Meadville Wins Showdown with Oil City

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Phil Myers | October 1, 2023

Meadville used a tenacious defense and an explosive offense to defeat Oil City 32-8 Saturday night in front of a nice sized crowd at the Barco-Duratz Athletic Complex in Meadville.  The Bulldog ‘D’ shut down one of the most prolific runners in Pennsylvania in recent years, and the offense put on a nice show led by a young sophomore quarterback by the name of Jacoby Thompson.

“I’ll tell you what, man, our defensive coordinator, Mike Richards, it goes to him.  He comes up with a great game plan no matter who we are facing and the kids buy into it and they execute it and you saw that tonight.  We shut down a lot of run lanes for Ethen and made it tough for him all night long,” stated a jubilant Meadville head coach, Ray Collins.  Oil City’s Ethen Knox, who will become one of the top career rushers in PA history, was held to 48 yards and no touchdowns on 20 carries.  His longest runs of the night were a couple of 7-yarders.

The Meadville Bulldog defense looking hungry as they await the next Oil City snap.

Meadville won the coin toss but deferred their choice until the second half.  The Bulldog defense made a statement right away by holding Knox to 7 yards on 3 carries, forcing a punt.  They proceeded to drive into Oil City territory but had a pass picked off at the five.  After holding the Oilers to another three and out, Mr. Thompson had a nice punt return to set his team up at the Oil City 25.  He then came in at quarterback and ran the ball four straight plays, finishing it off with a 4-yard touchdown scurry.  Later in the first quarter, Tate Reichel connected with Brighton Anderson on an 80-yard TD toss.  That gave the ‘Dogs a 14-0 lead after the opening quarter.

Thompson (#7 in middle of screen) looks to pick up the block to spring him into the end zone on his 4-yard TD run.

Early in the second period, Meadville turned a recovered fumble at the Oiler 30 into points when Jordan Lawrence scored on a 7-yard run to top off another 4-play scoring drive.  With three and a half minutes left, Thompson worked some magic as he took off on a 64-yard touchdown gallop to give the Bulldogs a 26-0 cushion.

Oil City responded when Cole Findlay found a wide-open Gavin Stephens for an 89-yard pass play down the Oiler sideline.  Knox scored the two-point conversion and Oil City had some life going into the locker room trailing by three scores 26-8.  But that momentum disappeared on Meadville’s first drive of the third quarter.

The home team used up five and a half minutes on a 9-play possession and scored to go up 32-8 when Reichel rifled a pass to Nicholas Williams for the 32-yard touchdown.  That closed out the scoring with neither team doing much until, as time was running down, Thompson threw a third down pass over the middle to Anderson who ran to the Oiler one and kneeled down.  With a play left to run, Thompson took a knee and Meadville took the win.

Coach Collins had this observation about Jacoby Thompson, “What you’ve seen is the continued development of a future great quarterback here at Meadville.  He works to get better and better.  He listens to the coaches, he’s very coachable.  You see his football IQ continues to increase dramatically.  I’ll tell you what, he’s a hard runner.  He’s a good passer.  He’s a smart kid.  That’s all the things you want to see in a good quarterback and fortunately for us, he wears a Meadville uniform.”

Thompson, who had 119 yards rushing on 9 carries, scoring twice and completed a couple of passes for 59 yards said the credit goes to the offensive line who works hard to open space for him and the others.  Reichel had two pass completions and both went for touchdowns.  Anderson caught two balls for 124 yards.  Meadville had 410 yards of offense.  Meanwhile, the Bulldog defense held Oil City to 133 total yards and four first downs, three of them due to penalties.

Oil City’s Gavin Stephens (#1) intercepts a pass early in the game. He also scored the Oilers only TD on an 89-yard pass reception. Meadville’s Nicholas Williams (#11) is the intended receiver.

Meadville’s record now stands at 5-1.  They travel to Erie next week for a tough game with McDowell.  Oil City drops to 4-2 and they will play host to Hollidaysburg next week.

Score by Quarters:

Oil City – 0 8 0 0 – 8

Meadville – 14 12 6 0 – 32

Scoring Summary:

First Quarter:

M – Jacoby Thompson 4-yard run, (PAT no good), 4:23

M – Brighton Anderson 80-yard pass from Tate Reichel, (Jordan Lawrence 2-point conversion run), 0:36

Second Quarter:

M – Lawrence 7-yard run, (PAT no good), 9:22

M – Thompson 64-yard run, (2-point conversion – no good), 3:26

OC– Gavin Stephens 89-yard pass from Cole Findlay, (Ethen Knox 2-point conversion run), 2:23

Third Quarter:

M – Nicholas Williams 32-yard pass from Reichel, (2-point conversion – no good), 7:19

Fourth Quarter:

No Scoring

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