SWS FOOTBALL - After an impressive 30-12 victory over Highland in their opener, the Seneca-Wauzeka-Steuben football team stubbed their toe at River Ridge Friday night–losing 41-3 to the Timberwolves.
Maybe stubbing the toe is the wrong expression here–after all the Blue-Golds’ only score of the game came on a 42-yard-field goal by Carter Lomas in the first quarter. Aside from the kick, things didn’t go well.
The Timberwolves scored two touchdowns on runs of 72 and 62 yards by quarterback Cole Crubel in the first quarter to make the score 14-3.
In the second quarter, River Ridge added 27 more points on two runs by Will Esser (18 and 4 yards); a run by Archie Cooley (9 yards); and an interception for a touchdown by Brayan Barrita. That made the score 41-3 at halftime, which became the final score when neither team scored in the second half.
For the game, River Ridge had 18 first downs and SWS had 12. The rushing yardage showed an enormous difference. The Timberwolves ran for 332 yards on 36 carries, while the Blue-Golds gained just 89 yards on the ground on 35 carries.
In the air, SWS threw for 60 yards–Carter Lomas completed 5-11 passes for 44 yards, but coughed up four interceptions, while Evan Payne was 1-2 for 16 yards. River Ridge’s Cole Crubel was 2-3 passing for 40 yards with no interceptions.
However, River Ridge did turn the ball over twice on fumbles, while SWS had no fumbles.
The Blue-Golds’ Gavin Ralph caught four passes for 36 yards and Zach Waltz caught one pass for 16 yards. The Timberwolves’ Ethan Hunt caught one pass for 37 yards.
Veteran SWS head coach Justin Goodrich seemed to take the defeat in stride.
“River Ridge played much more physical than we did and we were not able to sustain drives on offense,” Goodrich said later. “We will learn from this game and put our best foot forward. We need to focus on playing Lake City this Friday.”
