Fort Frye, Waterford host regional semifinals tonight
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BEVERLY - After a first-round bye, the Fort Frye Cadets opened their postseason last Friday night with a convincing 37-0 win at home over Piketon.
The No. 2 seeded Cadets will look to punch their ticket to the Division V, Region 19 final Friday night when they host the No. 3 ranked Columbus Academy Vikings in a regional semi at Cadet Field.
Fort Frye comes into the game 10-1 with their lone loss of the season coming to the top-seeded Barnesville Shamrocks back in week seven.
Last week the Cadets had no trouble at all with Piketon as they scored 15 points in both the first and second quarters to force a running clock for the entire second half.
Senior running back Gavin Rauch rushed for 84 yards and a pair of touchdowns on just 12 carries to lead the way for a typically balanced Fort Frye offense.
Junior Wyatt Erb scored a first quarter touchdown on a 19-yard pass from senior Grady Hesson and then found the end zone on his own later in the second quarter on a two-yard touchdown run.
The Cadets piled up 239 rushing yards in the game while limiting Piketon to just 153 total yards.
Hesson completed 9-of-12 pass attempts in the game for 117 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Sam Bricker caught the other touchdown for Fort Frye and also carried the ball six times for 41 yards.
Defensively the Eric Huck-coached Cadets got an interception from Clayton Tullius while Kylor Beardsley forced a fumble in the second quarter that the Cadets recovered to halt a Piketon drive.
Columbus Academy secured their berth in the semi-final with a 23-21 win over Worthington Christian.
The Vikings are coached by Robin Miller and led by quarterback Michael Tishkoff and running back Barron Dye.
GARAWAY at WATERFORD
WATERFORD - The Waterford Wildcats probably felt like they had played their final home game two weeks ago when they opened up postseason play with a 61-0 win over Berne Union.
Fate had a different idea however and after a thrilling 21-14 quarter-final win over #3 West Jefferson last week the Wildcats find themselves hosting the D-VI, Region 23 semi-final Friday night against the # 7 seeded Garaway Pirates.
Garaway upset No. 2 seeded Nelsonville-York last week leaving Waterford as the highest seed and giving themselves yet another game in front of the home crowd.
"It's kind of ironic - you go 2 1-2 hours for your second round game then you turn around and get to come home for the third round," said Waterford head coach Eric McCutcheon. "It's kind of unique, but we're excited to play another game on our home field."
The Wildcats built a 21-0 lead last week against West Jefferson but were forced to hang on for their lives down the stretch as the Roughriders cut the lead to seven and had the ball inside the 10-yard line in the closing minute of the game before the Wildcat defense came up with a huge stop to seal the deal.
Waterford scored first on a 67-yard touchdown run by Finn Pennock in the opening quarter.
The score would remain the same until the Wildcats scored again in the third quarter on a 10-yard run by senior Avery Pottmeyer to increase their lead to 14-0.
The Wildcat defense came up big later in the same period when Lucas Roberts intercepted a pass and returned it 21-yards for a touchdown to increase the lead to 21-0.
The Waterford defense had allowed just one touchdown in their last 27 quarters of football before West Jefferson scored late in the third and then after recovering an on-side kick they would score yet again early in the fourth to get right back in it.
The Wildcats were able to make a clutch defensive stand led by leading tackler and three-time 1,000 yard rusher Hayden Jones.
Garaway comes into the game with three losses but that may be a bit misleading as those three defeats have come at the hands of Girard, Claymont and Indian Valley, three bigger schools with a combined record of 32-1 who are all three still alive in the postseason.
"Garaway is a phenomenal football team. They play a tough schedule," said McCutcheon. "They've played some Division 4 and Division 5 teams. They're a solid football program. We get a week to prepare for them and they get a week to prepare for us."
The Pirates advanced to the semi-final with a 49-28 win over a Nelsonville-York team that beat Waterford 18-12 earlier in the season.
Running back Matthew Frey led the way for Garaway by rushing for over 200 yards and four touchdowns.
Quarterback Grady Miller and receiver A.J. Miller are other key contributors for the Pirates.