The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Ground game powers Bay to victory
Bay relied on its defense to win the first game of the season, and its offense to pull away in the second win. In Week 3, the Rockets used a mix of both, forcing a pair of key turnovers and relying on their running game. It all added up to a 38-14 win on Sept. 8 against Fairview.
Andrew Veverka ran 12 times for 157 yards — 117 of which came in the second half — and he and Mark Olson each found the end zone twice as the Rockets (3-0) piled up 342 yards on the ground. It was Bay’s fourth straight win against Fairview (0-3).
“Our offense has played pretty well the last two weeks. Defensively, we gave up 28 points last week, but I think it was a heck of an effort against University School because they have a high-powered offense,” Bay coach Ron Rutt said. “It was good to see both sides play well tonight. We had a lot of guys step up in different roles tonight.”
Veverka, Olsen (82 yards on 12 carries) and Matthew Cover (50 yards on seven carries) had to carry the workload for Bay, which was without leading rusher Trey Psota (282 yards and five TDs in two games). Rutt said Psota did not dress because of “team rules.”
Despite the loss, Fairview coach Dave Latkovic said his young team was better than they were in a Week 2 defeat to Wickliffe.
“Our first three or four games are against playoff teams and we’re not that caliber yet, but we’re getting there. We were closer this time that we’ve been in the last two weeks. We’ve got to just keep battling and get more experience,” he said. “They were a bigger, stronger team but I thought our kids battled, showed some heart and we played until the end of the game.”
With the score tied 7-7 midway through the second quarter, Fairview looked to seize momentum with defensive stops on two straight series — the first a turnover on downs, and the second a forced fumble with their back against the wall inside their 5-yard line. The Warriors never could get out of the shadow of their own end zone and had to punt from their own 2, but the kick traveled only 21 yards.
“We came out with a bit more fire after that first quarter. I don’t know if they surprised us a bit from what we saw, but they were physical team and they drove it down the field pretty good on us,” Rutt said. “We regrouped and started getting after it a little bit.”
The Rockets took advantage of a short field, driving 23 yards with Veverka going in from the 15 to reclaim the lead, 14-7, with less than two minutes left.
Deep in its own territory and facing third-andlong, Fairview tried to run down the clock, but Cover stripped the ball from Jack Provenza and returned it to the Warrior’s 7-yard line, setting up Olson’s 5-yard TD run for a 21-7 lead 34 seconds before halftime.
“We’re not good enough to overcome errors like that, fumbling the ball on second down and then on third down we fumble again and they recover — you can’t make those mistakes when you’re still learning like we are,” Latkovic said.
“It should have been 7-7, instead it’s 21-7, and we come out of the half and have to have a better first series. That’s growth.”