Parkersburg South’s Dedrick Riggs takes a carry during Friday’s game at Wheeling Park. (Photo by Nick Henthorn)

WHEELING — Wheeling Park started their new season strong Friday with a 23-7 home victory over conference foe Parkersburg South, but for Park senior running back Brennan Wack, Friday was just picking up where he left off.

Wack, the reigning Curt Warner Award winner as the best running back in West Virginia, rushed for 226 yards and three touchdowns to help Wheeling Park move to 1-0 on the season.

Wack ran in for the game’s first score, an 8-yard touchdown up the gut, with 11:08 on the clock in the first quarter. He took a stretch run 13 yards to the house at the 3:42 mark of the third quarter, and busted his biggest run of the day, a 56-yard odyssey up, around and through the defense, with 36 seconds left in the third quarter.

“There were a couple times where Brennan got going and he tripped on his own feet in the middle of the field. I think he scores on the first play of the game if not, but that’s the way it goes. And [Parkersburg South] did a nice job, they used different blitzes and things that our guys had to pick up and sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t.

“Overall, you could kind of see Brennan wear on them a little bit and start to really take hold in the second half, I thought.”

Parkersburg South’s Kinzyn Lutchmansingh scrambles to his left during Friday’s game at Wheeling Park. (Photo by Nick Henthorn)

Just as impressive for Wheeling Park was their defense’s week-one showing. Park made multiple goalline stands Friday, and kept South off the scoreboard on two drives which began inside Park’s own 20 following a pair of fumbles recovered by Parkersburg South.

“We definitely got to clean that up,” Parkersburg South head coach Larry Thompson said of his team’s red zone execution. “Wheeling Park did a good job triggering on trap, on outside zone, but in that spot it’s about who wants it more and we didn’t execute.”

The score stood at 7-0 going into halftime.

“I think the whole first quarter, I felt like they played on our half of the field, you know, and to hold them to zero after that was big,” Daugherty said of his defense.

Wheeling Park got out to a 14-0 lead in the third quarter after Wack’s second touchdown run, but Parkersburg South cut the home team’s lead in half after Collin Hayes, on his second play moving to quarterback after signal-caller Kinzyn Lutchmansingh had to temporarily leave the game, finally finished a drive for Parkersburg South with a one-yard dive.

The visitors completed under 50% of their passes, going 14-29 for 163 yards and a fourth-quarter interception. The pick went to Wheeling Park stalwart safety Isaac Sands.

“I don’t think we executed offensively,” Thompson said. “You know, defense was on the field the majority of the night and when you leave Wheeling Park on the field with an All-State running back and quarterback, they’re gonna make something happen eventually. I think overall, our kids played hard, but we didn’t execute when we needed to.”

Parkersburg South’s top receiver was 6-5 athlete Taj Joyce, who caught five passes for 90 yards, including a 41-yard grab along the sideline.

“I thought our defense played really well, especially when, you know, you look at [Joyce] and what he did in the preseason and what he’s done, you know, leading up, to kind of control him the way we did was a credit to our secondary and our defense,” Daugherty said.

Channing Barrett complemented Joyce with six catches for 55 yards.

Wheeling Park’s own passing attack was led by Owen-Dobrzynski-Hines, a player whose improvement Daugherty spoke about during the offseason. The senior hauled in 7 passes for 72 yards, winning on slants and posts, and getting opportunities in the screen game. Wack also caught five passes for 26 yards as junior quarterback Jay Bordas finished 17-21 for 119 yards in the game.

A bad-snap safety with 90 seconds left in the game sealed things up for Park.

“We’ve played Parkersburg South for years,” Daugherty said. “We know they’re a physical football team. They’re well coached. Larry did a nice job offensively. They’re always a handful. So we knew week one, that’s a tough opener. I’m sure we wer a tough opener for them. They’re a tough opener for us.

“I didn’t think we played all that great, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. We had some momentum and then we’d give it up.”

Wheeling Park freshman Ashtin Long had the home team’s lone sack.

Parkersburg South remains on the road for week two, traveling to face University. Wheeling Park hits the road to play Spring Mills.

“When you don’t play your best and you win, that’s a good thing,” Daugherty said. “Now we got a chance to clean things up. We’ve got to get better from week one to week two, but overall I was pleased. Great effort out of the kids.