Redskins blank Shawnee to advance
LIMA — Revenge, as it turns out, is just as good when it’s warm.
Wapakoneta earned a measure of payback — along with a playoff victory — on Friday night as they defeated Shawnee 15- 0 in the first round of the Region 12 playoffs. Temperatures were near 80 at kickoff, but it was the Redskins who have continued to be red- hot.
Wapakoneta has won three straight after losing its first four contests. They advance to the round of 16 where they will take on Hamilton Badin, the # 2 seed in the regional bracket.
Wapakoneta and Shawnee met a few weeks ago, with the Indians winning by two points. The teams battled through the first half of Friday’s game with neither able to put points on the board.
The Redskins came out and quickly scored on the opening drive of the third quarter. They would add a second score early in the fourth. The defense
then forced a safety in the closing moments to cap off the win.
“The attitude is, we don’t flinch,” said Wapakoneta coach Travis Moyer, when asked about the team’s run of success. “We’ve faced so much adversity through this entire season that we don’t even flinch anymore.
The guys that show up on a Friday night
come out and compete at a high level, and play hard. Our effort has never been in question all year. The guys just keep playing, and they’re great kids. We just have to work to continue to get better, and be consistent in all three phases.”
It was the first shutout in a postseason game in the Redskins’ history, and their second straight, following
a win over Defiance last week.
“We’ve always said if we’re going to be successful and have an opportunity to win a championship, we’ve got to play well defensively, and we did that tonight,” said Moyer.
“It’s a tough offense in terms of being able to defend the run and the pass. I just thought our guys played really well, especially in the second half.
“We did a good job up front of controlling the line of scrimmage in the second half. That’s really the importance of it.”
The Redskins defense held Shawnee to just 104 total yards of offense, and only allowed one third- down conversion out of 11 attempts.
They also recovered a fumble on a punt, and Brandon Schneider had a big sack. Garrett Siefring and Tyler Houser each had 4 1/ 2 tackles, with four each by Trevor Crow and Connor Meckstroth.
Junior quarterback Braeden Goulet showed his dualthreat capabilities, as he rushed 23 times for 151 yards, including a 19- yard touchdown. Goulet completed two of six passes for 22 yards with one interception.
Junior Jace Mullen ran 10 times for 52 yards. Noah Ambos had one catch for 13 yards, and Garrett Siefring had one for nine.
For Shawnee, Tyler Windau completed six of 14 passes for 40 yards. Tommy Spyker ran 13 times but was held to just 28 yards. Keaton Cooper caught two passes for 16 yards.
Shawnee won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff. The kick went to the end zone, and Shawnee started at the 20.