Two costly fumbles by the Wadsworth in the third quarter was all the help that the Wooster Generals needed as they went on to defeat the Grizzlies 35-14 at Art Wright Stadium on Friday night.
Wadsworth now slips to 0-2. Only on two previous occasions in Greg Dennison’s tenure as head coach have the Grizzlies started 0-2.
Wadsworth played without their all-Ohio tailback Dan Weinerman, who was unavailable for the game.
“We made mistakes, you can’t do that. We’re not at the point where we can make any kind of mistakes. Then, they got more physical than us up front”, said Dennison.
In the first half, the game was going the Grizzlies way. Wadsworth led 7-0 on a 26-yard touchdown run by Zach Looser in the first quarter. Looser filled in for Weinerman, and did a good job in the game, carrying the ball 15 times for 115 yards. But, only 6 of those yards came after halftime.
Wooster tied it in the second quarter on a 52-yard pass from junior quarterback Peyton Bennington to wide receiver Colt Morgan. But the Grizzlies right came back on an 8-play, 66-yard drive with Alex Jones scoring his first touchdown of the year on a 5-yard run. At halftime, Wadsworth led 14-7.
The Generals took the opening kickoff in the second half and drove 60 yards in 11 plays to tie the score. On a 4th-and-4 from the Wadsworth 18, Bennington found junior tight end Eddie Rooney in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. That tied the score at 14.
On Wadsworth’s first play following the ensuing kickoff, Zach Looser fumbled, and Wooster recovered. 5 plays later, Bennington hit sophomore Calvin Blair with an 11-yard pass to make it 21-14 with four minutes to play in the third quarter. Then, the Grizzlies turned it over a second time in the quarter on a fumble by running back Luke Clinton.
Wooster put the game away with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, both by sophomore running back Trey Mathis. Following a Wadsworth punt, Mathis finished off a 5-play, 67-yard drive with a 49-yard touchdown run. The Wadsworth defense had a couple of chances to bring Mathis down at the line of scrimmage, but couldn’t do it.
Mathis scored the final touchdown on a 3-yard run with 12 seconds remaining.
In the game, Mathis carried the ball 34 times for 193 yards and scored two touchdowns. Mathis carried the ball 22 times in the second half.
Wadsworth had only 55 yards in total offense in the second half. Nine of those yards came in the third quarter. By the end of the game, the Grizzlies’ defense was simply out of gas.
“When we put our defense on the field as much as we did, not good things are going to happen there”, said Dennison. “We have a lot to work on. We have to do things a lot better”.
Next Friday night, it’s a battle for bragging rights in Medina County as Wadsworth travels to Medina to take on the Bees.
At this point, the status of Weinerman to play against Medina is uncertain.
