PARMA, Ohio (Sept. 15, 2023) -- Explosive plays. Yards in big chunks. Takeaways. The 2023 Rocky River Pirates are piling up big plays game-by-game, and Friday's Great Lakes Conference crossover test at Valley Forge was no different. The Sons of Blackbeard rode 471 total yards of offense, five touchdowns of 25-or-more yards, and three takeaways to a running-clock triumph with a final score of 52-14.
Rocky River logged eight TDs in the game at Byers Field: seven of those scoring plays were launched from the right arm of senior quarterback Julian Patti. A swarming Pirate defense chipped in with an interception, two fumble recoveries, and a season-high 10 tackles for loss. Those exploits helped the Buccaneers put a stop to a three-game losing streak against Valley Forge.
The early minutes of River's second road game this season made for a taut back-and-forth between the Pirates and Patriots. In the back of coach Josh Wells' mind were perhaps memories of painful, one-possession losses to Valley Forge in 2018, 2019, and 2021. The Maroon & White lost those three games by a combined five points, so when Friday score had the Pirates leading 19-14 midway through the second quarter it was a lead without a sense of safety.
But these high-octane Pirates had another gear or two available, and when Patti tossed his third touchdown pass of the evening at 5:36 of the second River had a double-digit lead (25-14) that would would only grow the rest of the way.
Rocky River got two more scores before halftime -- one on a 35-yard Patti-to-Oran Grieve air raid 17 seconds before the second quarter came to a close -- and would lead by 24 (38-14) by the break. The first score of the third -- a 7-yard Patti-to-Ryan Ricketti connection -- put the Byers Field clock on its mercy setting. The balance of the contest was a sprint with brief pit stops for one last River TD and the end-of-third intermission.
The Pirates finished with 140 rushing yards on 14 running plays. Rocky River logged 331 yards through the air, with Patti providing all of that while going a robust 20-of-27. The senior signal caller is now 90-of-142 (63.4%) for 1,549 yards and 22 TDs -- against just two interceptions -- this season. Patti is now just 194 yards away from becoming just the seventh Rocky River player to throw for 3,000 career yards.
The ground game on Friday went primarily through Nick DiSalvo, who bolted for 103 yards -- and his 13th overall TD this season -- on nine carries. DiSalvo (3 catches for 26 yards) and four other Pirates (Grieve 4-83, Andrew Lang 4-57, Rowan McDougal 2-48, and Ricketti 6-114) had multiple catches on the night.
With just about everyone chipping in, Wells saw Friday -- and other similar results so far this season -- as a role-playing exercise of sorts:
"Our players have taken extreme ownership of their roles on offense. Big plays have resulted, and that has led to the success we are having."
When Julian Patti and company didn't have the ball, the Raider defense was busy trying to get it back for them. Ricketti registered an interception (and a big-play return of that pick for 36 yards). Josh Mommers and Colin Slomka filed fumble recoveries; those turnovers were forced by Ben Bogre and Max Fano. Aided by nine run stuffs (Trent Delventhal led the way with three) and a Tony Liva sack, the Pirates held the Patriots to 204 total yards. Just 10 of those yards were through the air.
Liva (three solo tackles, three assists) and Abel Sereika (7T) were River's top tacklers.
Rocky River (4-1) has now scored 42-or-more points in four games this season.
Many of those points have been scored at the end of a play where linemen make room or space, a receiver or two gets a key block down field, and a ball carrier totes the pigskin some 25 yards or more.
Explosive Pirate cannon fire.
by Skip Snow
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