by A few weeks ago, I covered the Holy Name football team in a game against the Rocky River Pirates. The game was a lopsided affair with the Holy Name Green Wave routing the Pirate team. In that game the power, speed and athleticism of the Holy Name team was covered. This week one can add strength to the mix.
Strength and power seem to go together, but strength in this case means physical strength and physical football. It seemed obvious last night that the Green Wave team has been hitting the weight training hard, and it paid off with hard tackles, and a physical brand of football that was superior to last night’s opponent the River Valley Vikings.
The game was played in North Ridgeville’s beautiful new stadium. It was the coldest night of the season so far, about 45 degrees at start time. This being week number eight of the bazaar 2020 season.
River Valley from Caledonia Ohio is from the Columbus area. They made the trip up north coming in with a 5-2 record and seemed to be a worthy opponent for the Green Wave.
The game started out a little shaky for both teams as they seemed like two heavyweight boxers feeling out the opponent. Both teams started marred with mistakes, penalties, bobbled catches, near fumbles, and fumbles. It seemed like maybe nerves were affecting the players, or it could have just been getting used to cold weather football again.
The Wave struck first with a beautiful pass from #8 Jayvon Williams to wideout #13 Christopher Boden for 22 yards and the game’s first touchdown. Later in the quarter Holy Name fumbled on a punt play giving the Vikings great field position which led to a Viking TD.
A beautiful pass from Viking QB #11 Kayden Shidone to WR #1 Dillon Johnson. Then a botched two point conversion led to the score being 7-6 Holy Name, with just 42 seconds left in the first quarter.
The second quarter was a completely different story as the Namers used field position, turnovers, and Viking penalties to completely dominate the quarter.
Sophomore standout RB Krizton Sanchez ripped off runs for 15 yards and then 41 yards for a Holy Name TD just seconds into the quarter.
Botched punts on fumbles from both teams and poor field position for the Vikings, led to a punt return TD for the Green’s #15 Garrett Sparks. He streaked straight up the middle then broke it outside for a beautiful TD return. Score was now 21-6 midway through the quarter.
Once again Viking penalties, poor field position, and the Green Wave defensive pressure allowed #2 DB Eric Jones who stepped in front of the Viking’s Shidone pass for a pick six, the rout was now on.
The very next play was another turnover fumble by Shidone and this led to another TD from Williams to Jones who now had an offensive and defensive score for his stat sheet.
The second half had a speeded up clock due to the mercy rule, and River Valley inserted backup QB Brayden Boyd for banged up starter Shidone.
The Wave having 3 shutouts in their last 4 games was not about to let the Vikings spoil their party. Both teams seemed to understand the dynamics of the situation and played a bland vanilla football in the second half.
The final score was 44-6 Holy Name.
With a 27 to 0 second quarter the Green Wave team was just too much for the Viking team to handle. The Holy name offense is great, but their defense, especially their defensive line was physically dominating the opponent.
Viking QB Shidone was running and scrambling for his life throughout the game which led to an injury, hurried throws, and poor field position throughout the first half.
The Holy Name Green Wave will be an interesting team to watch the rest of the playoffs. They are a physical team, with team defense, and a number of players on offense that shine bright especially Williams at QB.
Running back Sanchez at 230 lbs is a beast, and a nightmare for opposing coaches. The Green Wave is a complete team and a joy to watch them play the game of football.
Please update our quarterback’s name to Jayvon. Thank you 💚🏈 also if you name some D-line players that would be fantastic. Keep watching HN Green Wave