SYCAMORE (Crawford County Now) — Good teams make good plays.
There was no shortage of strong plays as Mohawk shut down Upper Sandusky 41-7 at Warrior Field Friday in Northern 10 Athletic Conference West Division action.
“I’m tickled for our kids,” Warriors coach Eric Daniels said. “We are beat up, but we have kids that stepped up big time in the offensive line. We were missing 550 pounds upfront, but our kids stepped up against a good opponent.”
Mohawk has had a couple of bugs visit them that have taken out a couple of starters in the offensive line, but the way they played, no one would know that.
The Warriors (4-1, 3-0) took charge from their first possession of the game. After a targeting penalty moved the ball 15 yards on a third down and seven, Andon Clouse threw a 44-yard pass to Jagger Ekleberry for a touchdown. Aden Patrizi’s extra point was good, giving Mohawk the lead early, 7-0.
“It was a big game for us,” Clouse said. “And we knew that they were going to come out and pass the ball a lot and we got ready for that. We left our d-line go to work and we kept them at the least passing yards as we could.”
That’s what the Rams (2-3,1-2) weren’t exactly prepared for.
‘Mohawk had a really good gameplan, and I didn’t do enough to prepare my guys for this,” USHS coach Russell Hall said. “I didn’t prepare my offense and defense very well against Mohawk and that was evident.”
Late in the second quarter, Clouse hit Ekleberry again, this time for 26 yards, and Patrizi got it through the uprights.
After Kobe Beidelschies punted the ball, the Warriors started on their own 34 yard line. After Bish couldn’t go anywhere, Ekleberry threw a 66-yard pass to Rhett Leeth for a touchdown, with the kick good from Patrizi.
“Coach (Zach) Hawkins does a great job of coming up with wrinkles,” Daniels said. “He sees something on film, tucks it away for later for the kids to execute. They take a lot of pride in it and they execute it. In sticky situations like that, making plays like that can break a game. If we don’t make some of those plays, the game gets closer in a hurry. Then the other team plays differently when they have the ball. So Rhett being able to do that was a great play.”
Upper was down three scores as the board read 21-0.
“We struggled to move the ball on offense, and we struggled in defensive fundamentals,” Hall said. “That’s on me, I have to do a better job. Keegan definitely read the field and was throwing the ball, but we have to do a better job of protecting him and running the ball.”
Keegan Dunn changed that when he threw a 17-yard pass to Kasen Gottfried on a second and four. Beidelschies’ only point after on the night was good.
By the half, it was 21-7.
“We have to game plan better so that we have a better chance to execute,” Hall said. “It’s hard to beat any team that’s decent when you are being one dimensional. We struggle with blocks and who to block. You can’t move the line of scrimmage if you can’t move the ball.”
Daniels challenged his team in his speech in the locker room at the half.
“I challenged them to step up and play better,” Daniels said. “They did that, played better the second half than the first half.”
The Warriors forced Upper to turn it over on downs with 5:26 left on the board in the third quarter. Clouse rushed it in for a five-yard touchdown, making it 27-7.
Then the Rams turned it over again after a failed conversion of fourth down and one, putting the Warriors just 46 yards away from the end zone.
“We challenged our defensive backs to mix up our schemes a little bit,” Daniels said. “Our kids did an amazing job. They did exactly what we told them to do. They were disciplined, kept everything underneath them, and even when it didn’t go our way, we still made good plays.”
After two first downs, the Warriors looked to Clouse, who got his running legs ready as he ran from the 19 down to the one yard line. The next play turned into a touchdown as he plowed it up the middle. A two-point conversion made it 35-7.
Mohawk got the final touchdown of the night as Clouse showed how fast he could sprint. It was a 41-yard rush that gave them the final blow to the Rams and a running clock for the fourth quarter as the touchdown hit as the clock reached zero.
“A lot of being able to make the explosive plays is from both training and opportunity,” Clouse said. “Also, our coaches scheming it up to the best they could and just making the plays happen.”
Clouse was 10-of-16 passes for 143 yards and rushed 11 times for 101 yards. Kaden Bish had 16 rushes for 63 yards.
“I told our guys, Upper is like Margaretta,” Daniels said. ”I wanted to see progress and a lot of what Upper does is similar to them. They are doing the right things, but I also told them to enjoy the victory tonight because it’s part of a journey.”
Next week, Mohawk hits the road to face off against Wynford (2-3, 1-2) while USHS will welcome Hopewell-Loudon (5-0, 3-0).
“We tell the guys, we are taking it one week at a time,” Daniels said. “The most important thing for our guys is to never get too high and never get too low and just be able to progress from the back half.”
Box score
Upper Sandusky 0 7 0 0 — 7
Mohawk 7 14 20 0 — 41
M — Andon Clouse 44 pass to Jagger Ekleberry (Aden Patrizi kick)
M — Clouse 26 pass to Ekleberry (Patrizi kick)
M — Ekleberry 66 pass to Rhett Leeth (Patrizi kick)
US — Keegan Dunn 17 pass to Kasen Gottfried (Kobe Beidelschies kick)
M — Clouse 5 run M – Clouse 1 run (2-point conversion)
M — Clouse 41 run