HOLMES TOWNSHIP — Seneca East coach Ed Phillips wanted to see more physicality out of his team in the past week. The Tigers fell to Mohawk, 20-14, a week ago, and Phillips felt that his team wasn’t physical enough.
“We weren’t happy with what we did last week,” Phillips said. “And I wasn’t happy with our practice on Monday. On Tuesday, we came out and said, ‘Guys, I don’t care if you miss an assignment. If you miss an assignment, I want you to come off the ball and hit as hard as you can. And they did it in that practice and the way they played tonight.”
Seneca East came out Friday night and dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. Tailback Jesse Beckman rushed for 180 yards on 26 carries and quarterback Gavin Hargis added 132 on 17 carries and scored three touchdowns as the Tigers dropped Wynford, 27-18.
With the win, Seneca East improved to 3-1 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 5-2 overall. Wynford fell to 2-2 in the conference, 3-4 overall.
Seneca East rushed for 334 yards on 48 carries, while Wynford finished with 86 yards on the ground on 32 totes.
Wynford quarterback Cobey Allen was sacked seven times in the game, but he did finish with 209 yards passing and a score.
“I’m so proud of this crew,” Phillips said. “They ran the heck out of the football. It’s fun to play Wynford because, in the last decade, we’ve both had a lot of success in this league. We wanted to come out and be physical and run the ball.
“We played really well on defense, too,” he added. “We had that same physical attitude on defense as well. We are so proud of those guys. The offensive line did a great job.”
Wynford coach Gabe Helbert said his team moved the ball well at times but thought his team was beaten in the trenches.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage,” Helbert said. “They dominated us upfront, and they did a great job, just running the wides and zoned up. They fitted upfront and did a really nice job establishing the line of scrimmage.
“We couldn’t stop them, and, when we missed chances in the red zone,” he added. “Three trips to the red zone and we get three total points. When you’re battling it out, trying to find a way to win, and you do that in the red zone, you’re not going to win. It’s that simple.”
The Tigers got the lead early on a 14-yard run by Hargis. After Wynford’s Trent Greene booted a 30-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-3, Hargis hit Luke Bischoff from 56 yards out early in the second quarter to take a 14-3 lead.
Wynford managed to cut the lead to 14-11 before the half on a 46-yard pass from Allen to Owen Whitmeyer and a two-point run from Kaden Blair.
The Royals took an 18-14 lead with 3:42 left in the third period on a nine-yard run by Kohen Keith.
But the Tigers controlled the game the rest of the way. Hargis scored on a 17-yard run late in the third and scored on a nine-yard run in the fourth.
“(Wynford) had a couple of drives where they ran the ball really well but, in the fourth quarter, we talked about iron sharpens iron and we kept banging and banging,” Phillips said. “Our guys really came through in the fourth quarter and made some big stops. I think that’s how we finished it off.”
Helbert said that his team was too inconsistent.
“In spurts, we ran the ball very effectively,” Helbert added. “In spurts, we continued to have breakdowns. It’s just a continued thing. Offensively, we were inconsistent, defensively, we were inconsistent. And we were inconsistent in the kicking game.
“We have to continue to coach them better and, from a coaching standpoint, to stay on our kids and continue to have a championship mindset every single day and we’ll do our best to try and do that,” Helbert added.
Box score
Seneca East 7 7 6 7 — 27
Wynford 3 8 7 0 — 18
Scoring summary
First quarter
SE — Gavin Hargis 14 run (Brandon Hines kick).
W — Trent Greene 30 field goal, 3:15.
Second quarter
SE — Luke Bischoff 56 pass from Hargis (Hines kick), 11:53.
W — Owen Whitmeyer 46 pass from Cobey Allen (Kaden Blair run), 9:40.
Third quarter
W — Kohen Keith 9 run (Greene kick), 5:42.
SE — Hargis 17 run (kick failed), 1:37.
Fourth quarter
SE — Hargis 9 run (Hines kick), 7:53.
Individual statistics
Passing
Seneca East: Gavin Hargis 6-11-1 54. Wynford: Cobey Allen 14-24-1 209.
Rushing
Seneca East: Jesse Beckman 16-180, Gavin Hargis 17-132, Mason Foos 5-26, Cody Heibertshausen 1-2. Wynford: Kaden Blair 12-81, Kendall Blair 7-14, Kohen Keith 2-8, Cobey Allen 11-(-17).
Receiving
Seneca East: Luke Bischoff 4-30. Mason Foos 2-24. Wynford: Owen Whitmeyer 5-111, Jaron Filliater 6-77, Avery Langenderfer 1-16, Kendall Blair 2-5.
Team statistics
SE W
First downs 18 16
Rushing 48-334 32-86
Passes 6-11-1 14-24-2
Yards passing 54 209
Total yards 388 295
Fumbles-lost 3-0 1-0
Penalties 5-45 3-13
Punts 3-37.6 3-34.0