Woodland Hills coach George Novak fretted when he realized his Wolverines faced a rematch in quarterfinal playoff opponent Central Catholic.

"It's tough to play a good team twice," Novak said.

But, for the second time this year, the Wolverines made beating Central Catholic look easy.

The Wolverines stomped the Vikings, 36-3, in a WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinal matchup last night at West Mifflin.

Woodland Hills (10-1) beat Big East Conference foe Central Catholic (8-3) in the fifth week of the season, 27-3.

Wolverines running back Dom Timbers scored three touchdowns and ran for 129 yards in a win against his former team.

Woodland Hills' defensive line dominated the game, limiting Vikings star running back Damion Jones-Moore, who sat out last week with an injury, to 28 yards rushing. And it seemed any time Central Catholic quarterback Perry Hills dropped back to attempt a critical pass, a Wolverines lineman was already in the backfield to meet him.

"They're tremendous on defense, and, up front, they can control the football," said Central Catholic coach Terry Totten. "To me, that's the key to high school football."

Heading into the game, Totten said his team needed to cut down on turnovers if it wanted to beat Woodland Hills -- the Vikings had five turnovers in its regular-season loss to the Wolverines.

But Central Catholic coughed up the ball in the first minute of the game -- an interception on its first possession that set Woodland Hills up in Vikings' territory.

Running back Cameron Thompkins scored a 13-yard rushing touchdown six plays later, and the Wolverines added a 2-point conversion for an early 8-0 lead.

The Vikings got on the board in the second quarter with Matt MacZura's 38-yard field goal but could do little more in the first half.

Central Catholic surrendered two more touchdowns -- an 11-yard pass from John Yezovich to Mike Lee and a 1-yard run by Timbers -- to fall way behind.

And, for the most part, the Vikings did more to help the Wolverines than themselves.

With one minute remaining in the first half, Central Catholic had five times as many penalty yards (35) as it did total yards of offense (7).

That changed in the Vikings' last drive of the half. Central Catholic's Anthony Nixon made one of the best catches of the year, leaping over two defenders to haul in a 40-yard pass that moved the Vikings to the 1 with 10 seconds remaining.

But with no timeouts, the clock ran out on the Vikings after quarterback Perry Hills' sneak failed to cross the goal line.

"That was a big play, big defensive stop," Novak said, adding the Wolverines' coaching staff figured the Vikings would run a sneak.

It was a crucial play at the time -- a momentum-changing score that would have brought the Vikings within two touchdowns.

But Totten said he is not sure it would have changed the outcome of the game.

"I'm not sure how well we would have held up," he said. "That's a darn good football team. Big, fast, strong. I think they're going to go pretty far."

Though the Vikings had a good start to the second half -- forcing a Woodland Hills punt on the Wolverines' first possession -- they quickly returned to their woeful ways.

Central Catholic fumbled the snap on its second play from scrimmage. Though it recovered a Wolverines fumble a few plays later, its next drive stalled after two sacks pushed the Vikings back a total of 18 yards.

Woodland Hills scored a touchdown on its next drive and another 2-point conversion to increase its lead to 27 points. With 11:30 remaining, the game was all but over.

The Wolverines will meet Bethel Park (10-1) next week in the WPIAL Class AAAA semifinals. The Wolverines beat the Black Hawks, 21-17, in the regular season.

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