WINDBER —
Vandalism at the Windber Stadium concession stand earlier in the week created a huge obstacle, and the playing of the Ramblers Friday night game against Meyersdale appeared to be in jeopardy.
But with plenty of teamwork by the community, the stadium was ready in time.
The football team responded with thanks by delivering a 49-19 victory over the Red Raiders giving coach Matt Grohal a fitting 42nd birthday present.
“We had that nasty break-in here and the team really rallied around me and talked about the team effort this week,” Grohal said. “They really wanted to get this win for all the people that helped out in the community to get this place ready for tonight, so it was definitely a total team effort. This is a great group of guys.
The Ramblers (2-0) dominated the line of scrimmage, racking up nearly 500 yards of offense. Dustin Blough finished with 128 yards, Trevor Neri had 117 and Devon Tomlinson added 95.
“Our running game relies on each running back and our line,” senior right guard Brady Sheehan said. “Our offensive line blocked really well this week, and I do believe we continue to improve and we will get better. It’s in the heart. We truly believe if you don’t give up, you’re going to win.”
Sheehan was joined on the front line by teammates Bronko Teklinsky, Evan Schreyer, Shane Almodovar and Troy Smith along with tight ends Neri and Zack Toth.
“We did not block well last week and we put the emphasis on Labor Day that we were going to labor a little bit and we sure did,” Grohal said. “We cleaned up a lot of our mistakes from last week, and those guys did a great job. Meyersdale is big and physical and, for the most part, I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage.”
Windber put three scores on the board in the first quarter.
The Ramblers took the opening kickoff and drove 65 yards, capped by a 15-yard Dan Tomlinson touchdown. Jake Hanley kicked the first of his seven PAT’s.
A Meyersdale fumble was recovered by Blough at midfield and two plays later, Neri burst into the end zone on a 48-yard run.
The final Ramblers touchdown of the first came with just 28.4 seconds as Dan Tomlinson scored from the 9.
“We were down by 21 after the first quarter and a lot of kids would have laid down and that would be it,” Meyersdale coach Chris Schrock said. “To their credit, they fought and hung in there.”
Windber added another touchdown to open the second as quarterback Dakota Gipe (8 of 15 for 81 yards passing) connected with Barkley for a 16-yard touchdown.
The Red Raiders (0-2) offense came to life in the second scoring on a 5-yard Lance Leydig run and a 28-yard pass from Leydig to Cole Clark to narrow the gap to 28-13 at the half.
Meyersdale then took the second-half kickoff, with Clark returning the ball 60 yards to set up the Raiders at the 35. Five plays later, Leydig scored to pull Meyersdale to 28-19, but that was as close as the Raiders could get.
“We showed glimmers of what we are capable of doing in the second and third quarters,” Schrock said. “I was impressed with what we did, and we definitely had Windber on their heels, and they knew we were here. Fourth quarter, we wore down and ran out of steam there.”
Devon Tomlinson added a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs and Barkley had a 52-yard interception return for a Windber score to set the final.
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