Plymouth Whitemarsh pounds Wissahickon with rushing attack

WHITEMARSH >> Plymouth Whitemarsh didn’t complete a single pass Friday night.

That didn’t matter.

The Colonials racked up 275 rushing yards on 46 carries in their 28-14 Suburban One League American Conference win over Wissahickon at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

“That’s always our gameplan,” PW coach Dan Chang said. “We want to be able to control the clock, run the ball. I thought our kids ran tough tonight. We protected the football, which was good. Our offensive line is getting better each week. I think we’re going to continue to improve as we go.”

Brian Dresnin led the ground attack with 19 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown. Michael Paciello added 72 yards and two touchdowns.

“Our o-line was the most important part,” Paciello said. “They made the holes for us running backs to run through to be able to get those yards. Really happy with the way we played. It was good play-calling as well. Really thought we knew what they were going to line up in, we knew what plays were going to work.”

After forcing a Wissahickon three-and-out to start the game, the Colonials (1-3, 1-0) went straight to the ground game. Their first offensive possession resulted in a nine-play drive — all runs — capped off by a two-yard score from Paciello.

When they got the ball back later in the quarter, it was right back to the rushing attack. This time it was a six-play drive with Paciello scoring from 43 yards out.

“It was wide veer right,” Paciello said. “I took the ball and ran to clutter. I didn’t hear a whistle, just kept my feet moving, cut it back field, felt a few arms on me and just kept running. I found a lane and full speed to the endzone. All I was thinking was endzone.”

The Colonials had 144 rushing yards at the end of the first quarter and 183 at halftime.

“PW’s a great team, a great running game,” Wiss coach Bruce Fleming said. “Coach Chang does a great job of coaching his guys up to run that veer option pretty well. On defense, it’s all about assignment football and our guys have to understand their assignments at all times. Once we started to pick it up and realize it, we started to make the stops, but that was towards the second half.”

Dresnin scored on a 38-yard run in the fourth quarter to give PW a commanding 28-0 lead.

Double threat

To go along with his two rushing touchdowns, Paciello grabbed two interceptions in the secondary.

“Our defense was lights out,” Chang said. “Mike Paciello played a huge game — he had two picks, he was making plays all over the field. I thought overall our defense was pretty stellar all the way through. They did a nice job running to the ball, forcing turnovers. When they put points on the board, that’s just extra.”

He scored his first career defensive touchdown when he returned his second interception 45 yards to the endzone in the third quarter to put the Colonials ahead, 21-0.

“I was playing my read — deep half,” Paciello said of his pick six. “Ball was overthrown. Cornerback Vinny (Gillespie) saw the ball was overthrown and told me he knew it was going to be there. I ran right under it, caught it like a punt basically. Took it up the sideline, got a great block, saw the quarterback coming and cut it right back. Then it was off to the races for 10 yards — into the endzone.”

PW totalled three takeaways in the game. In addition to Paciello’s two interceptions, defensive lineman David Garcia sacked Wissahickon quarterback Nick Santo, forced a fumble and recovered it in the second quarter.

Second-half surge

The Trojans (0-4, 0-1) looked like a different team after halftime. They played to a 14-14 tie and Santo threw for 183 of his 226 yards in the final 24 minutes.

“We’re starting to put it all together,” Fleming said. “We are a young team and it’s all about learning how to win, learning how to translate what we work on in practice all week to the game. Today we came out in the second half. Now we have to figure out a way to take the positive things and bring them out in the first half.”

A lot of Santo’s yardage went to receiver Maurice Willis. The senior finished with 10 receptions for 158 yards and two touchdowns — 39 and 34-yard scores in the fourth quarter.

“Maurice is a great receiver,” Fleming said. “A few times routes weren’t as crisp as I would’ve liked them to be, but that’s learning to become a good route-runner. That’s one of the things we stress in practice all the time and he’s starting to put it together and understand what he needs to do.”

Starting a run

It wasn’t a great start to the season for Plymouth Whitemarsh. The Colonials entered Friday night with an 0-3 record after losses to Downingtown East, Abington and Norristown.

None of that matters now.

The Colonials are 1-0 in league play and look to keep that going next week against Upper Moreland.

“In the league now we’re 1-0,” Chang said. “We got a clean slate coming into this and now our kids get a little taste of what it takes to win on Friday night.

“It was a big win for us in terms of experience and knowing what to do.”