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WHEELERSBURG — Dominance … both offensively and defensively.
That’s what Wheelersburg brought to the table on Friday.
And because of it, the Pirates are taking back the SOC II championship. After last season’s heartbreak in Week 10, ‘Burg got its revenge by a 35-7 final over West.
“I’m so proud of our guys,” Wheelersburg coach Rob Woodward said. “We’re a young team and a lot of people had questions because of the tough schedule. But we knew we were going to push through it and keep grinding. We were going to make this happen.”
CREDIT: Baylee Harris/SOSA
In many games, especially championship games, it can be about feeling out your opponent, trying to understand what both sides are going to do. But that was not the case.
For Wheelersburg, it was very simple — give the ball to Creed Warren and good things will happen. On the first play from scrimmage, he shot out of a cannon down the sidelines for a 73-yard house call, making it 7-0 early.
After West’s offense stalled out due to penalties, the Pirates made quick work of the Senators’ defense once again, marching 57 yards in just over a minute, capped off by Warren’s second rushing score of the night from two yards out.
And just like that, ‘Burg was rolling, up 14-0.
The Senators’ offense finally showed some life when Mason Parker broke mutliple tackles and galloped 23 yards to pay dirt, closing the gap to 14-7 with six minutes to go until halftime.
Although West had a burst of momentum, that quickly changed.
The Senators botched a punt, setting up the Pirates’ offense at West’s 25-yard line. Braylon Rucker then dropped a dime to Warren, putting the offense inside the 10, and Woodward trusted his big fellas to do the rest as Landon Hutchinson punched it in from a yard out, making it 21-7 at half.
As the third quarter got under way, the Senators desperately needed to find an answer.
Put simply, they didn’t.
The entirety of the second half consisted of just 67 yards of offense against the stout Pirate defense, led by Hutchinson and Jake Darling.
“Our defense has been that good all year,” Woodward said. “We’ve just been moving and molding some pieces so our guys understand everyone’s job. There’s a trust factor that comes into that through our leaders on defense and because of those guys, it’s all really coming together now.”
As the defense dominated, Wheelersburg began to assert its will on offense as well. The Pirates simply wore down the Senators as the game went on. The run game continued to roll through Darling and Warren as ‘Burg continued to trust their big men up front to do their job.
“We knew this one was going to be a battle in the trenches against these guys,” Woodward said of his team’s physicality. “We decided to be patient, obviously, you don’t always expect the first play of the game to be what it was, but we knew we’d been tested this year and our physicality could be trusted.”
Wheelersburg scored two more times throughout the second half, on a seven-yard run and a 55-yard reception, both by Warren, bringing his total to four touchdowns on the night to cap the Pirates’ fourth straight win.
“This scares a lot of teams. We’ve had our toughest schedule and we’ve not hid from that,” Woodward said. “This is a good football team and we are looking forward to the chance to maybe play some teams again.”
Warren carried the ball 13 times for 147 yards and three scores, while also hauling in three passes for 86 yards and a touchdown. Darling toted the rock nine times for 43 yards and led the defense with nine tackles and a forced fumble. Rucker completed 7-of-8 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown.
Mason Parker finished with 19 rushes for 127 yards and a touchdown for the Senators.
Both teams now look towards postseason matchups at 7 p.m., this Friday.
Unofficially, the Senators are a No. 8 seed in Division V, Region 19 and are slated to host Heath. Meanwhile, Wheelersburg, in the same division, looks to have earned the No. 7 seed and should host Columbus Africentric.
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