Wiggins’ big second half leads Pottstown past Methacton
POTTSTOWN >> Methacton had a special halftime guest speaker, in the person of Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Alshon Jeffery.
With no marquee orator of its own, Pottstown produced its own inspiration. It worked out well enough for the Trojans to claim a 12-6 victory over the Warriors Friday evening at Grigg Memorial Field.
Josiah Wiggins and Daniel Darden did the heavy lifting for Pottstown (3-1) in the second half, Wiggins with rushing and passing touchdowns and Darden helping move the chains when it counted. The Trojan defense and special teams also contributed to putting Methacton (0-4) in lockdown mode after it went into the locker room with a tenuous 3-0 lead.
“When we went in, we came out thinking it was a 0-0 game. We came out and put that behind our backs … we wanted to come out and win,” Darden said. “We saw the score as being 0-0.”
Wiggins played a big part in turning Pottstown’s early fortunes around. The sophomore quarterback got all but one of his 123 rushing yards in the second half, putting the locals ahead with a 12-yard sprint around his left end with 7:52 to go in the third quarter.
Wiggins followed with a nine-yard scoring pass to Nehemiah Figueroa at the 9:02 mark in the fourth quarter. The 12-3 lead that provided Pottstown enough cushion to chalk up the win, the Warriors’ point production limited to a pair of Chris Meehan field goals.
“When we went in, the big thing was getting back to basics,” head coach Mark Fischer said. “The kids felt we should have been winning by more. We just got back to what we do that works.”
Neither team was able to sustain drives in the first half, beyond Methacton mounting a 10-play series culminating with Meehan booting a 26-yard field goal inside the four-minute mark of the first half. Meehan later hit a 22-yarder with less than 2-1/2 minutes to go.
“He comes to us from soccer practice — drives himself to practice — does his job and kicks the ball,” Methacton head coach Dave Lotier said of Meehan. “I give Coach (Chris) Shaffer credit. He did some recruiting and pulled one out for us.”
Pottstown got its offense untracked on its second possession of the second half. Wiggins and Darden drove the ball 50 yards, aided by a personal-foul penalty that put the Trojans at the Warrior 12 to set the stage for Wiggins’ scoring run.
“We had 100 yards in penalties,” Lotier noted, “and half of them were unsportsmanlike conduct. We need to clean that up. The penalties by our defense gave them the opportunity to score.”
Jon Oister’s booming 61-yard punt played a role in the turnaround, backing Methacton up to its 17-yard line. It gave Pottstown a boost in field position that contributed to its first touchdown.
“That was a momentum shifter,” Fischer said.
The Trojans’ longest possession — it covered the closing minutes of the third quarter and early minutes of the fourth — was capped by Wiggins (5-for-20, 53 yards) hooking up with Figueroa (three catches, 29 yards) at the 9:02 mark.
“We got it together and made something happen,” Darden said. “That’s what is good about this team. It has so much heart.”
“We ground it out,” Fischer added. “Josiah made some big plays that got things going. That’s what we talked about at halftime.”
NOTES >> Lotier on the appearance by Jeffery, who watched the second half of the game from the Methacton sideline: “It’s special, anytime you have a chance to have a Super Bowl champion talk to the players. He talked about family, how all the Eagles think as a team and not ‘me.’ It was a great learning experience.”
