On the first play from scrimmage Friday night, Wilson Area High School's
caught a pass from a prone position that was deflected into his arms by a
defensive back.
The play went for 18 yards and a first down. Sounds like the start of a promising night for the
, right?
Not hardly.
Instead, Wilson's fortunes quickly spiraled downward and the
in the season opener at Alumni Field in Catasauqua.
Junior running back
gave the Warriors fits by rushing for 148 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. Senior running back
accumulated 117 yards and one score on the ground for Catty, which ran for 316 yards overall.
"Honestly, I give credit to our offensive line," Burton said. "(Wilson's) Trey Robinson is a good running back as well as myself, but our guys on the line did a better job getting a push. Our outside receivers did a good job (blocking), also."
Guards Brandon Purrone and Zach Labezius, tackles Tyler Trobetsky and Jared Nosal, and center Rhaine Sziy provided the grunt work up front.
"We were outsized up front but to our guys' credit they opened holes," Catty coach Tom Falzone said. "We have three basketball players and two wrestlers up front and four of them are juniors."
Robinson, Wilson's outstanding senior running back, finished with 134 yards on 15 carries. But Warriors coach Bret Comp had a tough time finding positives.
"We were just miserable with our execution," Comp said. "It's hard to take positives out of this. I'd say our punt team was good. Basically, Catty took it to us behind the woodshed in all facets of the game."
Burton got the ball rolling on Catty's first play from scrimmage when he bounced outside and walked a tightrope down the sideline to complete a 53-yard TD run. Somehow, Burton managed to stay inbounds despite absorbing several hits from Wilson defenders.
"He's a special kid," Comp said. "He's one of those guys they'll definitely be talking about after awhile."
Burton added a 9-yard scoring run to put the Rough Riders up 14-0 with 3:55 left in the first quarter. After Joe Harakal kicked a 32-yard field goal, junior quarterback
tossed second quarter TD passes to
and
, a son of former NBA player Donyell Marshall.
Matz scored on a 1-yard run with 4:08 left in the third quarter, putting the mercy rule in effect.
"Ra'Von ran like a madman," Falzone said. "We thought we had some weapons going into the season. (Friday) we showed we have some bullets in our gun."
"Our coaches prepared us for battle all week," Burton said. "We were focused on the Warriors."
Wilson got on the board when backup quarterback
hit
across the middle for a 32-yard TD with 28 seconds left in the game. King was the Warriors' top receiver with four catches for 51 yards.
"It's disappointing," Comp said. "We have to get better, obviously. We have a lot of work to do and it starts on Monday."