BROOKVILLE — Trey Wingard and Jaxson Hanzely have been mostly unstoppable this year.
The DuBois Beavers’ senior quarterback/receiver duo set or tied two team records in Friday night’s 45-0 shutout at Brookville.
Both playing just a half in a game that started the third quarter with the PIAA Mercy Rule’s running clock, Wingard’s four touchdown passes tied Gabe French’s team mark of 87 career TDs. Hanzely caught three of Wingard’s scoring strikes and passed Kyle Hopson’s 2016 season mark of 18. He needed one to tie Hopson and got three to raise his season total to 20.
“I don’t know if I have real words,” said DuBois head coach T.J. Wingard, whose team improved to 6-2. “They work so hard at their craft, and they’ve done a great job communicating, and they just know where each other is going to be most of the time. It’s kind of surreal at times.”
Wingard reached French’s mark in 36 career games, missing six games due to injury his sophomore season. He was 12-for-15 for 251 yards in two quarters against the Raiders, raising his gaudy season numbers to 2,213 yards and 34 TDs.
Hanzely, who caught eight passes for 157 yards, hiked his big numbers to 58 receptions for 1,279 yards and 20 TDs. He and Wingard connected on TD throws of 15, 51 and 27 yards. Wingard’s other TD pass went to Samson Deeb for 30 yards.
“I’d be lying to you I called the play all the time,” Wingard said. “Trey and Jaxson and the receivers have the permission that if they feel or see something different, they do a hand signal and it changes. If it works good, and if it doesn’t, I’ll ask them why the changed it.”
The Beavers, who led 35-0 by intermission, got their other first-half TD on a 13-yard run from London Duncan on the fourth play of the opening drive of the game.
From there, the Beavers fed off six Raiders turnovers — three recovered fumbles and three interceptions, two by Deeb and another by Avion Bell — and scored points off four of them.
The Raiders, who fell to 2-6, lost one of their top players and leading rusher Sam Krug to an injury after the first possession of the game, which didn’t help matters in keeping the Wingard-led Beavers offense off the field.
DuBois outgained Brookville, 449-175. Raiders quarterback Trenton Colgan completed 11 of 23 passes for 107 yards with the three interceptions. Dante Morey caught four passes for 61 yards.
DuBois recovered a fumble on the Raiders’ first possession and made it 14-0 on Wingard’s first TD pass to Hanzely covering 15 yards.
A Raiders sustained drive took the game into the second quarter, but the possession stalled on downs at the Beavers’ 21, the closest the Raiders came to scoring.
DuBois made it 21-0 on the first play after recovering another Raiders fumble at the Raiders’ 30 when Deeb hauled in Wingard’s pass and bulled his way into the end zone with 7:54 left in the second quarter.
Another Beavers recovered fumble set up Wingard’s second TD pass to Hanzely, this time covering 51 yards after Wingard dropped the snap in shotgun formation to make it 28-0 with 3:26 left before halftime.
A quick Raiders three-and-out led to a punt and the Beavers needed just three plays to make it 35-0 when Wingard hit Hanzely for their 27-yarder with 1:45 left in the half.
The fast-moving second half saw the Beavers score twice with their backup offense. Maddox Barnes booted a 36-yard field goal on the Beavers’ first possession after Deeb’s second interception.
In the fourth, Conner Perkins threw a screen pass to Chance Anyadike, who took it 45 yards to the end zone to set the final with 4:53 remaining.
The Beavers host Central Clarion Thursday night, looking to clean up things and prepare for the playoffs ahead. They’ll visit Hollidaysburg, a potential playoff foe in the Class 5A sub-regional playoffs, to close out their regular-season schedule.
“We have to treat them like playoff games because they are both very solid opponents,” Wingard summed up. “Obviously, Hollidaysburg is in our playoff bracket and Central Clarion is a very good football team, so we have to treat them like playoff games.”
Brookville travels to Cameron County in Emporium next Friday.