Waterford tops Fairbanks 34-14, moves on to face rival Fort Frye
By: Jaden Davis
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WATERFORD, Ohio (WOUB) — The Waterford Wildcats hosted tonight’s Division VI playoff game vs the Fairbanks Panthers and defeated them 34-14.
The game started with The Wildcats starting with the ball, as the Panthers won the toss. The Wildcats struck first on the board after a few rushes by QB Hayden Jones and Colten Jones. The drive would be capped off by a rush by Hayden to go up 7 to 0 early in the first.
The Panthers got the ball with a lot of clocks left in the quarter. But the Wildcats wouldn’t let them get anything going on the ground as they shut down the run game completely. This would lead to a fake punt on their first drive, but they didn’t get it.
The Wildcats would take this and run with it. They set themselves with some good runs and then Jones passed it to Max Roberts who was wide open for a touchdown. This would get them up by 14 in the first quarter and take advantage of the ground game.
The Panthers would try to drive down the field but were once again stopped by the pressure of the Wildcat defense. The Wildcats were using all they could to help stop the Panthers as they would get the Croud loud enough to where the Panthers couldn’t hear the play call and had to burn some timeouts.
The Wildcats got on the board to start the second quarter with a rush by Colten Jones to put them up 20-0 after a missed PAT.
The Panthers really needed a big play to spark the energy on the sideline and they got it when Finnely Pennock took an 80-yard kickoff return to the house to help the Panthers get back into the game.
Then once again the Jones brothers found the endzone, this time Colten Jones ran it in from inside the 25 yard-line. This would put them up 27-7 with little time left in the first half.
Then for the second time tonight, Finnely Pennock took a kickoff to the house, putting the Panthers back in the game 27-14.
After this, the Wildcats took over for the rest of the scoring with their last touchdown of the night by Hayden Jones to go up 34-14. Then the Panthers had a passing touchdown to end the scoring completely and the final score was 34-21.
Waterford moves on to face its arch-rival For Frye in the regional quarterfinals next week.