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Fort wins thriller: Cadets rally for 10th straight win over Waterford

By Ron Johnston 4 min read

WATERFORD -- Smashmouth football was on display in Friday night's Muskingum River rivalry game at the Waterford Elementary School.

In the end, visiting Fort Frye High was able to exercise ball control in the second half, and earn a hard-fought 23-19 come-from-behind triumph over the Wildcats.

"The ability to run the football is what wins ballgames," said Cadets head coach Eric Huck. "I was really proud with the way they played (in the second half). They're a great group of kids. They deserve this win, especially after last week's loss."

Fort Frye amassed just 179 rushing yards but more importantly its time of possession was 36 minutes in the game. The Cadets (2-1) only had the ball three times on offense in the second half, while Waterford (2-1) had it twice and had to punt both times.

"We took care of the ball," Huck said. "And that was big. We had two big drives right there (in the second half). We only had three (offensive) possessions in the second half and two of them were long drives."

The Wildcats never trailed in the first half, but had to punt on both off their offensive possession after the break.

"They made some adjustments obviously, and they had some time-consuming drives on offense in the second half," McCutcheon said. "That's for sure. And we couldn't get a stop. Our kids fought hard. They played hard."

Late in the opening quarter, the Fort turned the ball over on downs to the Cats on the Cadet 29. A couple of plays later, Waterford junior Braden Bellville busted one into the end zone from 24 yards out to stake the home team to a 6-0 advantage.

Bellville finished the game with 87 yards rushing on 16 carries.

After the ensuing kickoff, the Cadets fumbled and Peyten Stephens recovered it on the Fort 25.

Capitalizing on the turnover, Stephens hit Cody Harris with a scoring strike to give the Cats a two touchdown lead. Harris then split the uprights with a kick to make 13-0 with less than a minute remaining in the first period.

Fort Frye rallied in the second quarter when QB Tate Engle completed two straight passes to Jesse McLeod and Brady Schilling, respectively. With the ball on the WHS seven, Tyler Bradford bulled his way into the end zone to cut it to seven. Then, Engle hit Bradford with two-point conversion pass to make it 13-8.

Bradford was Fort's leading ground-gainer with 85 yards on 13 totes of the pigskin.

Late in the second quarter, Stephens passed 55 yards to Bellville for six, and Waterford led 19-8.

Stephens finished the contest with 111 passing yards on four completions.

With under a minute remaining before the half, Engle threw a 55-yard TD pass to Braden Henniger and a two-point conversion toss to McLeod to cut it to 19-16, also the halftime score.

Engle finished with 117 passing yards on five completions.

"We told them that they played poorly (three turnovers) in the first half, but we were only down three points," Huck said. "We told them that if they came out and played our game in the second half, we can definitely win the ballgame."

The Fort received the second-half kick, and thanks to a Waterford penalty at the end of the second quarter, it got good field position near midfield. Making the most of it, the Cadets moved the ball to the WHS eight where Tyler Fisher scored on a TD run. Logan Isner booted the extra point, and the visitors took their first lead, 23-19, of the contest.

That also turned out to be the only points scored in the second half.

"That was two evenly matched teams," McCutcheon said. "It's too bad somebody had to lose."

"They didn't throw much in the second half," the Waterford coach added. "They just kept getting us around the corner. And we just couldn't get to them."

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