by Photo by ECI Photography
The 1-0 North Ridgeville Rangers welcomed the 0-1 Valley Forge Patriots into Ranger Stadium on Friday night. Coming off a dominant win over North Olmsted last week, the Rangers were looking for a 2-0 start. While the Patriots came in looking for their first win of the season.
On the opening drive the Valley Forge defense had a huge play when they forced Ranger quarterback, Cole Miller, to fumble the ball. The Ranger defense would then come through to force a quick three and out. The ensuing Valley Forge punt was blocked, then touched by a Ranger, and recovered again by Valley Forge in one of the weirder sequences you’ll see on a football field. On the next play, Patriots quarterback Dan Kiewel was intercepted by Rangers defensive back Malik Abu-Saleh. North Ridgeville would put the first points on the board when Charlie Steinmetz broke free for a 58 yard touchdown run. On the next Patriots drive Kiewel would find his tight end Gabriel Devaney for a huge 43 yard gain, but Valley Forge was not able to make any points out of it.
Miller would score on a 1 yard rushing touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, putting North Ridgeville up 14-0. After another turnover on downs for Valley Forge, the Rangers struck big with a 52 yard deep ball to Charlie Steinmetz that got them down to the two yard line. Steinmetz didn’t touch the ball a lot in this game, but when he did it was usually a big play. Three plays later Rangers runningback Zach Barnhart found the end zone to extend the North Ridgeville lead to 21-0. The Rangers defense continued to hold strong and would keep their 21-0 lead going into halftime.
During the first drive of the second the Patriots finally found some rhythm on offense. Quarterback Dan Kiewel found Ben Farson open for a 15 yard touchdown to get Valley Forge on the board and make the score 21-6. The Rangers responded with a long touchdown drive of their own, leaning on Zach Barnhart and the ground game. Barnhart capped the drive off with a 2 yard touchdown run, his second score of the game. North Ridgeville went back up by three touchdowns, 27-6.
Early in the 4th quarter, after 3 unsportsmanlike penalties were called on the Rangers, the Patriots had the ball inside North Ridgeville 10 yard line. Then due to heavy pressure from the Rangers defense, Valley Forge’s Dan Kiewel lofted the ball up for grabs near the goal line, where it was intercepted by junior Cayden Reed and returned it 100 yards for a pick six. Then during the Rangers next drive senior runningback Joey Wilson ran for 37 yards and scored a 4 yard touchdown to extend the North Ridgeville lead to 41-6.
That would be the game’s final score, as North Ridgeville won in dominant fashion 41-6, improving to 2-0 on the season. The North Ridgeville Rangers have outscored their two opponents 82-13 so far. The Valley Forge Patriots fall to 0-2 on the young season.
Player of the Game:
North Ridgeville Senior RB Charlie Steinmetz: 4 RUSH, 78 YDS 1 TD, 2 REC, 62 YDS
