Whitlatch steps in for Brady, keeps WG at home
ROGERSVILLE – He is one of the best running backs in the WPIAL.
But on this soggy Friday night, Colin Brady was just another face in the crowd on the West Greene bench.
What he watched was something special. Billy Whitlatch rushed for 258 yards on 26 carries and scored three times in the second half to help West Greene to a 31-16 victory over Jefferson-Morgan in a Class 1A Tri-County South Conference game.
Whitlatch has 1,037 yards on the season and his running helped the Pioneers to a home game when the WPIAL begins in two weeks.
“I was just trying to take advantage of my situation,” said Whitlatch. “I know I can go out there and run as hard as I can. I have the best offenisve line in the conference. It’s easy to get those yards when you have a line like that.”
Whitlatch had three seond half touchdowns to put the game away. He scored from four yards, five yards and 28 yards to help the Pioneers pull away in the second half.
“It’s a cliche but it’s true. He plays with a lot of heart,” said West Greene head coach Beau Jackson.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Colin or Billy but I think that says a lot about our offensive line (that Brady and Whitlatch each went over 1,000 yards).”
West Greene is 5-1 in the conference and 7-2 overall. Jefferson-Morgan is 4-2 in the conference and 5-4 overall.
“We were (disappointed) we weren’t going to be first place,” Jackson said. “But we talked about how important second place was.”
Brady was sidelined by a shoulder injury. Jackson said he is not sure of when he will return.
Brady has 5,253 career rushing yards, one of three players to surpass 5,000 rushing yards from West Greene. Ben Jackson and Rodney Wilson are the other two.
Brady came into this game with 1,089 yards this season. A three-sport letterman, Brady was named to the Observer-Reporter Terrific 22 last year.
Brady leads the Pioneers with 15 touchdowns.
Brady was introduced pregame for West Greene senior night.
West Greene built a 13-8 lead at halftime but Jefferson-Morgan blew an opportunity to take the lead.
West Greene used the running game to control the half. Each team had only one possession in the first quarter.
The Pioneers went 86 yards in 12 plays and Johnny Lampe busted over from the one yard line. Patrick Durbin kicked the extra point.
Jefferson-Morgan came right back with quarterback Houston Guesman hit Collin Bisciglia on a fourth-down pass from the 11-yard line. Guesman ran for the two-point conversion and an 8-7 lead.
“A home field game as really important but we let it slip away,” said Jefferson-Morgan head coach Shane Ziats. We knew they had three good running backs. (Brady) is good but (Whitlatch) and (Johnny Lampe) are good backs.”
West Greene needed only four plays to respond. Whitlatch and Lampe doing the most damage to J-M’s defense.
Lampe scooted throught the left side of the line and went 30 yards for the go-ahead score. The run for two-point conversion failed.
Jefferson-Morgan drove inside to West Greene 10-yard line with a little more than a minutre to go but Guesman fumbled the snap on fourth down and was tackled for a loss as time ran out in the half.