by The Warrensville Heights Tigers beat the Westlake Demons with a score of 24-8.
The Warrensville Heights Tigers travel over to Westlake for another Friday night matchup. Both teams are 1-1, winning each of their games at home. The Westlake Demons look to continue their home win streak, and Warrensville look to get their first win on the road, setting up a great early season matchup. Westlake wins the toss and chooses to defer.
After a short return, the Tigers set up shop at the 33-yard line. The Tigers line up with #5 Raymar Clements Jr alone in the backfield, and ran a jet sweep to the left, where #0 David Lesure took the ball up the sideline for a gain of around 45 yards. Warrensville Heights looked to take advantage of this field position, and it came in the form of a run up the middle from #24 Jaylann Branch, who takes the ball 31 yards through the defense on his way to a touchdown. Warrensville Heights came out to a quick start, leading 7-0 with 11:14 left in the first.
The Demons looked to answer back with their first possession of the game. After a few screen passes for short gains, a tipped ball at the line ends up in the hands of Warrensville #2, Dorian Jones. This set up the Tigers in great scoring position at the Demons 41-yardline. Tigers look to increase their lead but are stopped in their tracks by two big sacks by #8 Jacob Barnes and #22 Wes Urich on a 2nd and 3rd down to force a punt. At their own 25-yardline, Westlake needed to get their offense rolling. After a couple short gains, and a hard count that forced a defensive penalty, quarterback #6 Moe Abdelhady throws his second interception of the game. This time the ball is brought in by the Tigers #50 Zyaire Gilbert.
Warrensville Heights with another defensive stop looked to increase their lead. Starting at the Westlake 26-yardline, the Tigers had a hard time moving the ball with three more stops behind the line by Jacob Barnes, Wes Urich, and #26 Nathan Gentry. This sets up Warrensville for a long field goal, where #19 Sory Kone easily makes an impressive 44-yard field goal, putting the Tigers up 10-0.
Westlake received the ball in good field position due to a botched kickoff by Warrensville. After a short gain by #32 Hadi Mustafa, Moe Abdelhady found #25 Nate Meyer, who changed directions to make a great catch over the middle for an explosive 38-yard gain. Westlake is unable to capitalize off of this play, going three and out and punting it back to the Tigers. After a short gain by Jaylann Branch, the first quarter comes to an end.
Jaylann Branch started the second quarter for the Tigers with a 15-yard rush for a 1st down. Westlake’s defense did not slow down for a single second, stopping two rushes and a pass, bringing up a 4th down and short inside Westlake’s territory. The Tigers showed they are going for it, and after a timeout by Westlake, they came up short, turning the ball over to the Demons. Westlake gets back to their running game with two rushes up the middle for a Hadi Mustafa 1st down. This led to another pass from Moe Abdelhady that found the hands of the Tigers DB Dorian Jones, for his second interception of the contest.
Jaylann Branch gets back to work with two more rushes, giving the Tigers the first down right outside of the red zone. After the pocket collapsed on the next play, Raymar Clements Jr found the hole and ran into the endzone for another Warrensville touchdown.
Westlake got the ball back, and very quickly went three and out, giving the ball right back to the Tigers. The Tigers get the ball back with less than two minutes to go in the half and look to score. Westlake’s defense made another series of stops that led to the end of the first half. Warrensville Heights Tigers 17, Westlake Demons 0.
Coming out of the half, Westlake started with the ball. Westlake had the ball at their own 28-yardline, and methodically made their way to about midfield, where they came up on a 4th down and 2. Westlake ran a pitch play that was bobbled and fumbled, giving the ball back to the Tigers on Westlake’s own 49-yardline. After two plays for no gain on the ground, Warrensville ran two jet sweeps to David Lesure which got the first down. From Westlake’s 40-yardline, Jaylann Branch takes three handoffs in a row, putting the Tigers in the red zone at Westlake’s 18-yardline. A well-designed QB keep by the Tigers caught the defense off guard, and Raymar Clements Jr ran into the endzone untouched. This puts the Tigers up 24-0 with 4:15 left in the 3rd quarter.
Westlake started to gain some momentum in their offense after regaining possession of the ball. Hadi Mustafa with a nice run set the Demons up at midfield with a first down. With a great pass to Nate Meyer for 25 yards, and another clutch 4th down find to #2 Gavin McMillen, the Demons found themselves on the Tigers 36-yardline and closed out the 3rd quarter. The Demons fell short though, giving the ball up on another 4th down turnover. With the ball, the Tigers go three and out and punt the ball right back to the Demons.
At Westlake’s 29-yardline, they look to make something happen. Moe Abdelhady found Geno Woods over the middle for a 32-yard strike. Abdelhady then threw up a deep shot to Gavin McMillen who pulled the ball down over one defender for an incredible catch, giving the Demons their best shot of the night at scoring. Hadi Mustafa found the endzone going right through Warrensville Heights’ defensive line. Westlake converted the two point try and made the score 24-8 Tigers. Westlake tried an onside kick but did not convert. After a few first downs for the Tigers, quarterback Raymar Clements Jr fumbled the ball which was recovered by the Demons in Tiger Territory.
Westlake, looking for a comeback, started trudging down the field. After a first down by Hadi Mustafa the demons were faced with a long 4th down, which was converted by a deep pass to McMillen. After another pass found Nate Meyer, the Demons were knocking on the door of the red zone. But Warrensville Heights did not give them the chance to come back. With good defense on Westlake’s receivers and a big sack, Westlake turned the ball over, and the game came to an end.
The player of the game for the Westlake Demons was #22 Wes Urich who had multiple stops at the line and a sack.
The players of the game for the Warrensville Heights Tigers were #2 Dorian Jones, who recorded 2 interceptions, and #24 Jaylann Branch, who recorded 115 yards for one touchdown.
Westlake looks to bounce back from this loss next week, on Friday the 11th, at Normandy. Warrensville Heights look to continue their two-game win streak next Saturday, the 12th at Cleveland Central Catholic.
