Central Catholic rights ship with blowout of Penn Hills

By: Justin McCauley
Saturday, September 4, 2021 | 12:03 AM

Last week, Central Catholic coach Terry Totten felt his defense bent a lot. This week, it corrected course and held Penn Hills to 66 yards in a 48-7 win Friday.

The Vikings (1-1) used that defense and pass rush to create offense by winning the field-position battle. Nine Central Catholic possessions started in Penn Hills territory, and four started on the Vikings’ half of the field.

Central Catholic was efficient with the short field, leaning on sophomore quarterback Payton Wehner, who finished 13 of 15 for 139 yards and three total touchdowns. He threw two touchdown passes, the first to Josh Altsman to extend the lead to 24-0.

The young and inexperienced Penn Hills (0-1) played its first game of the season and got its sea legs at the end of the first half. Sophomore quarterback Julian Dugger led an 80-yard, 11-play drive ending in a Keith Condon touchdown grab of a rocket throw into coverage to end the first half.

The Vikings offense started to find its way this week, too.

“(I) feel like our offense got in a rhythm more this game than last game,” senior running back Gannon Carothers said.

Carothers had 41 total yards, 36 of them on the ground on 14 carries. The two-way starter was a big reason the offense worked.

“I think as we go and Payton gets more and more reps, our timing in our running game is going to start clicking and when it does, you’re going to see what kind of special player Gannon Carothers is,” Totten said.

Combine that with seven turnovers, and it was a long night and start to the season for the fourth-ranked team in Class 5A.

“We’re preaching takeaways right now and trying to get our hands on the ball and ripping the ball out, and that all starts with our pass rush,” Totten said. “If we can keep shuffling guys in, and we can keep an 8–10-man rotation up front … we have a good nucleus to really build off.”

The exclamation point on the night for the Vikings came after fumbling the ball in Indians territory. First, Central Catholic forced a 10-yard loss on a sack. On the next play, cornerback Xavier Thomas jumped a route and intercepted Dugger for an 8-yard pick-6 extend the lead to 41-7.

“We just wanted to come out today and bring our dominance again,” Totten said. “(And) kind of let everybody know that we’re here, and we’re not going anywhere.”

Watch an archived broadcast of this game on Trib HSSN.

Tags: Central Catholic, Penn Hills