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Fort Frye uses strong defensive effort to beat Shadyside in regional final

RON JOHNSTON The Marietta Times Fort Frye won the Division VI, Region 23 championship game against Shadyside, 18-6, Friday night at Meadowbrook High School in Byesville.

BYESVILLE — To put it plain and simple, the Fort Frye defense dominated from the opening whistle to the final buzzer.

The Cadet defense completely shut down the Shadyside running game, sacked the quarterback five times and came up with five interceptions as Fort Frye claimed its first ever Division VI, Region 23 championship Friday night with an 18-6 win over the Tigers at Meadowbrook High School.

Sophomore defensive back Brian Adkins intercepted a pair of passes and returned one 44 yards for a touchdown to lead the Cadets to the win that punched their ticket to the final four in the state for the very first time in school history.

“We thought we had to do a lot on offense to match their high-powered offense but our defense stepped up and played great,” said Fort Frye head coach Eric Huck. “It was a great team effort on defense especially.”

On a night where the Cadet offensive struggled for the very first time in this magical 2018 season, the defense responded in a huge way as they registered no less than nine tackles for loss while completely keeping Tiger quarterback and Eastern District Player of The Year Anthony Coggins out of rhythm for most of the game.

RON JOHNSTON The Marietta Times Fort Frye’s Brian Adkins (21) carries the ball as Shadyside’s Mason VanNest tries to bring him down during a high school football regional championship game Friday night at Meadowbrook High School in Byesville. Fort Frye won, 18-6.

The usually explosive Cadet offense could not get things going in the first half as they punted the ball away on each of their first three possessions of the game and managed just one first down in the first 24 minutes of the game.

That one first down turned out to be a huge one as, after Dylan Hart picked off Coggins in Tiger territory to end the first quarter, senior fullback Evan Schob rambled 44 yards up the middle on the first play of the second quarter for what would turn out to be the only offensive score of the night.

“It was just drawn up really well by Coach Huck and I just saw the gap so I took off,” said Schob, who reached the 1,000-yard mark on the season by rushing the ball 12 times for 75 yards.

“Our line is amazing. They are always opening gaps for me and the other backs.”

Tyler Fisher ran for the two-point conversion to give the Cadets an 8-0 lead.

FFHS added to its lead later in the quarter when Adkins stepped in front of the Tiger receiver on an out pass and picked off Coggins before sprinting 44 yards down the sideline for a touchdown.

Fisher found Brady Schilling in the end zone on a half-back option pass to increase the lead to 16-0.

“Coach (Kevin) Welsh, he coaches us great doing drops every day,” said Adkins, who in addition to the two picks rushed the ball six times for 43 yards. “I just got in front of the wide receiver and got it.”

Coggins and the usually powerful Shadyside offense finally began to move the ball late in the first half as they quickly marched the ball all the way down to the Cadet 10-yard line with less than a minute to play but once again the red, white and blue defense came up huge when a tipped ball bounced into the hands of a diving Caden Fryman at the four-yard line to keep the Tigers off the board.

Fort Frye’s defensive numbers in the first half alone were incredible as they registered four sacks and four interceptions in the first 24 minutes.

The Tigers came up with the big play that they were in desperate need of early in the final quarter Wyatt Reiman picked off a Tate Engle pass and rambled 70 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 16-6 with just over 10 minutes to play in the game.

While the Cadets were unable to put any more points on the board offensively they did manage to add two more points late in the game thanks once again to their defense as well as some great special teams play.

With Fort Frye facing a fourth down at the Shadyside 34-yard line, punter Isiah Jones perfectly placed a punt out of bounds at the one-yard line and two plays later heavy pursuit by the Cadet defensive line resulted in a holding call in the end zone and a safety that increased their lead to 18-6.

The Cadet defensive line played perhaps their very best game of the year as Braden Medley registered a pair of sacks while Hart, Jones and Nate Brothers also got to Coggins for a sack.

The Fort defense allowed Shadyside just seven total rushing yards on 20 attempts.

From there the Cadets ran out the clock to secure the win that will allow them to advance to play Kirtland, who advanced to the “Final Four” with a 20-14 win Friday night over Mogadore.

While the season comes to a disappointing end for Shadyside (10-3), the undefeated Cadets (12-0) will look to make even more history next week.

“It feels amazing to be able to reach all of our goals that we set out to,” said Schob. “It’s an incredible feeling but we don’t feel like we are done yet.”

at Meadowbrook High

Division VI, Region 23 Championship

Fort Frye 18, Shadyside 6

FFHS (12-0) 0 16 0 2 — 18

SHS (10-3) 0 0 0 6 — 6

FF: Evan Schob 44 run, Tyler Fisher run, 12:00 2nd

FF: Brian Adkins 44 interception return, Brady Schilling pass from Fisher, 3:37 2nd

S: Wyatt Reiman 70 interception return, conversion failed, 10:19 4th

FF: Team safety, 2:11 4th

Team stats

SHS FFHS

First downs 11 6

Rushes-yards 20-7 37-181

Passing yards 188 25

Total yards 195 206

Comp-att-int 18-41-5 3-13-1

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 7-37 3-25

Punts-average 5-28.8 8-32.4

Individual stats

Rushing: S: Jacob Visnic 5-12, Connor Banco 6-(-2), Anthony Coggins 9-(-3); FF: Schob 12-75; Fisher 8-39; Adkins 6-43; Engle 7-19; Zane Greenleaf 4-5; Passing: S: Coggins 18-40-188-4, Visnic 0-1-0-1 FF: Engle 3-12-1, 25 yards; Receiving: S: Samuel Merryman 5-65, Austin Price 4-53, Collin Holmes 3-31, Visnic 3-18. FF: Adkins 2-26; Schilling 1-(-1)

Next game: Fort Frye vs. Kirtland, 7 p.m. Friday at TBD

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