WAYNESBORO – The objective in football is to score more points than your opponent. And when the opponent is Gettysburg, you will have to score a lot of them.
There was good news and really good news coming out of the Charles A. “Rip” Engle Sports Complex on Friday night. The good news is that Waynesboro put up 33 points on the Warriors. The really good news is that the Tribe held Gettysburg to 14 points before the Warriors scored a late touchdown to make the final score 33-21.
What a game it was for junior quarterback Rayshawn Frazer-Hewitt. He used his arm and legs to lead the offense up and down the field. With his right arm, Frazer-Hewitt completed 16 of 21 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns. He also gained 60 yards on nine rushing attempts and a touchdown.
“Rayshawn Frazer-Hewitt became a good quarterback tonight,” Saunders said. “He really seems to understand now what we’re trying to get him to do. He’s a good athlete; take off and run.”
Behind a still-young but ever-improving offensive line, Frazer-Hewitt and any other player who tucked the ball between his arm and his body was experiencing success. If it weren’t for the negative yardage, Nathan Nolan would have been close to a 100-yard game. But the senior, who finished with 58 yards on 23 carries, was tackled for a total of 35 yards.
It was Nolan who caught a 5-yard touchdown pass to put Waynesboro in front 20-14. The senior also kept a scoring drive alive when he picked up 12 yards on a fake punt. After running 10 more plays and facing third-and-goal from the 23-yard line, Frazer-Hewitt threw a strike to Tank Benedict in the middle of the field. Benedict turned and finished in the end zone. Alex Torbica’s point after touchdown kick gave the Indians a commanding 33-14 lead with 5:24 to play.
The drive took just shy of seven minutes and reinforced Saunders’ emphasis in not only scoring points but also eating up the clock to keep Gettysburg’s high-octane offense off the field.
Waynesboro took a 7-0 lead when it scored on the first possession of the game on a 12-play, 76-yard drive that consumed 5 minutes, 46 seconds.
Gettysburg came right back and tied the game at 7. The Warriors used far less time (38 seconds) and many fewer plays (4).
“They’re very explosive,” Saunders said of Gettysburg’s offense. “To beat a team like that, you gotta control the clock and you also have to score touchdowns. You can’t go down there and kick a field goal and expect that to help us. You saw how quickly they came down and scored. That was our game plan. We thought we could run the ball on them.”
Waynesboro punted on its second possession, and Mobley picked off Heiser near midfield. The Indians couldn’t get a first down and had to punt. Gettysburg returned the favor, and on Waynesboro’s next offensive series, Frazer-Hewitt lofted a pass to a wide open Steven Howard down the left sideline. Howard, who didn’t have a defender within 10 yards of him, turned up field and sprinted into the end zone to the spirited applause of another exceptionally loud student
section. The play covered 52 yards and gave Waynesboro a 14-7 lead with 6:48 left in the second quarter.
“It’s the second option off the quick screen,” Saunders said of Howard’s TD catch. “Normally, he would be blocking a cornerback, but we saw the cornerback was biting. So he went right past him.”
In what could have turned the momentum in favor of Gettysburg, the Warriors put up their second TD of the game as junior running back Preston Burnett scored from eight yards out. Not only did the Warriors tie the game, 14-14, they also received the second-half kickoff.
More good news as Waynesboro’s defense held and Gettysburg punted.
Nolan scored two touchdowns on the drive. The first was called back for holding. The 5-yard TD reception counted.
It was déjà vu, all over again when Waynesboro lit up the scoreboard with another defensive touchdown. Last week it was Anthony Ausherman intercepting a middle screen pass and running it in for a touchdown in a 30-27 win over Greencastle-Antrim.
On Friday night, a perfect night for football with a cool breeze and none of that searing late-August humidity, it was Nate Adkins. Adkins got a hand up to redirect a pass Brady Heiser pass attempt. Then, he caught it and raced 32 yards for the touchdown
The Indians had just scored a touchdown on a 74-yard drive that ate up 6:06 of the game clock to take a 20-14 lead. Adkins’ score gave Waynesboro breathing room.
“It’s just about the guys getting their hands up,” Saunders said. “They’ve got some good coaching by the defensive line coach (Pat Reed). Their quarterback is pretty good. We wanted to get as close as we could to him and get our hands up.
“It was a total team effort. Our defense played very well, and our special teams, too. We got so much to work on. It’s only two games, but I’m happy to be 2-0.”
Keyan Mobley intercepted a pass, and the Tribe recovered a fumble. Waynesboro did not commit a turnover.
Waynesboro will host Shippensburg, Friday, Sept. 6.
