FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio – For the Rocky River Pirates, big plays were the order of the day. And of the night before.
In a lightning-delayed, rain-soaked edition of the Battle of Wagar/210, the side representing “Wagar-not-210” put together a slew of big-yardage plays en route to winning the Friday-Saturday contest, 34-20. The River win comes in what marked the first Great Lakes Conference meeting between the two neighbor schools separated by 2-1/2 miles of Wagar Rd. and West 210th Street. It marks a snap-back from a 24-21 home loss to Valley Forge on Sept. 6. And it marks the Pirates' sixth straight win over the Warriors (2014-19).
The Rocky River (2-1, 1-1 GLC) offense scored five
touchdowns in the game. All five were on pass plays of 45 yards or more.
Sophomore quarterback Braedon Spies was on the front end of four of those aerial
strikes. Spies has now tossed seven TD passes through three weeks.
But when the game got underway – on Friday night at 7 p.m., with thunderstorms looming out over Lake Erie and points west – it was the Pirate defense
coming up big to get things started. After Fairview (1-2, 1-1) had blocked a
Rocky River punt, the Warriors would start their first drive of the contest at
the Pirate 33-yard line. The Pirates anchored in place, forcing the Warriors
into a three-and-out. It would mark the first of many key shutout sets for the
defensive 11 from River.
“The three-and-outs were huge,” said Rocky River Head Coach Josh Wells. “They gave us momentum or regained momentum if we had lost it. And it carried over to our offense.”
It certainly transferred to the Pirate offense at about the midpoint of the first quarter, when Rocky River regained control of the football at its own 2-yard line. Because what struck next wasn’t a charge of electricity from the sky but a bolt of energy from a fired-up Maroon & White sideline. And it took all of one play.
Braedon Spies found an open Tommy Bebie, and Tommy Bebie
found his way to paydirt. And that payoff was 98 yards away. The touchdown at
the 6:12-mark gave Rocky River a 6-0 lead; the ensuing try for two was nixed by
Fairview.
The Warriors rebounded with a touchdown of their own – on a Matt Kaufmann 28-yard rush – at 1:12 of the first quarter. The converted extra point vaulted the 210 end of the road into a 7-6 lead. Fairview kicker David Nemeth extended that lead to 10-6 with a 27-yard field goal at 7:33 of the second.
And then? Lightning, thunder and torrential rainfall. And a
delay. Followed by an attempt an hour later to get back at it. Followed by more
celestial fireworks. And then, a postponement.
Whether Wagar or 210, Friday’s affair became a case of “Road Closed.” The game would be scheduled to resume Saturday at 10 a.m.
Upon resumption of play, the host Warriors put together a
methodical drive, but one in which the Pirate defense would eventually hold.
Fairview netted a field goal 69 ticks before halftime.
Those 69 seconds would be plenty of time for a different
kind of lightning strike, this one under clear blue Saturday-morning skies.
From Braedon Spies. To Cristain Dean. To the house, with a game-tying TD. And
with that, River and Fairview went into an abbreviated halftime session knotted
at 13-13.
A third-quarter turnover forced by the Pirates – a fumble – resulted in a River touchdown at 7:24 when Spies, Owen Bebie and Dean pulled off a tic-tac-toe, flea-flicker, slot-back pass, with Bebie finding Dean on an 81-yard play.
At 3:29 of the third, the Pirates scored on a 49-yard Spies-to-Dean connection. Dean’s third straight TD (and the 11th touchdown
reception of his career) lifted the Sons of Blackbeard to a 27-13 lead. A stout
River defense followed that score by holding the Warriors to another
three-and-out.
Rocky River tacked on seven more points early in the fourth when a Spies-to-Owen Bebie pass play resulted in a 45-yard TD. The host Warriors closed out the game’s scoring at 7:10 of the fourth with a 9-yard touchdown scamper by Declan Jewitt.
“We were opportunistic in using match-up edges to create big plays,” said Wells of a Pirate program which has now defeated Fairview in six straight. “Defensively, we had to make some adjustments after they got out to a quick start. On both sides of the ball, our linemen played particularly well in executing what we were trying to do.”
And what River was trying to do was win its second trophy game of the young season. And after a hard-fought two days, deliver that trophy home – via bus ride on a road by the name of Wagar.
by Skip Snow
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