PUNXSUTAWNEY — Big plays many times be the determining factor in winning or losing a football game.

Friday night at Jack LaMarca Stadium, the Punxsutawney Chucks (1-2) put the big plays to good use as they cruised to a 45-16 win over the Moniteau Warriors (1-2) for their first win of the season.

The Chucks wasted no time at all displaying their big plays as they scored three touchdowns in the first 13 minutes of the game for a quick 23-0 lead.

Nick Wehrle started the assault with a 36-yard run for a score before Brennan Niver took off for a 60-yard TD jaunt of his own. Wehrle scored his second touchdown, this time through the airways when he was on the receiving end of a 73-yard pass-run play from quarterback Logan Weaver.

“We have been working hard and trying to play hard and tonight we executed well which we didn’t do the first two weeks,” said a happy Punxsy coach Alan Nichol. “In addition to executing much better, some of our big play guys got loose tonight.”

Forced into playing catch-up football due to an early deficit is a tough way to play the game. And when that deficit just happens to be 23 points, it makes playing the game that much more difficult.

“It is tough to battle from behind, but kudos to them,” said Moniteau coach Jeff Campbell. “I knew coming that they were better than 0-2. I saw them on film and I knew they were a good football team. They have some nice playmakers on their team and their coaches do a good job preparing for the game.”

Not only did the Chucks control the tempo of the game, they did it with a well-balanced attack as they rushed for 297 yards and passes for another 205, giving them 502 yards of total offense for the game.

If there was one area in the Moniteau defense that seemed to be vulnerable, it was right “up the gut”.

“It seemed to me that they were really concerned about the outside,” Nichol said. “Sometimes it seemed as though they were guessing and believe me, we have been in that position. When that happened, we just had the quarterback make calls himself and things worked out real well for us.”

On the other side of the field, Campbell felt it was just a matter of his inexperienced players being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“We have young guys in their on the line and at linebacker and we just got caught out of position,” said Campbell. “What it came down to was that basically we just made some bad reads.”

Down 23-0 Moniteau finally got on the board when quarterback Kyle Armogast found an opening and scooted 36 yards for his team’s first score. However, the Chucks promptly responded to Armogast’s score with a pair of their own. Weaver raced up the middle for 40 yards for his rushing score before Niver got into the action for the second time with a 5-yard bolt up the middle. Moniteau place-kicker Tony Miller completed the first half scoring with a 29-yard field goal.

While the first half produced a total of 47 points, the two teams only combined to score 14 in the second half.

Braedon Pennington closed out Punxsy’s coring with a 17-yard pass from Weaver before James Shope, Moniteau’s leading rusher who was held in check for most of the game by the Chuck defense, got loose for an 80-yard touchdown run.

Shope, who was held to 15 yards on eight totes prior to his long run, finished with 95 yards on nine carries and the one score.

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