Get off me
Wynford’s Bryce Locker (0) stiff arms a would-be East Knox tackler while Locker’s teammates block in front of him Friday. Locker had 230 yards rushing and a touchdown in Wynford’s 28-12 victory.
By BRIAN HEMMINGER
City editor
BUCYRUS — After struggling on defense in a week one loss to
Cardington, Wynford went back to its roots to pick up its first win of the
season Friday against East Knox.
The Royals racked up 400 rushing yards while limiting East
Knox to just 30 on the ground in a 28-12 victory at Wynford.
“All week we’ve been talking about answering the call,”
Wynford coach Cyle Skidmore said. “I thought this week’s practice was really
good. The guys really picked up the phone. They answered the call and they did
things right. I really appreciate that by our group. They kind of put our
football program in the right direction tonight.”
The game remained scoreless until some serious excitement in
the final minutes of the first half when Wynford runningback Bryce Locker
ripped an 87-yard touchdown just off the left hash mark and down the left
sideline to give the Royals a 6-0 lead with 2:39 remaining in the second
quarter.
It only took 31 seconds for East Knox to respond as the
Bulldogs returned the kickoff past midfield, connected on a 29 yard pass play,
then a 13-yard run before quarterback Jaxon Lester raced untouched up the
middle for a 4-yard rushing touchdown to tie the game after the two-point
conversion attempt failed.
Wynford got the ball back with 2:08 remaining in the first
half on its own 28-yard-line and proceeded to march 72 yards down the field on
12 plays, capped off by a 4-yard quarterback sneak from Brayden Campbell for a
touchdown with just 1.8 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Locker passed
to Jake Stover for a two-point conversion to give the Royals a 14-6 lead at
halftime.
“We call that a death march,” East Knox coach Andrew Beatty
said. “We love when we can do it to teams. You just manipulate the clock the
whole time, control it, and they did a great job of that on their death march.
And they were largely doing it on the run, which is tough to do before the
half.”
Wynford had all the momentum entering the second half, but
East Knox got right back into the ballgame by scoring on the first play of the
second half as Lester found receiver Cason Faucett on a quick slant route for
an 82-yard passing touchdown. A two-point conversion failed to keep Wynford in
front 14-12.
“We kept fighting back,” Beatty said. “This is a group of
young men whose had their backs up against the wall a lot. We saw that tonight.
We just can’t let it get away from us and keep having to fight back.”
But Wynford never allowed East Knox to score again. The
Royals intercepted Lester on the next East Knox drive, forced East Knox to go
three-and-out and then closed out the game by turning the Bulldogs over on
downs twice.
“Defensively, the coaches have been preaching all week about
doing things right,” Skidmore said. “We’ve got to tackle. We’ve got to get to
the ball. We’ve got to pursue the ball. We’ve got to be in the right spot at
all times and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Late in the third quarter, Wynford broke through with a huge
51-yard rushing score on a run up the middle from Deegan Lutz to give the
Royals a 20-12 lead after the extra point missed.
The Royals then put the game out of reach with a
backbreaking 13-play, 50-yard drive that included four first downs and about
seven minutes of clock melted before Campbell scored on a quarterback keeper,
reaching out with the football to just barely cross the goal line. Campbell
found Stover for a two-point conversion to put Wynford on top 28-12.
“That was brutal,” Beatty said. “We felt like if we got the
ball back, we can make things happen because we’re a big-play offense this
year, but that drive of theirs in the fourth quarter was really deflating. We
definitely felt that.”
While East Knox had its moments, it seemed like Wynford
always had a response. Skidmore appreciated that.
“It spoke about the character of our football team,”
Skidmore said. “We’re gonna keep going. We’re going to keep moving forward.
We’re going to keep coming at ya as a football team and we’re never gonna back
down ever. I thought our guys did a really good job responding to adversity.”
Locker finished with 21 rushes for 230 yards and a
touchdown. Both Lutz and Campbell also eclipsed 80 yards rushing with a
touchdown as well.
After the game, both teams were able to put hostilities
aside and come together for a group prayer in support of an East Knox player,
Aidan Riggle, who is battling cancer.
“I appreciate coach Skidmore having the kids get together
after the game for a group prayer,” Beatty said. “It’s nice that these young
men, they’re opponents for an hour on the field and immediately after,
perspective happens as we look and reflect on life.”
Next up, Wynford travels to Western Reserve at 7 p.m.
Friday.
Score by quarters
East Knox 0 6 6 3 —
12
Wynford 0 14 6 0 —
28
Second quarter
W — Locker 87-yard run (kick blocked) 2:39.
EK — Lester 4-yard run (pass failed) 2:08.
W — Campbell 3-yard run (Locker pass to Stover) 0:02.
Third quarter
EK — Lester 82-yard pass to Faucett (run failed) 11:42.
W — Lutz 51-yard run (kick missed) 3:17
Fourth quarter
W — Campbell 4-yard run 6:22 (Campbell pass to Stover).
Individual statistics
Passing
East Knox: Lester 11-22, 170 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs.
Wynford: Campbell 5-13, 46 yards, 1 INT.
Rushing
East Knox: Boyd 8-18; Clark 1-13; Muncy 1-4; Lester
6-(minus 4), 1 TD.
Wynford: Locker 21-230, 1 TD; Lutz 7-84, TD; Campbell
13-81, 2 TDs; Massey 1-6.
Receiving
East Knox: Faucett 5-107, 1 TD; #11 3-46; Clark 1-8;
#15 1-8; Boyd 1-1.
Wynford: Massey 2-21; Locker 2-20; Cooper 1-5.
Team statistics
EK W
First downs 9 20
Yards rushing 16-31 42-401
Yards passing 170 46
Passes 11-22 5-13
Passes intercepted 1 2
Fumbles lost 0-0 1-1
Punts 3-33.0 3-32.7
Penalties 7-80 9-95
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.dailychiefunion.com ’
