Waterford Shuts Out Southern In Relentless Display of Wildcats Offense
By: John Curtsinger, Tyler Stevens
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RACINE, Ohio (WOUB) — On Friday night, the Waterford Wildcats traveled to Racine to take on TVC-Hocking foe Southern Tornadoes. It was military appreciation night as Southern was sporting camo jerseys and were looking to move to 3-0 in conference play.
Waterford had other plans as they immediately took it to Southern. Southern would receive the first possession and would go three and out. On the punt, a hefty return set Waterford past mid field and they would score 3 plays later with a run from running back Holden Dailey. A missed extra point would make it 6-0, but after another defensive hold, Dailey would score again from 41 yards out to make it 12-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The following possession, Southern quarterback Josiah Smith was sacked in the endzone by Holden Dailey to make it 14-0. Southern could never get the offense going and would continue to be stopped by the resilient Waterford defense. The points would continue as RB Dylan Taylor would punch the ball into the endzone to extend their lead to 21-0.
A sign of life for Southern would come as they forced a fumble from Holden Dailey in the redzone, but this would result in another three and out for the Tornadoes. Waterford would go back to their ways as they score from a wildcat snap to Jacob Pantelidis to make it 27-0 after a blocked extra point attempt.
At this point, Waterford had all the momentum, and they wouldn’t stop. They had shown all night that their offense could do it, but they also showed that their defense could do it as well with an interception that was returned to Southern’s redzone. A couple plays after, Jacob Huffman makes a case for catch of the year — the ball was thrown low, and Huffman got under it as he would secure the ball between his legs to make it 34-0 Waterford.
With less than a minute left in the first half, Southern would finally cross midfield but would be stopped on 4th and 2 to turn the ball over. The very first play for Waterford resulted in a 50-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Pantelidis to make it 41-0 Wildcats heading into the halftime break.
In the second half, the scoring continued — the final score would stand at 55-0, Wildcats over the Tornadoes. The game started and ended with Holden Dailey. He was the all-star for Waterford as he did work on both sides of the ball.
Southern will have to look to bounce back next week as they take on Manchester on the road. Waterford will have to keep their hot offense and tough defense in form for a home game against Shenandoah.