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Tigers run to win: W-G racks up 337 rushing yards in season-opening victory over Triad |
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Saturday, 29 August 2009 |
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 Tiger rusher Keaton Fetter breaks away from the pack during Friday's win over Triad By BRYAN CRAFT
Sports Correspondent
WAYNESFIELD - In a fairly even game in the first half, the Waynesfield-Goshen Tigers varsity football team came out to dominate the second half.
"The seniors stepped up, we wore them down, and to the point where they just didn't have anymore answers for it," Waynesfield-Goshen coach Gary Spencer said.
The Tigers picked up a 24-10 victory Friday night in the season opener against the Triad Cardinals, a former member of the old Northwest Ohio Conference.
Waynesfield-Goshen dominated the ground game the second half and ran out the clock, while also limitting the possessions their opponents had on offense.
"We live to play another day," Triad coach Payton Printz said... "The second half, they chewed the clock. I don't know what time of possession was, but they had the ball a whole heck of a lot more than us. And when you're a passing football team, scoring quick is great - if you can get the football back, and we had a hard time getting it back."
The Tigers 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior running back Taylor Miller was the workhorse in the second half, carrying the ball 17 times for 97 yards and a touchdown. He finished the game with 20 carries for 123 yards.
"A big guy like that, he's going to ware team's down," Spencer said. "And you can see, that's the type of offense we are - we're going to keep wearing people out."
Also having a solid running games in the second half for Waynesfield-Goshen was senior Ryan Spencer with 11 carries for 59 yards, while tallying 19 carries for 93 yards in the contest.
The Tigers senior Keaton Fetter had two big runs of 30 and a 47-yard touchdown run in the second half, and ended the game with 94 yards on nine carries.
Waynesfield-Goshen junior quarterback Connor Mortimer went 5-for-6 passing for 88 yards.
The Tigers pushed the lead to 10-0 with 6:48 left in the third period with a 26-yard field goal by Fetter, before Triad answered with a 16-yard touchdown run by junior Kaleb Deam for the 10-7 count.
Deam set up the score by returning the kickoff to the Waynesfield-Goshen 23-yard line, only being stopped from returning it by Tiger junior Jacob Waitman.
Waynesfield-Goshen pushed the lead up to 17-7 with a 47-yard run by Fetter, as he crossed the goal line at the 10:49 mark.
Triad responded with a field goal on their next series from 34-yards away by senior kicker Daniel Kaffenbarger for the 17-10 score. Again it was Deam who set up the score with a 45-yard run down to the Tiger 19.
Waynesfield-Goshen took over on their 24-yard line with 9:34 to play and burnt off over five minutes of the clock with an 11-play drive, picking up five first downs. The big back-to-back plays were a 15-yard reception by Fetter and a 20-yard run by Miller, which brought the Tigers to the Triad 16-yard line. Miller reached pay dirt from a yard out for the 24-10 score.
The Tigers stopped the next two Triad drives with interceptions by Ryan Spencer and Waitman. The Cardinals also lost a fumble on their opening drive of the second half, which was recovered by Waynesfield-Goshen senior Caleb Comstock.
Waynesfield-Goshen senior Nate Brassell also had an interception in the first half, and Waitman collected his first of the game to give him two picks on the night.
What looked like to be the first score of the contest was on a 72-yard run by Fetter, but it was wiped out by a holding play.
The first score of the game was a 40-yard reception by Brasell with 3:07 until halftime for the 7-0 Tiger lead.
When the rain started to come down during the first half, the ball started to come out. The Tigers had three fumbles and lost one, while Triad lost one fumble. Late in the game, the Tigers were also overly-penalized, and finished the game with 11 penalties for 85 yards.
Collecting critical sacks for the Tigers defense on fourth down plays were Comstock and Ryan Spencer.
Waynesfield-Goshen's defense held Triad to 37 yards rushing for the game. Freshman Matthew Freville threw for 155 yards on 17-of-27 attempts with four interceptions.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 September 2009 )
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