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Fort Frye clobbers Catholic Central, 49-13

RON JOHNSTON The Marietta Times Fort Frye’s Tyler Fisher carries the ball during during a high school football game against Steubenville Catholic Central Friday in Beverly.

BEVERLY — Fort Frye passed with flying colors.

The Cadets anticipated being tested by Steubenville Catholic Central, but it proved to be no contest as they routed the visiting Crusaders, 49-13, in a prep football game Friday senior night.

“We were all saying that it would come down to a play or two in the fourth quarter,” said FFHS head coach Eric Huck. “But, man, we played one of our best games this week.”

With the victory, the Fort, No. 4 in the Division VI, Region 23 standings with a 9-1 overall record, will be hosting an opening-round playoff game next week.

“That’s exciting, especially coming off this win,” Huck said. “Our (10) seniors get another game on this field. I’m very proud of them.”

RON JOHNSTON The Marietta Times Fort Frye’s Braden Henniger carries the ball during a high school football game against Steubenville Catholic Central Friday in Beverly.

Offensively, Cadet junior quarterback Tate Engle completed 7-of-9 passes for 97 yards and three touchdowns, one each to Braden Henniger, Jesse McLeod, and Draeden Turner.

“Our coaches prepared us well all week,” Engle said. “They preached that (Catholic) had some big guys, but our offensive line did great tonight. They opened up some big holes and I had awesome protection back there when I three the ball.”

Fort running back Tyler Fisher rushed for 131 yards on 12 carries and three touchdowns of 22, 33, and 9 yards. He also had a two-point conversion run.

Evan Schob chipped in with 52 yards on 11 carries and one TD of three yards.

Defensively, Brenden Huck, Brady Schilling and Fisher each had an interception. Brady Kutscherenko was credited with a fumble recovery.

“Our defense was clicking,” Engle said. “We had pressure and plugged up the holes. And the defensive backs played really well.”

On special teams, Henniger returned a punt 18 yards, and Engle had an 11-yard return.

Catholic Central fell to 7-3. Going into the game, the Crusaders were No. 5 in Region 23. QB Justin Hartzell had one TD throw of 49 yards to Anthony Fallon. Late in the game, Levi Thompson recovered a fumble and raced 75 yards to the end zone.

During first-quarter action, Catholic punted five times and Fort twice. The Cadets also coughed up a fumble and turned the ball over on downs.

But just before the end of the period, Schob busted one up the middle for a three-yard TD, and Fisher scored on a two-point conversion to give the Cadets an 8-0 advantage.

In the second quarter, Fort exploded for 35 points with Fisher scoring twice on runs, and Engle hitting Henniger, McLeod, and Turner with TD strikes.

“We started off a little slow in the first quarter,” Huck said. “But once we started finding stuff, and our passing game was a big part of it. Tate was hitting guys. We had (Catholic) off balance. They (Crusaders) were trying to adjust to the things we were doing. But whatever they adjusted to, we just ran something else. We played our hearts out.”

At halftime, Fort owned a commanding 43-6 lead, and knew that they would start the second half with a running clock.

About midway through the third quarter, the Cadets stretched their advantage to 49-6 when Fisher scored on a 9-yard run to paydirt.

“Everybody played well,” Huck said. “And the line blocked well again.”

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