Fort Frye edges Marietta, 21-18
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At least for one week the decision to move junior Clayton Miller from quarterback to running back was a great one for head coach Eric Huck and the Fort Frye Cadets.
Miller ran for 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the Cadets held off the Marietta Tigers for a 21-18 win at Don Drumm Stadium Friday night.
With senior Sebastian Huck more than capable of taking over at quarterback and running the Cadet offense, Coach Huck and his staff elected to move Miller to running back and the initial results were spectacular.
"We are fortunate to have more than one good quarterback and that enables us to move Clayton around a little bit," said Coach Huck. "He really wanted the ball tonight and he did a really good job for us."
Both teams came up empty on their first possessions of the 2023 season but the Cadets capitalized on some great field position on their second try to take the early lead.
After a poor Tiger punt gave the visitors the ball on the Tiger 32-yard line, it would take them just four plays to score.
A pair of long runs by senior Ross Schultheis moved the ball to the 1-yard line where Huck would sneak his way into the end zone to give the Cadets a 7-0 lead.
The Tigers would answer as they put together a 73-yard drive, 11-play drive to tie the game at 7-7 capped by an 8-yard scoring toss from junior quarterback Drew Warden to senior back Zane Wittekind.
MHS used a solid ground attack combined with a 35-yard pass from Warden to senior Elyjah Lieras-Kelley to put together the impressive game-tying drive.
The Tigers defense rose to the occasion when they forced a Cadet fumble with sophomore Kobe Alexander recovering the ball at the FF 29-yard line.
The Tigers missed a golden opportunity when Warden's pass into the end zone fell out out the hands of a wide-open Lieras-Kelley and they eventually would have to settle for a 24-yard field goal by Braxten Lang to take a 10-7 lead.
Tiger head coach Jason Schob felt his team left a few opportunities on the field in the game and that was something they could ill afford to do against a great team like Fort Frye.
"Fort Frye's a really good program and a really good football team and there's a reason they win a lot of games," said Schob. "You've got to be able to finish plays against a good team like that and that's the difference between winning and losing sometimes."
The Tiger defense tackled Miller for a yard loss and forced Huck to throw an incomplete pass to set up a third and 11 but Miller came up with perhaps the biggest play of the game as he broke several tackles and then out-ran the Tiger secondary into the end zone for an 81-yard touchdown run to put the Cadets back in front.
"We were down and they had us third and long and I thought that run really changed the momentum of the game," said Coach Huck.
Marietta relied heavily on Wittekind out of the back field as they moved the ball into Fort Frye territory before finally turning the ball over on downs at the Cadet 33-yard line.
With enough time on the clock to add points before halftime, the Cadets moved the ball all the way down to the Tiger 2-yard line before the MHS defense came up with a huge stop.
After the orange and black defense stopped Miller for a 2-yard loss on third and goal, the Cadets sent in field goal kicker Tytan Waller to try and make a half-ending field goal but his 23-yard attempt was short and the Tigers ran off the field with momentum on their side despite trailing 14-10.
Midway thru the third quarter Fort Frye added to their lead and once again it was Miller doing the damage as he tallied 26 rushing yards on the drive including a 9-yard touchdown run to give the Cadets a 21-10 lead.
The Tigers put together a long drive and moved the ball all the way down to the Cadets 14-yard line before it stalled to turn the ball over to the Cadets one more time.
Fort Frye was unable to add to it's lead as the Tiger defense played it's best football late in the third quarter and into the final quarter of play.
The Tigers got a big break later in the final quarter as the Cadets shanked a punt that traveled only a handful yards to give MHS the ball near Cadet territory with less than four minutes to play.
Marietta was able to move the ball deep into Cadet territory thanks in large part to a pair of pass interference penalties.
Warden capped the drive by rambling 10-yards for a touchdown and then pulled his team to within three when he connected with Wittekind for the two-point conversion.
Marietta elected not to go for the on-side kick and instead executed a kick that buried the Cadets at their own 11-yard line with just over two minutes to play.
Fort Frye would be in need of at least one and maybe two first downs to put things away and they did just that as Miller broke free for a 42-yard gallop for the first one and sophomore Coen Holman ran for 12 more for another first down to drive the nail in the Tigers coffin.
"We told them we just needed to get one first down and it would be over and we were able to get two," said Huck. "When the game is on the line you find out how bad they really want it and our kids showed they really wanted to win."
The Cadets rushed the ball 32 times for 361 yards in the game as both Holman (10-76) and Schultheis (12-75) had big games in their first varsity starts.
Marietta was led in rushing by Wittekind who picked up 66 rushing yards on a team-high 13 carries while Warden completed 7-of-25 pass attempts for 133 yards.
Lieras Kelley hauled in four catches for 115 receiving yards including, three catches for 30 yards or more.
Schob was pleased with his team's effort despite the tough loss and hopes his team can use the game as a building block for the rest of the season.
"I'm really proud of the kids for playing hard and playing together and bouncing back when they face adversity," said Schob. "We missed on a couple of opportunities that we needed to capitalize on but we kept battling and kept fighting."
The Cadets have a whole lot of new faces on the field this year and Huck was pleased with their effort in the first varsity action for many of his players.
"There are a lot of kids playing in their first varsity game or their first varsity game at a new position," said Huck. "To see them find a way like that and compete as hard as they did is great to see."