, including an incredible 75-yard touchdown run, to help lead Washington defeat visiting Burgettstown, 41-6, securing another conference championship.

It’s business as usual for Wash High, which also means there’s a lot more left to play. So while the players were dancing in the locker room after the game, the coaching staff had a different outlook.

“It never gets old, but we still got another week to go,” said Prexies head coach Mike Bosnic. “It feels good right now, but we have to get ready to go back to work.”

The Blue Devils (4-3, 4-4) actually caught the Prexies (6-0, 8-0) by surprise to begin the game by trying an onside kick, which Burgettstown recovered. A seven-play drive ensued, including a 16-yard run by Brad McLaughlin on third-and-15, and the Blue Devils put Washington behind 6-0 for the second straight week.

“We weren’t going to just lay down and let them roll all over us,” said Burgettstown head coach Mark Druga. “We had the wind in our face, and that was the plan. We knew we had to take some gambles to be in a fight with Washington, and we took a gamble right off the get-go, and it worked.”

Unlike a week ago against Chartiers-Houston, the Prexies didn’t need to wait until halftime to erase the margin. In fact, they scored 14 points in a span of 46 seconds late in the first quarter, and Robinson had a hand in both scoring drives.

His 46-yard run gave the Prexies their first first down of the game, and the drive would culminate in another Isaiah, Perry, catching a 23-yard jump ball in the end zone.

Robinson had more than a hand in the next two scoring drives. He was the scoring drive each time. First, following an interception by Jackson Interval, Robinson hauled in a short screen pass and scampered his way through the Burgettstown defense for a 60-yard touchdown.

The next time he touched the ball, he was even more astounding.

On a reverse, Robinson immediately found room to run, but it’s unlikely anyone expected what they saw next. Robinson weaved in and out of defenders, cutting across the field and reversing direction more than once, then fought off a defender near the goal line for the 75-yard score that stretched Wash High’s lead to 21-6.

“Oh, my goodness,” Druga said. “He is, hands down, the best athlete in our conference. We weren’t sure how we were going to defend him. Ryan Lounder had a Herculean task. He’s a special talent, no doubt about it.”

“He played like a big-time player tonight,” added Bosnic.

Robinson finished with four rushing attempts for 200 yards and caught two passes for 73 more. His rushing total alone was more yards than the Blue Devils gained as a whole, as they were held to 198 yards. McLaughlin found little room to run and was constantly on the move to avoid the pass rush, completing just 11 of 27 passes for 84 yards. He did, however, gain 91 yards on 21 rushing attempts.

But Burgettstown had just two first downs in the second half, and while its defense limited most players not named Isaiah, it was not enough.

“This is a great learning, stepping stone that we’re gonna have coming up for our playoff struggle,” said Druga. “If we take that intensity into the playoffs, I wouldn’t want to play us in that first round.”

Zack Swartz scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter for the Prexies.