Oct 23, 2014 6 min read

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Ladies and gentlemen, my pick is in.

Other work that came up this week prevented me from creating a buildup to the release of the O-R Sports Staff’s weekly picks, but I’ll use this post to explain my choice for the biggest game of the week.

Yes, I picked Wash High to defeat McGuffey Friday night. In the grand scheme of things, my pick doesn’t mean a thing.

I’m last in the picks this season. Most of my losses have come in games involving the Tri-County South, Trinity (I can’t figure the Hillers out) and college football (I will be rooting against Texas Tech for the foreseeable future).

Picking the Prexies did not come without internal debate. I’m extremely impressed with McGuffey’s linemen. The Highlanders’ offense can hurt opponents in several ways with Nate Whipkey’s arm, James Duchi running the football and the work of an underrated batch of receivers.

So why did I pick Wash High?

The better question is how can you not pick the Prexies? There were few questions I had about the Prexies entering the season. Those did include an ability to pass the football, how the secondary would play and Jordan West’s injury clouded things.

I no longer have those concerns.

Senior quarterback Jonathan Spina has played extremely well this season. He never forces the ball, takes what the defense gives him and knows when to run for easy yards. His leadership skills helped rally the team when Waynesburg stopped the running game.

The offensive line is tremendous. You can’t say enough about how this group has played. It hasn’t been flawless, but this is the best line in WPIAL Class AA. There aren’t any holes and they can do it all.

You can’t talk about the offense without mentioning Malik Wells and West. Wells has developed into a great all-around tailback who fights for extra yards, while West is the perfect fullback in that scheme. They keep teams guessing and make opponents account for the inside and outside run.

“You have to treat it the same way as you do with other games,” Wells said. “Of course, in the community, everyone else is going to be excited for this game, but as a team, we have to treat it like any other game. Our coaches told us that at the beginning of the week. We have to play our game and don’t let the game get bigger than us.”

I haven’t mentioned DeQuay Isbell, who is the fastest player in the Interstate Conference. Isbell received playing time the past few years, but was very raw. He has developed into a football player with track-like speed. His impact on special teams cannot be overlooked and you will see McGuffey paying close attention when No. 23 lines up on the outside at wide receiver.

What about the 6-5 tight end who has scored in three straight games? Nate Swart is great at blocking and is very difficult to defend in short down situations. He’s also a great outside pass rusher on defense and will develop into a tremendous receiver with more work. Swart is a Division I-caliber player. There’s no question about that.

The pass defense and the linebacking core are Wash High’s weaknesses. Open-field tackling has improved over the last several weeks, but the secondary is still allowing too many big plays through the air.

I can guarantee you that Ed Dalton watched plenty of tape on the Prexies’ wins over Waynesburg and Mt. Pleasant. Wash High responded nicely to a tough first half in both games.

“They are sound on defense too. They don’t over adjust,” Dalton said. “They play with their players, they blitz a decent amount. We think we present a handful because we’ll spread the field, we’ll do the option and some other different things. We are going to do what we’ve been doing, they’ll do what they’ve been doing and whoever excecutes better is going to win.”

According to Dalton, 2,500 tickets were already sold by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The atmosphere is going to be electric. This is a playoff game for both teams, but McGuffey can earn a share of the conference title and a home playoff game with a win.

“I think they’re really excited,” Dalton said of his team. “The thing that’s really different is they have a long term rivalry with these guys, even though we haven’t played them at the high school level. They played them in youth all the way up and know them all by name. They can pick them out of a crowd.”

There is plenty to like about McGuffey. The Highlanders are a solid football team on both sides of the ball and like the Prexies, they are well-coached. When I saw them face Mt. Pleasant in Week One, the one thing that stood out was McGuffey’s difficult stopping the jet sweep.

The Vikings ran it over and over again. Dalton quickly put a stop to that.

“On that following Monday, we learned how to stop the jet sweep,” Dalton said with a smile. “We had a four-hour Labor Day practice. Nobody wants the jet sweep again and from that point on, we’ve been pretty successful against it.”

McGuffey’s offense is very difficult to stop with James Duchi and Nate Whipkey. The linemen are massive and they play with a lot of grit.

“They definitely spread you out,” Spina said. “Duchi is big. Whipkey has some speed and he has some threats on the outside. We have to account fo everything.

A lot of points will be scored in this one. It’s going to come down to a critical mistake in the second half, whether that be a turnover, penalty or mental mistake. Wash High has been a great second half team and has displayed an ability to close out games.

It’s too difficult to pick against them. Don’t take my word for it though. Attend the game and you’ll see what I meant when I said this was a tough one to pick.