Charleroi rolls past Washington, ending Little Prexies’ 39-game regular season winning streak

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, September 1, 2018 | 1:00 AM

Charleroi coach Lance Getsy had to wait an extra week to take the field with his Cougars for the first time.

Seven days is a long time for a coach eagerly awaiting the opportunity to make his coaching debut with his new team.

But considering the smile he had on his face late Friday night, it was clear the wait was well worth it.

Getsy’s Cougars scored early and often en route to a 64-33 throttling of Washington in Class 2A Century Conference play at Myron Pottios Stadium.

The win was Getsy’s first as head coach and was the program’s first over the Prexies since 2008. It also snapped Wash High’s 39-game regular season winning streak.

“For me, that is as big as it can get,” Getsy said of the victory. “I’m just so proud of the boys, and I wouldn’t want to do this with anybody else. When I took this job, I knew there was something special, and I told those guys right off the bat that I wanted to be a Cougar.”

Charleroi (1-0, 1-0) wasted little time setting the tone for the game.

After forcing the Prexies to punt following their opening drive, the Cougars needed one play to reach the end zone as quarterback Geno Pellegrini ran 64 yards for the opening score with 9 minutes, 37 seconds on the clock.

Charleroi pinned Wash High deep in its own territory on the ensuing kickoff and, one play later, Prexies’ quarterback Zach Swartz was sacked in the end zone by Hunter Perry for a safety.

On the first play of the Cougars’ next drive, Pellegrini connected with Legend Davis, who had three catches for 86 yards, for a 45-yard touchdown that made it 16-0 in favor of Charleroi.

The 16 points were scored in the span of 22 seconds.

“The week of practice we had wasn’t the greatest, and I was a little bit worried going into this without a game (last week), but our kids understood our game plan and they knew what the leverages were going to be when we came out here,” Getsy said. “It all showed up the way we practiced so we were able to take advantage right away. Once our kids saw that the game plan was working, they bought in and we just rolled from there.”

Washington (1-1, 0-1) attempted to strike back, but Charleroi took advantage of a key miscue as a fumble by Caleb Jackson was recovered by John Vargo to give the Cougars the ball at the Prexies’ 49-yard line.

A brief three-play drive was capped off by an 18-yard touchdown pass from Pellegrini to Perry that pushed the advantage to 23-0 with 6:03 left in the first quarter.

“We made a lot of mistakes tonight, had a lot of missed tackles and a lot of overrunning plays,” Washington coach Mike Bosnic said. “We have an inexperienced team and we missed the first week of camp and our first scrimmage. We overcame a lot last week and this week it caught up to us, and Charleroi played a great game.”

The Prexies weren’t held scoreless for long thanks to the legs of their junior quarterback.

Swartz scored on a 24-yard touchdown run with 3:07 left in the first quarter and added another rushing score of three yards with 6:47 remaining in the second quarter to cut Wash High’s deficit to 23-13.

With the Prexies mounting a comeback, the Cougars showed composure as Brayden Mihalcin scored on a 3-yard touchdown run that gave Charleroi the 30-13 edge it maintained into halftime.

Mihalcin, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, was a star in the backfield for the Cougars, finishing with 171 yards on 22 carries and a pair of touchdowns, including a 40-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

“It felt pretty good and I’m glad to be back, but I’ve got to give it to my guys up front,” Mihalcin said. “The whole week we knew what we were going up against, and we knew they had big boys going into this game, but we worked hard, we pushed through the heat this week in practice and we took it to them.”

In the second half, the Cougars relied on the duo of Pellegrini and wide receiver Dakota Romantino to continue putting points on the board. The two connected on touchdown scores of 10, 38 and 19 yards in the second half, while Pellegrini added his second touchdown run of the game in the third quarter.

Romantino finished with five catches for 95 yards.

Pellegrini was 11 for 17 for 213 yards with five touchdown passes and an interception. On the ground, the Robert Morris verbal commit ran for 152 yards on 14 carries.

“I don’t really look at my performance, I look at our team,” Pellegrini said. “Us seniors aren’t going down without a fight. Every game, we’re coming at you.”

Wash High was still able to muster up 20 points in the second half thanks, again, to the play of Swartz, who threw touchdown passes of 80 and 19 yards in the final 24 minutes of the contest. The 80-yard score went to Dan Walker, who finished with five catches for 104 yards, while Swartz connected with Zahmere Robinson for the 19-yard touchdown.

Robinson had seven catches for 110 yards.

Swartz, who also added a rushing score of 6 yards in the second half, was 19 for 29 passing with 265 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

He had 53 yards on 11 carries and three rushing scores.

Jose Negron is a Mon Valley Independent staff writer.

Tags: Charleroi, Washington