Sports
Green Wave Washes Over Maysville In Grudge Match
By: Noah Wolf
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Ryan Aeillo, Newark Catholic’s head coach, calls a timeout. His Green Wave is marching down the field, trailing Maysville 13 to 10, but seeming to run into a brick wall. Third and 15 at Maysville’s 33-yard line. Just over a minute and a half on the clock.
Green Wave quarterback Matt Carlisle finds Mikey Canning. The eight yard gain isn’t enough. Fourth down.
Carlisle drops back, but no one is open. He scrambles, spins around a tackler, and saves the game for his team. First down. 59 seconds.
Newark Catholic needed only six. Carlisle finds Grant Myers in the back corner of the end zone on the very next play to give the Green Wave the 17-13 lead that would end up as the final score.
Maysville would get the ball back in decent field position, starting on their own 33-yard line thanks to a kick return from Mason Swauger. They needed to drive 67 yards down the field in 48 seconds, but quarterback Cole Tompkins was sacked three times before a fourth down completion that was too little, too late.
That’s not to say the Panthers didn’t have their fair share of opportunities. Early in the second quarter, Quentin Stottsberry picked off a Carlisle pass and returned it to the Green Wave 7-yard line. Maysville ran four plays and couldn’t find the end zone, and the game remained in Newark Catholic’s control with a 3-0 scoreline.
Late in the third quarter, Maysville was trailing 10-6, but had strong momentum after a 57-yard run from Jonathon Brennan set them up inside the opponent’s 10-yard line. After a bad snap gave the Panthers a third and 15 situation, a dump pass from Tompkins to Easton Smith gave the Panthers a fourth and one. Tompkins handed the ball off to Smith, who lept over a pile of players, but his momentum was stopped short of the goal line, and Maysville turned the ball over on downs.
The fact that both of Maysville’s touchdowns were of the rushing variety is no coincidence. Head Coach Craig Clarke made it clear that the Panthers offense would run more than they passed, and that was certainly the case today. 206 of the 221 yards Maysville gained were on the ground. Brennan was their leading rusher with 59 yards on 4 carries, followed by Caden Mercer (12 carries, 56 yards, 1 TD) and Tompkins (17 carries, 37 yards, 1 TD).
Newark Catholic, meanwhile, had a fairly balanced attack, with 152 yards through the air and another 80 on the ground. One of their touchdowns came on a 5-yard rush from Canning, which immediately followed an 87-yard pass from Carlisle to Myers. Their other touchdown came from that passing combination, the aforementioned 18-yard strike in the fourth quarter.
Newark Catholic (1-0) will visit Seneca East (1-0), who in 2017 went 9-1 in the regular season before bowing out in the first round of the Division VI (Region 22) playoffs. Maysville (0-1) will begin Muskingum Valley League play next week when Sheridan (0-0) visits the Maysville Athletic Complex.