Big Reds Outlast Tigers
By: Joe Davis

PARKERSBURG - As one who has endured his own battles of the age-old series between Parkersburg and Marietta himself, Andy Schob had no trouble

JEFF BAUGHAN Special to The Times Marietta running back Perry Wheeler (33) gets a nice hole to run through against host Parkersburg in prep football action Friday night.

 explaining what the rivalry means to him. "I know we came out on the losing end, but this is the kind of rivalry that builds interest in a sport in the community and in the school," Marietta's second-year head coach said following the 28-7 pasting the Tigers took at the hands of the Big Reds at Stadium Field Friday night.

"Our kids were so excited to be part of this rivalry again," Schob continued. "This is a game that we should be playing every year. Our kids understand it now and are part of it. Hopefully, we can build on it and build some success in the future from it."

Sparked by a 40-yard punt return by Stephen Roush and a subsequent 19-yard gain by junior running back Allan Wasonga, Parkersburg broke a scoreless deadlock with QB Derek Wenzel rolling out to his left and finding senior tight Sonny Zickefoose open for a five-yard TD strike with only 9.8 seconds remaining in the first half.

Wasonga, who managed only 46 yards on seven carries in the first half, opened the third quarter by busting through the middle and breaking away untouched on a 67-yard touchdown run. The transfer from Point Pleasant also had a subsequent 50-yard touchdownin the third period and finished with 233 yards on 16 rushes in following up the 22-carry, 255-yard effort he had in Parkersburg's 43-42 loss to Brooke in the season opener.

From PHS head coach Bernie Buttrey's perspective, it wasn't so much of the revival of an old rivalry that mattered most. Rather, the Big Reds just needed a bounce-back victory.

"For our kids and for the most part this year, it was just more that we needed to win a game," he said. "It just made it sweeter that it was a team close by that most people consider our rival. These kids, of course, never even remember Marietta playing Parkersburg, so I don't know that the rivalry meant that much to them. But to our schools and our cities, I think it's an important thing."

Marietta junior fullback/defensive lineman Connor Hess said the only thing he knew about the series was that it was about 100 years old, and that was relayed to him by his mother.

Hess and his Tiger teammates now know just how physical it can be.

"We came out of pretty dinged up," Schob said, running down his walking wounded. "(Quarterback Lance) Weppler hurt his shoulder, his throwing shoulder," (Split end Billy) Grizer had a concussion and Dustin Baker, a two-way starter, had a bad shoulder. I'm not sure how bad it is just yet.

"We're pretty beat up. It was a physical game, and we knew it was going to be a physical game. I'm just proud of our kids. Our kids came out and played hard and played with them in the first half. We got inside the 30 (yardline) three times in first half and just couldn't punch it in. Against good teams, you have to finish those drives. When you don't, it comes back to haunt you a lot of times."

Marietta finally reached paydirt after Buttrey had pulled his starting defensive unit. Sophomore quarterback Matt McKitrick came in with just under six minutes remaining and engineered a six-play drive over 79 yards. McKitrick picked up 28 yards on two keepers and also hit Grizer for a 18-yard gain. After Seth Detlor bounced on a loose ball in the backfield to maintain possession for Marietta, McKitrick found Morgan Wynn open on the left sideline and he took it into the end zone from 44 yards out with 3:16 showing. Cameron Bronski tacked on the extra point to close out the scoring.

Story from The Marietta Times 9-5-2009.