A loss is a loss, but the West Geauga Wolverines football team may have finally found what they were looking for.
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A loss is a loss, but the West Geauga Wolverines football team may have finally found what they were looking for.
The Wolverines remained winless, losing 35-25 in a crossover game against new Chagrin Valley Conference rival Madison Sep. 8 at Howell Field in Chester.
“They played hard tonight,” Head Coach Matt Rosati said. “We are happy with their effort, and they fought all the way until the end.”
The winless streak at the start of the season reached four games, and the Wolverines’ (0-4, 0-0) overall losing streak extended to seven games dating back to the end of last season.
The 25 points scored against Madison this past Friday night exceeded the total number of points scored by West Geauga in the first three games of its 2023 campaign and marked its best offensive performance of the season.
According to their 13th-year coach, the Wolverines have faced stiff competition so far, playing three of the top teams in Division III.
“With Chardon, Aurora and Kenston, they are three of the best teams in the state of Ohio,” he acknowledged. “We have a lot of young kids, and we struggled. There is no question, but our kids saw what it was like to play against what real competition looks like.”
In the first quarter against Madison, it looked like it would be more of the same when the Blue Streaks’ senior quarterback Carson Alley galloped into the end zone on a 17-yard touchdown run, pushing Madison ahead 7-0.
The Wolverines responded by engineering a seven-play, 63-yard drive capped off by a six-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Finn Keenan, and West Geauga then executed a fake extra point kick, and junior wide receiver Elijah Gudger scored on a two-point conversion, to propel the team to its first lead of the season with an 8-7 advantage in the second quarter.
Madison relied on its rushing attack to move the chains throughout the first half and extended its lead to 21-8 on a nine-yard rushing touchdown by sophomore tailback James Poe and a five-yard touchdown run by Alley.
“Madison is an effective grind-it-out offense,” Rosati said. “They have some pretty good players over there and are 3-1 for a reason.”
The Blue Streaks held all the momentum, but West Geauga fought back, fueled by a seven-play, 38-yard drive highlighted by a 26-yard reception by Gudger on a third-and-15 to extend the drive, followed by Gudger drilling a 29-yard field goal, cutting Madison’s lead to 21-11.
“It was definitely a spark,” Keennan said. “We started out a little flat, and that definitely got us going into the halftime and the start of the second half.”
But on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, Madison responded when junior wide receiver Knolan Albert hauled in a 60-yard touchdown pass, extending the lead to 28-11.
Another big play brought West Geauga to life when senior wide receiver Andrew Marino intercepted a deflected pass by Alley at the Wolverines’ 23, then Keenan hit Gudger in the end zone with a four-yard touchdown reception, followed by another two-point conversion, to cut the lead to 25-19 in the third quarter.
The teams traded scores in the fourth quarter, but Wolverines could not close the gap as the Blue Streaks leaned on their rushing attack, recording 200 rushing yards.
Keenan said his Wolverines were pleased with their offensive execution.
“We needed a spark offensively and defensively,” the 5-foot-11 sophomore said. “Putting up points offensively is a sign of good things to come.”
Keenan passed for 202 yards, had two touchdowns on 19 completions out of 27 attempts, and ran for 49 yards and a touchdown on seven rushes.
“Finn did a really nice job on Friday night,” Rosati praised his sophomore quarterback. “He threw the ball down the field tonight, and he is going to get better and better as we go.”
This week, the Wolverines will play another crossover CVC game against conference rival Lakeside at Lakeside Stadium in Ashtabula.
