Shelangoski terrorized the Panthers

When Mt. Pleasant quarterback Connor Shull went to sleep last Friday night, he likely had nightmares of a black figure wearing No. 56 chasing him.

Washington defensive end Wyatt Shelangoski was part of a Demon defensive line that terrorized Shull and the Panthers all night long in last Friday?s 62-7 win over Mt. Pleasant. In that game, Shelangoski sacked Shull twice, knocked down two of Shull?s passes and recovered a fumble after linebacker Mitchell Hora sacked Shull and jarred the ball loose. Shelangoski, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior, said it was a thrill to have a game like that against the rival Panthers.

?It was great,? he said. ?Mt. Pleasant is the team to beat. They?re the team that it just boils in your blood when you?re playing them. It was neat to just destroy them like that and just know they had nothing on you.?

The Demons sacked Shull five times on Friday night, and Shelangoski got two of them. On Mt. Pleasant?s first possession, Shelangoski got to Shull and knocked him back five yards. Later in the first quarter, Shelangoski got the first of back-to-back sacks that forced the Panthers into fourth down from roughly West Chester.

?One [of the sacks] was extremely unexpected,? Shelangoski said. ?I grabbed him by the jersey and the shoulder pad, and I didn?t think I actually had him because all I had was that. But I saw my teammates coming, so I felt better about that because I knew I had brothers behind me coming to get him, too.?

In the second quarter, the Panthers began to move the football, picking up their first two first downs of the game. Mt. Pleasant had just moved into Demon territory when Hora sacked Shull and knocked the ball loose. Shelangoski jumped on it, and Washington drove for a touchdown to go ahead 42-0.

?I got around my guy, and then I looked back and I saw that somebody had slapped the ball out,? Shelangoski said. ?I saw the ball drop, and I went down to get it. I think I felt three or four of our guys come and hit me with it. It was kind of neat to see everybody rallying to the ball like that.?

Early in the third quarter, Shelangoski jumped up and batted down back-to-back passes by Shull, who finished the game 5-for-14 passing.

?Their guy was making riskier passes and stuff, so I just kind of knocked one down,? Shelangoski said. ?Then on the second one, our line just ate him, so he had no choice but to throw it away, and he didn?t get it away.?

Washington?s first-string defense limited the Panthers to just 19 yards and two first downs in two and a half quarters before Schrader began to substitute.

?We just played really hard,? Shelangoski said. ?We were really pepped up for the game.?

Shelangoski has made 32 tackles this season, and his 14 tackles for a loss rank second on the team behind sophomore Tama Leutele. Shelangoski mainly played on the junior varsity team last season, recording just five tackles for the varsity squad. But he?s improved a lot since then, maturing into the beast who terrorized the Panthers last Friday night.

?He?s come a long ways in a year,? Washington head coach Randy Schrader said. ?He was a special teamer at times [last year] and a JV player. He?s one of those kids who spent time in the weight room and has done a nice job of trying to make himself a better football player. He?s getting better every week. He played really well [last Friday].?

Not only has Shelangoski, the son of Gordon and Mary Shelangoski, improved as a player, but he?s also stepped up as a leader.

?Wyatt?s kind of stepped up a little bit, too, and become kind of a leader for us,? Schrader said. ?We went through some adversity there earlier in the year, and he just kind of shut it up and said, ?Hey, let?s get back to playing football and take care of business.??

That kind of leadership should be expected from someone who plans to go to college for criminal justice and eventually become a police officer. But before that, Shelangoski has plans of leading the Demons deep into the playoffs.

With a few more games like he had last Friday night, Shelangoski should be able to accomplish that goal.