High School Football: McKee powers Wayne past Miamisburg

Rashad McKee has transformed from unknown to veteran statesman as Wayne’s next top-shelf quarterback.

If 2016, his first as a rare sophomore starter, was a breakout season, even more was expected in this, his junior season.

“It’s real fun spinning the ball around,” said McKee following a 56-28 defeat of previously unbeaten and visiting Miamisburg in a Week 4 Greater Western Ohio Conference crossover high school football showdown on Friday night.

“Last year we had guys like Matt Wilcox and Ray James, Trew Davis and “Blue” Smith. Now, we have young guys that people don’t know about. I guess they better show up on the scouting report real soon.”

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This was the first matchup against an area team for Wayne (3-1), which won its third straight game and previously had played teams from Pittsburgh, Columbus and Ottawa, Canada. And the Warriors did it in familiar second-half, beat-down fashion, outscoring the Vikings 35-7 after halftime.

McKee was double-option outstanding, figuring in all but two of the Warriors’ eight touchdowns. He completed just 10 of 18 passes, but was good for a career-high 335 yards passing and three touchdowns. And he was just as effective in the red zone, running for three more scores.

Most of that passing yardage was targeted to Steve Victoria. The junior had six catches for a career-high 210 yards. He scored on quick-strike catches that covered 75 and 56 yards.

“The game plan was to go deep on them,” said Victoria, whose father Steve Victoria was a former standout at Springfield North. “We felt they can’t stop us, so we just had to execute. It’s a blessing. It’s just my time to step up.”

McKee also lofted a 20-yard rainbow to Smith, the Ohio State University commit, to begin the second-half scoring surge.

Yet another Wayne junior, Trace Kinnel, had 134 yards rushing in just 12 carries (11.2). He scored on a 47-yard dash.

Miamisburg quarterback Tate Vongsy completed 10 of 17 passes for 154 yards, including an 8-yard TD toss to Tyler Johnson. That was part of three straight Miamisburg touchdowns that put the Burg up 21-14 with less than two minutes remaining in the half. Miamisburg tallied the go-ahead score on a 5-yard run by Jon Yerkins.

McKee answered with a bomb to Victoria and then scored from short range to knot the teams at 21-all at the break.

Wayne was at its quick-strike best, scoring twice on its first five plays. Miamisburg answered with Tony Clark (89 yards rushing) and Jon Yerkins (71) super charging its ground-control game. But the second half was all Wayne.

Vongsy added a 5-yard scoring pass to Quinn Kuehnle. Miamisburg also received a 1-yard scoring run by Tony Clark late in the fourth quarter. Davin Nelson raced 51 yards with just 10 seconds remaining for Wayne’s final score.

It was the fourth straight season Miamisburg (3-1) entered this matchup unbeaten. All three previous matchups were lopsided Wayne (3-1) wins.

“They put their foot on the accelerator and they go,” Miamisburg coach Steve Channell said. “Some of that falls on us, too. We’re going to move past this. We’ve got a six-week season now and we’re going to move past (Friday).”

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