The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
SKIPPERS FACE PV
The first of what could end up being two rounds of a showdown for Northeastern Athletic Conference supremacy went to visiting Pymatuning Valley, which laid a 42-7 thrashing on Fairport at Greig Field on Sept. 18.
Powered by a significant size advantage along the line of scrimmage along with a bruising, physical playing style, the Lakers broke open a game that was within Fairport’s reach late in the third quarter with three touchdowns in the final 13 minutes.
If both teams hold serve in their league contests next week — Fairport travels to St. John and Pymatuning Valley plays Vienna Mathews — they’ll meet in a rematch with the NAC Championship on the line Oct. 2 in Andover.
“They beat us up pretty good,” Fairport coach Cameron Ruff said. “We had four of our top guys go down (with injuries). Credit to them. They played hard, they came out and took it to us. It was a close game, then they got some separation at the end.”
Pymatuning Valley (4-0) finished with 301 yards of offense, including 250 on the ground. Dillon Knowles ran for 154 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, and Jonah Wilkerson had a pair of TD runs. The Lakers won the turnover battle, 4-0.
“That’s our game plan, to be physical for four quarters,” PV coach Neal Croston said. “We knew with them being a little undersized, we’d wear on them. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times with penalties early on. Give them credit for staying with it for three and a half quarters, and we just needed to keep playing physical.”
Both teams did things to hurt themselves in the first half. The Lakers had some critical penalties, including one that wiped out a scoring run and another that extended a Skipper drive.
Fairport, meanwhile, had two bad punt snaps that gave PV the ball in its territory, and fumbled on a sack inside its own 5-yard line.
Wilkerson scored on a 5-yard run to cap a 40-yard drive, QB Tyler Bean tallied on a 4-yard run right after the Skipper fumble, and Wilkerson found paydirt again four plays after
a bad snap on a punt put the ball on the Fairport 20yard line.
The Fairport offense came to life late in the second quarter, aided by a personal foul call on the Lakers on a third-and-11 play.
Fairport sophomore QB Will Fazekas fired a 25-yard strike into the end zone to junior wide receiver Tai Malone, who made a diving grab for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 20-7 and help the Skippers become the first team to score on PV this season.
The Skippers had a chance to cut even further into their deficit in the third quarter, when Fazekas appeared to connect with Sam Honkala for a 35-yard scoring play, but the referees ruled that the ball hit the ground.
“He’s a young guy, it’s just his fourth start,” Ruff said of the 6-foot-3, 250-pound Fazekas. “I thought he played well. He started stepping up in the pocket, he started getting around the edge on rollouts, he hit some pretty big passes.”
Knowles capped a nineplay, 65-yard drive with a 7-yard scoring run, and the Lakers tallied twice more in the fourth quarter as the Skippers matched PV’s physical play, but wore down and lost the battle of attrition as the second half progressed.
Fazekas finished 7 of 18 through the air for 92 yards and an interception, for Fairport, who finished with 152 yards. Junior Josiah Cooper ran 16 times for 48 yards, Honkala caught two passes for 53 yards, and Malone grabbed three for 41. Dominic Knesebeck led the Fairport defense with twelve tackles before departing with an injury.
Ruff will not overlook St. John, but in the event the Skippers win and face PV again. he’ll look to prepare for that contest with the lessons learned in this oneand with all hands on deck.
“We’ll get healthy, get the guys coached up, and we’ll see them again,” Ruff said. “Our guys are resilient, they never give up.”