KARNS CITY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Trey Wingard did his best to control his nerves in the hours leading up to his first start at quarterback for the DuBois football team.
The sophomore had no trouble swatting away those butterflies.
(Pictured above, DuBois quarterback Trey Wingard)
Wingard threw for 340 yards and four touchdowns in a back-and-forth game that saw seven lead changes in the second half as the Beavers escaped with a wild 41-36 victory over Karns City on Friday night.
“I’m a big guy about being confident going into anything I do, and in really big situations, just trying to be calm, as calm as you can be,” Wingard said. “When you really just let it go, it can really affect how you play. I’ve been trying to prepare for those tough situations, like those fourth downs and the last drive.”
Wingard found himself in a few tight spots against the Gremlins, who led 8-0 after the opening drive, 15-12 at the half, 28-27 one play into the fourth quarter and 36-35 with time dwindling in the game.
Each time, Wingard led go-ahead scoring drives. He converted a few third-and-longs and a pair of fourth downs to keep those marches alive.
And he led a 54-yard drive late for the win.
“It’s one game, but he did a pretty good job,” said DuBois coach and Wingard’s father, T.J. Wingard. “The work that the receivers and Trey and Coach (Paul) Butler have put in and all the stuff we did all summer on timing, it was good to see that play out in the first game. We have another one to play next week, though.”
Wingard the quarterback was accurate, poised and spread the ball around, completing passes to six different receivers.
He was 22-of-36 and didn’t throw an interception — although he had a few near-disasters early.
Karns City had three prime chances to pick off Wingard, but weren’t able to hang on to the football.
Wingard shrugged off those mistakes and moved on.
“I always take those plays as, ‘Yeah, it was almost a pick, but it wasn’t,’” Wingard said. “Now we just move on to the next play. Don’t think about it. Don’t get gun shy. Just keep rolling.”
Wingard did.
His first touchdown pass came late in the second quarter on a 18-yard strike to Kaden Clark to give DuBois a 12-8 lead.
Karns City entered halftime up 15-12 after the second rushing touchdown from Luke Cramer, this one from the 1 after he capped the opening drive with a 3-yard plunge.
That set the stage for a wild second half.
Wingard connected again with Isaiah Korney for a 3-yard score to give DuBois the lead back at 19-15 early in the third quarter.
After Karns City answered quickly on the first play of its next possession on a 60-yard TD run by Hunter Scherer and then got a defensive stop, DuBois’ Garrett Nissel made the biggest play of the game on defense, stepping in front of a pass by Gremlin quarterback Mason Martin at the 3 and racing 97 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-21.
“That was a momentum-changer,” Coach Wingard said. “That interception for a touchdown was so huge.”
Karns City was undaunted.
The Gremlins took the lead again as Martin broke several tackles and weaved his way 48 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to put Karns City up, 28-27.
Moments later, though, Wingard tossed his third TD of the game on a perfect pass dropped into the hands of Nathan Kougher down the right sideline for a 21-yard score, and then hit Clark on the 2-point conversion pass to put DuBois ahead 35-28.
Sticking to the second-half theme, Karns City responded again with Cramer’s third touchdown run of the game, a 1-yarder midway through the fourth.
On the extra point, Zach Kelly, who is also the Gremlins’ kicker, picked up a bad snap and hold and sprinted into the end zone for a very unorthodox 2-point conversion and a 36-35 lead.
Wingard drove DuBois down the field again and connected with his favorite target in the opener, Carter Vos, with a perfect touch pass in the corner of the end zone for an 8-yard TD and the lead.
For good.
Vos caught seven passes for 119 yards and overcame a pair of early drops.
“It felt really good,” Wingard said, smiling. “I give a lot of credit to my receivers here. We put a lot of work in during the summer and hear acclamation and camp. I just think we did a really good job and I’m gonna enjoy it.”
There was a lot to enjoy for both teams.
Also a lot to iron out.
Karns City moved the ball well against DuBois, racking up 252 yards on the ground. Cramer, in his first game back in 11 months after tearing his ACL in the second game of the season last year, rushed for 39 yards and three scores.
Martin led the way with 85 yards rushing and Scherer added 81.
Martin also threw for 97 yards.
“No. 1 of our positives is the effort we put out there,” said Karns City coach Joe Sherwin. “That’s the type of effort we can work with throughout the season. We’ll get better and fix our mistakes. We have to be able to get stops on defense. We just gave up way too many yards and too many big plays. We have to find a way to improve on defense.”
DuBois had 410 yards on offense in the win. Nissel added 54 yards on the ground.
Coach Wingard hopes to see the running game improve going forward.
“Our athletes made play, but we want to be more balanced,” the coach said. “That’s what we’re gonna look toward this week.”
Karns City will certainly go to work on its pass defense with Redbank Valley and its own prolific sophomore quarterback, Braylon Wagner, coming to town.
“We have to figure out what we did wrong and fix it for next week,” Sherwin said.
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