Leonardo
By SHANNON DOVE
- THE REVIEW TIMES
LIMA — Lima Perry seemingly expected to grind down St. Wendelin’s 17-man football team by sheer force of numbers. What the Commodores didn’t count on was being down to the Mohawks 22-20 at halftime.
But the greater numbers of Perry eventually prevailed and Perry beat St. Wendelin 53-28 Friday night in Northwest Central Conference play, fueled by six touchdowns by sophomore running back Quis Woods.
Woods rushed for 199 yards on touchdowns alone, including runs of one yard, 54 yards and 48 yards in the third quarter alone. He added scoring runs of six, 11 and 79 yards.
“It just wore us down,” Mohawks coach Bill Hrabak said. “They have a couple of pretty good running backs and by series (Perry coach Dale Adams) was bringing them in and rotating them. I don’t think they quite expected us to be with them there at the end of the third quarter, but I think he knew that eventually they could just wear us down with the numbers thing and they did. The difference between this year and last year is (the Mohawks) just didn’t want to disappear and be forgotten. There’s a lot of pain with this game, other than the injuries. They don’t want the season to end right now.”
Kevin Turner added a 51-yard rushing touchdown for Perry and Tanner Hunt scored a touchdown on a 16-yard run. The Commodores also scored a safety when St. Wendelin snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head and through the end zone late in the fourth quarter.
Alex Shontz put the Mohawks on the board with a 47-yard reception of a Hipsher pass, catching it over the middle and dashing toward the end zone. Shontz ran for the two-point conversion and the Mohawks led 8-0 with 9:50 left in the first quarter.
The second quarter opened with a fourth-down punt from Hipsher, which was downed at the 11 yard line. On the ensuing play, Woods carried the ball for 12 yards but coughed up the ball when he was tackled by Hipsher, and Zach Gillett recovered the ball for St. Wendelin at the Perry 30.
Hipsher’s first-down pass was incomplete, but he hit Brent Williams with a screen on second down and the junior receiver turned and headed up the left sideline all alone for the 30-yard touchdown. St. Wendelin lined up for the kick, but holder Shontz passed to Hipsher in the end zone and the Mohawks took the lead once again 16-12.
Hipsher connected with Shontz again for an eight-yard touchdown with no time left on the clock in the second period to give the Mohawks the 22-20 halftime lead.
The Hipsher-Shontz connection worked one more time for St. Wendelin early in the third quarter as junior receiver pulled in a 79-yard touchdown pass to put the Mohawks up once again 28-27.