Greyhounds fall to 0-3 with loss to J-M

By Adam Brewer

MVI Sports

The “Big Bad” Wolfe came into Friday’s Tri-County South Conference game fixing for a feast and hoping to wreak havoc on Monessen’s defense. Unfortunately for the Greyhounds, they had no answer for Jefferson-Morgan’s senior running back Jonathan Wolfe.

Wolfe led the charge for the Rockets with 172 yards on the ground as they picked up their first win of the season, a 22-14 triumph over Monessen at Waynesburg University’s John F. Wiley Stadium.

“He’s a good back and we had problems stopping him,” Monessen coach Shane Swope said. “We knew what J-M was going to do on offense, but hats off to them. They executed their game plan.”

J-M’s Parker Field was still under construction, so the game was moved to Wiley earlier in the week. The Rockets will host Bentworth next Friday at Wiley Stadium, as well.

“We challenged our offensive line this week and they responded tonight,” J-M coach Aaron Giorgi said. “We were all about the ‘want to’ tonight. We had to maintain our blocks and concentrate on each play as an offensive unit. We answered the call the whole night and I loved our effort.”

Wolfe carried the ball 31 times in the win for the Rockets (1-2, 1-2). Coming into the game, Monessen had a nine-game winning streak against J-M, and the last time the Rockets won in the series was in 2006.

After the Greyhounds (0-3, 0-3) were forced to punt on their opening drive, the Rockets set the tone. Wolfe capped off a 13-play drive, all runs, with a 4-yard touchdown and then added the two-point run to give J-M an 8-0 lead at the 3:32 mark of the first quarter.

The Rockets doubled their lead on their next possession as Wolfe ended another scoring drive with a 9-yard touchdown plus the two-point run early in the second quarter.

“Our running game carried us,” Giorgi said. “I thought we did a good job of mixing up the carries and keeping them guessing on defense. Wolfe is our work horse and he answered the bell for us. He got his shoulders squared and just kept on falling forward.”

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