by The Medina Battling Bees beat the Wadsworth Grizzlies 45-35 in a high scoring game.
The top players for Medina were quarterback Dan Stoddard, Wideout Austin Knowles, and Defensive End Preston Pennington.
Stoddard and Knowles continued their great season as Stoddard had over 450 yards and TOT 5 touchdowns. Knowles finished the day with 204 yards on 11 catches and two touchdowns.
Pennington tallied 2 sacks, including one to end the game.
Wadsworth’s Stars were Davis Nye and Kyle Figuray.
Nye was a big help to first time starter quarterback Will Stack as he caught 8 passes for 159 yards.
Figuray was the workhorse as he tallied 30 carries for 172 yards and 4 touchdowns while also adding two catches for 41 yards and another touchdown.
The Battling Bees won the toss and took the ball. After what started as a decent drive the Bees looked to punt at midfield, though the snap flew right over the punters head giving the Grizzlies a short field.
The Grizzlies wasted no time as Will Stack hit running back Kyle Figuray on a screen, and Figuray took it 35 yards to the endzone. Wadsworth led 7-0 with 5:10 in the first quarter.
The Bees remained confident. Wideout Austin Knowles drew a penalty on an early 4th down, and immediately followed it up with a 42-yard touch thrown by Dan Stoddard. The Bees tied the game up 7-7 with 3:00 left in the first.
Wadsworth punted the ball after a short drive and Medina kept the offense soaring. Stoddard found Jack Wojciak for a gain of 46. Stoddard then found Corbin Derrig who muscled his way into the endzone from 13 yards out to give the Bees a 14-7 lead with 11:17 in the second.
The Grizzlies matched it on their next drive. Stack found Davis Nye for a 29-yard gain on a post route, and after a handful of Figuray runs at the goalline, he finally punched it in from the one, tying the game back up at 14-14 with 7:45 left in the half.
After a couple of bad drives from both sides, Medina broke the stalemate after finding Brennen Schramm twice for 58 total yards. Stoddard would then take it in the endzone himself from 7 yards out to take the lead 21-14 with 3:18 in the half.
The Grizzlies once again managed to match the Bees as Stack orchestrated a nice drive, capped off by a 21-yard touchdown run by Figuray. The score was 21-21 with 40 seconds left.
The tie didn’t last long though as Jack Wojciak outran everyone to take the kickoff 85-yards to give Medina a 28-21 lead going into the half.
Wadsworth started out the second half with a 62 yard bubble screen by Nye, but the team shot themselves in the foot with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The team was forced to attempt a 29-yard field goal, but missed it low and to the left.
Medina took advantage of the moment and found Knowles for gains of 41 and 22. The latter of which was a tough catch in the corner of the endzone to extend the lead to 35-21 with 7:24 in the third.
On the Grizzlies next drive, Stack showed his inexperience. He fumbled a handoff that was recovered by Cooper Estes to give the Bees the ball right back.
The Bees capitalized once again after a few short passes when Stoddard took the ball 19 yards himself to give them a 42-21 lead with 4:42 in the third.
Wadsworth would not go down without a fight. Figuray continued to be a workhorse. He led them down the field before capping the drive off with his fourth touchdown of the game. This time it was a 1-yard score that cut the lead down to 42-28 with 11:56 left in the game.
The Grizzlies defense continued their momentum. A couple of good plays and the Bees turned the ball over on downs.
Figuray had all the momentum in the world. He ran for a total of 47 yards on the Grizzlies next possession, including a 20-yard touchdown to cut the game to 42-35 with 6:04 left.
Trying to clang onto the lead the Bees started moving down the field. The worst happened when Stoddard took a hard hit and had to leave the game. Luckily Brennen Schramm was ready. The wide receiver checked in to be a desperate situation quarterback but he took them all the way down to the red zone.
Kicker Michael Gleske put the game on ice as he was able to connect on a 39 yard field goal to extend the game to two possessions, 45-35 with under two minutes.
The player of the game was Dan Stoddard. The quarterback continued his great season as he threw for 23/29 412 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus he used his legs for 66 more yards and two touchdowns.
Wadsworth will look to bounce back next week against the Brecksville Bees.
Medina will host the Stow Bulldogs next week as they look to start a winning streak.
