Wolverines perfect regular season, now 9-0

Friday night under the lights fans were able to witness something that hadn’t happened since the 37th year of Ellwood City Football - A perfect regular season. Those same fans were able to witness something that hadn’t happened for 27 years - a section title. Those same fans were able to see the reward of playing perfect football on the season - the #3 seed in the upcoming playoffs, meaning a first round bye and the ability to host a playoff game at Helling Stadium, the first time since 2000. But over everything else and the entire list of accolades that the 117th version of Ellwood City Wolverine football has accomplished, those same fans were able to witness 16 seniors take their last regular season snaps at Helling Stadium.

The longest running series for EC Football took place on Friday night as the Wolverines hosted a struggling Beaver Falls Tigers program. Beaver Falls came in looking for their first win of the season let alone looking to end the season on a bright note, but the Tigers were left looking to next year as the Wolverines kept their undefeated season in check with a 52-0 domination of the Tigers.

Ellwood City took the opening kickoff and drove the length of the field, taking two and half minutes to get on the board as a wide receiver screen pass was completed from #12 Chris Smiley to #5 Dailonn Currie from 11 yards out resulted in 6 points. The PAT kick was no good via the bad snap.

Wolverines took the 6-0 lead and would not look back from there after the Beaver Falls drive was stopped on a turnover. The Wolverines took the ball and drove down the field once again, scoring via the run up the middle by #9 Luciano Gagric from 17 yards out. PAT kick was good by #19 Cailtlin Kreitzer as she would break the career record for PATs on the night (61).

Second quarter action saw the Wolverines up 13-0, but the scoreboard wasn’t done yet in the first half. Ellwood City would add three more scores before halftime from stalled out drives and turnovers by Beaver Falls. Early second quarter saw a score from Currie once again, this time the deep ball by Smiley for 59 yards. PAT kick was good by Kreitzer. The next score came at 4:58 in the second quarter by none other than #2 Elijah Palmer-McCane from 4 yards out, giving him another 100 yard night along with another rushing TD.

The final score before halftime came from #39 Deklan O’Brien in another great defensive play combo by O’Brien and #73 Evan Tweddell who went up through the middle to block the punt while Deklan took the blocked punt and returned it for the score. The halftime score read 39-0 in favor of Ellwood City, fitting for the #39 O’Brien wears. More importantly the Wolverines

Second half action saw the Wolverines throw another punch after the Tigers drive stalled once again, this time by Senior #6 Gavin Partridge who took the “Steelers jet sweep” pass from Smiley from the shotgun position and rumbled 57 yards down the close sideline into the endzone. The PAT kick was good to make the score 46-0 in favor of EC.

The Wolverines would sub out the entire Senior class going through the fourth quarter, giving the chuck change time to the future Wolverines of next year. Ellwood City continued to dominate the game, finishing the fourth quarter score with an 8 yard run by #18 Tyler Smiley, giving the Wolverines a 52-0 lead. The 2PT conversion was kneeled down to give the final scoreboard tally 52-0 Ellwood City.

Ellwood City had done it - a perfect regular season on the year, 9-0. The first time since 1944. The 2024 Wolverines put their name up on the board beside the 1925 and 1944 as the third team in the 117 years of Ellwood City Wolverine Football to go through the gauntlet of the regular season undefeated.

The Wolverines outgained the Tigers 496 to 149, with a balance attack of rushing from 11 different players, totaling 337 yards on the night, the most since last year. Chris Smiley connected on just 6 passes, but 4 of those 6 went for touchdowns, totaling 159 yards on the night. EPM tallied 139 yards on 12 carries, giving him now over 4,000 rushing yards in his career for EC. The balance receiving attack continues as EC now has almost 6 players over the 100 mark on the year, led by #1 Dom Hogue and #5 Dailonn Currie.

The Wolverines win the Midwestern Athletic Conference outright with a final record of 9-0 (7-0) and earned the #3 seed in this year’s WPIAL 2A Football Playoffs that begin on Friday. EC will have a first round bye and will take on the winner of the #6 South Allegheny - #11 Waynesburg Central matchup this Friday (SA and WC had an early season scrimmage against each other). The Wolverines will host the winner next Friday at 7:00 PM from Helling stadium. Congratulations to the Seniors, the players, the coaches, the parents, and to the ENTIRE EC community. WHY NOT ELLWOOD?!