by In this week of high school football, the Black River Pirates defeated Lorain County Conference rival Wellington Dukes 29-12. The Pirates defensive play led the way as they had three interceptions in the match. The game was a defensive struggle as both teams’ defenses made the offense earn points. Both teams were held to under 130 yards rushing and 160 yards passing. Even though the score looks as though Black River took care of business, the game was a lot closer.
1st Quarter
Black River opened with a bang as return man Alex Woolfrom took the opening return to Wellington’s own 45-yard line. They would then seem to score later on a 25-yard touchdown pass, but it was negated due to the receiver being out of bounds. The Pirates would pin Wellington deep in their own territory on the 1-yard line. Wellington also looked like they would have a big gain, but that play too was negated by a penalty. Two plays later, thanks to a pick by linebacker Justin Moody, the Pirates drove with ease ending with a 2-yard touchdown run by Pirates running back Jayce Hopek.
Hoping to gain some momentum, the Dukes decided to pull a Dan Campbell and fake a punt in their own territory. Wellington was successful, but forced to punt the next set of downs. After more drives stalling out and Wellington being deep in their own territory once more, the Pirates would have the lead 7-0 after one.
2nd Quarter
In the early second quarter, Black River would once again put on a great drive. The drive would end with Pirates quarterback Eric Groesser running in for a 2-yard touchdown. Down 14-0, Wellington had to change things on offense quickly. Before this drive, they would rely on their passing game to move the ball. Since it was not working, they decided to keep it on the ground. The drive by the Dukes had them gain chunks of yardage in 4 to 5-yard runs that brought them all the way to the 5-yard line. On 3rd and goal, quarterback Landon Wright threw the ball to the corner of the end zone where only Dukes receiver Jonnie Kinter could catch it. Kinter caught the ball right over the defender’s head. Even with a missed PAT, the Dukes found a way to score against the Pirates.
The rest of the quarter was a battle of the trenches. Each side is trying to edge out one another for good field position. Both teams had tried numerous times to go for it on fourth down. Some were a success, others were not. When one side gets close to the red zone, they would be either backed up by penalties or suffer from sacks and tackles for loss. At the end of the first half, the Pirates would still have the lead over Wellington 14-6.
3rd Quarter
Getting the ball to start the second half, the Dukes were on a mission. On their opening drive in the second half, they continued their ground assault that was working earlier in the game. Wellington also threw a lot of screens at the Pirates defense that took them off guard. The drive would end with Wright throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Nolan Sasack. Even with the 2-point try failing, Wellington took 7 minutes and 59 seconds off the clock in just their opening drive. Just before the third quarter, Black River was putting together a drive of their own. With one quarter to go, the Dukes had scored 12 unanswered points and were chipping away at the Pirates lead.
4th Quarter
On the very first play of the fourth quarter, the momentum shifted to Black River and never went back. Groesser threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to running back Blake Hopkins to extend the lead to 9. Leading 21-9, the Pirates success on offense fed into the Pirates defense. The defense was able to shut down the Wellington offense with ease. Even after Wellington had another successful fake punt the Pirates still held them to another three and out after that. Having to go for it on fourth down, the Dukes tried another screen pass. The pass was then intercepted by defensive lineman Cooper McKean for a 30-yard pick-6. After a successful 2-point try, the game seemed out of reach for the Dukes, but that would not stop them from trying.
After driving just past midfield, Wellington tried to go for another deep pass, but it was intercepted by defensive back Ridge Martin. While Wellington did get a fumble recovery late in the fourth it was already too late. The Dukes would fail to score again as the Pirates would kneel out to win the game. The Pirates will move to 3-1 as they travel to take on Firelands next week. The Dukes will fall to 0-4 and hope to end their losing streak as they will defend their home against Brookside next week.
Player of the Game
The game’s player goes to Black River quarterback Eric Groesser who was 9 of 19 for 159 yards passing with 1 passing and 1 rushing touchdown. He was also 3 for 3 on PAT’s and pinned Wellington inside their own five twice as the punter.
