With stars from last season gone, Wolverines win opener

George Novak’s players this year are something like a noname team. Three Division I recruits gone. Starting quarterback gone. Entire starting offense gone. All but two starters on defense, gone.

By the end of the night Friday, the only name that mattered was Woodland Hills. Oh, and Saeed Holt certainly got his out there, too.

With Holt and an almost entirely new cast of characters leading the way, the visiting Wolverines put on another winning show as they took down Gateway, 37-21, in a “Week 0” season opener at Antimarino Stadium.

“Everybody’s used to having this as a scrimmage, and when you lose 32 seniors, you’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do,” said Novak, the Wolverines’ longtime coach who’s closing in on the 500win milestone. “Both sides of the ball, we had a lot of rebuilding to do.”

That may be, but at Woodland Hills, there’s a solid foundation already built year in and year out. Holt, a 6-foot, 187-pound Toledo recruit and one of two returning starters — he and Derrick Caraway on defense — scored three touchdowns and likely cemented himself as the leader of Woodland Hills’ next wave.

After a 22-yard field goal by Charles Hanchett on their opening drive, then a blocked punt recovered in the end zone by JaJuan Hill, the Wolverines broke it open on a 3-yard touchdown run by Holt, an imposing running back on offense, with 3:36 left in the first half.

The Gators finally got on the board not even a minute later when their two-way standout, senior Jaquan Brisker, scored on a 9-yard run. A trick pass play from holder Ethan Frenchik to receiver Ahmad Wilson was good for the 2-point conversion, and the Gators cut the deficit to 17-8.

But even before they could take their momentum into halftime, Holt struck again. With Gateway driving into Woodland Hills territory after a big pass play from junior quarterback Brady Walker to Brisker, Holt recovered a fumble and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown that made it 24-8 at the break.

“Saeed’s a good player,” Novak said. “He’s one of our experienced guys from last year, real proud of him and his efforts. But they can all get better.”

Despite the final score, this one was a defensive struggle at times on a night when many WPIAL teams started their season sooner than ever before.

In hot, humid conditions, seemingly every player on the field cramped up at some point. With a late-August kickoff, it certainly turned into a sloppy season opener — one that took considerably longer than some college and NFL games.

“I said to George, ‘Maybe we did have a second scrimmage,’ ” said first-year Gateway coach Don Holl. “We both made a lot of mistakes, and they made more big plays than we did.”

Yes, the Wolverines’ next wave did enough to start off the season on the right foot. After Brisker scored again, this time on a 30-yard pass from Walker in the third quarter, Holt added another 30-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-2 to give Woodland Hills a 30-15 lead on the second play of the fourth.

Hill scored from 1 yard on the Wolverines’ next possession, and Walker found the end zone on a nifty 4-yard quarterback keeper to close out the scoring.

Walker finished 13 of 28 for 166 yards with two interceptions, while Brisker had 83 yards receiving.

“I think we certainly got a little better in the second half, it just was one of those nights,” Holl said.

Yes, one of those nights when Woodland Hills does what it does best. In the WPIAL, there have been plenty of those.

“They’re good, they’re fast, they’re athletic, they make things look bad sometimes,” Holl said.

Said Novak: “It was a great game. We made more big plays than them, but it was never over until it was over.”