Bednarczyk, ’Cats rebound; Widener wins
CHESTER » For all the impressive offensive numbers that Widener posted in its 69-0 destruction of Albright Saturday afternoon at Quick Stadium, the digits on the defensive side of the ledger brought the bigger smile to the faces of players and coaches.
After giving up an average 36.7 points and 390.7 yards per game, the Pride turned in the kind of defensive performance they’ve come to expect in Chester. Widener (1-3, 1-1 MAC) held Albright to minus-29 yards rushing, 159 yards total offense and 10 first downs to stop the longest losing streak to start a season since PMC went 0-5 in 1951.
“That’s the Widener team we’ve been expecting to see for the last month,” Widener coach Mike Kelly said. “We’ve shown glimmers of it, but we just didn’t put it together. Today, we put it together.”
Most of those yards came in the first half. The Lions (0-4, 0-2) had minus-seven yards rushing, 107 total yards and just five first downs in the first 30 minutes. Albright crossed midfield twice in their first eight possessions.
It was the first shutout posted by the Pride since a 44-0 win at Wilkes on Oct. 14, 2014 and the first home whitewash since the infamous 90-0 romp over Wilkes on Sept. 22, 2012. It’s also the most points the Pride has scored in a game since that whipping of Wilkes.
More importantly, the Pride forced five turnovers (three interceptions and two fumble recoveries) after recording just one takeaway in the first three games. Widener also had six sacks and 13 tackles for loss.
“It was absolutely essential to have a performance like this,” said linebacker and Strath Haven grad Shane Mulhern, who recorded six tackles to share the team lead with fellow linebacker Trevor Gardiner. “All week we kind of focused on togetherness and trusting each other. We were playing real tense early on in the season. We had some young guys who are stepping up in some big rolls and today really solidified us playing as a whole unit, trusting each other and having fun out there.”
Having Mulhern and All-American tackle Vince Char back in the lineup was a huge boost to the defense. Char missed the first two games with a lower body injury, and Mulhern missed the last two games with a dislocated shoulder.
“When you put those two guys in the middle, at this level, there aren’t a whole lot of teams that have two guys like that right in the middle,” Kelly said. “They read things well. They played aggressively and then made things happen.”
Quarterback Sean McGaughey was the star of the game for the Pride. The 6-3 junior from Maryland completed 22 of 33 passes for 326 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. That’s the most TD passes by a Widener quarterback since Seth Klein threw six against Wilkes Oct. 14, 2014. McGaughey engineered touchdown drives on six of Widener’s first eight possessions.
Junior Jim Gillespie was on the receiving end of three of those scores. He pulled in TD passes of
64, 34 and 27 yards to become the first Widener receiver to catch three touchdown passes in a game since Anthony Davis of Chester turned the trick against Misericordia in
2014. Gillespie had four receptions for 140 yards before leaving the game with an injury in the second quarter.
Pat Downey had five receptions for 76 yards and two scores, while Johnny Bauer carried the ball six times for 102 yards and two TDs for an offense that put up 553 total yards.
As impressive as the stats were on both sides of the ball, getting that first win was the most important number the Pride put up Saturday.
“We’re playing playoff football,” McGaughey said. “We have one win, but we have to win out so we just have to keep working.”