West G whips Riverside

JON "LITTLE RED MAN" HALL
Star Beacon

August 30, 2008 04:33 am

— CHESTERLAND — The Riverside Beavers were their own worst enemy Friday night as the turnover bug-a-boo led to them being shutout 48-0 in a non-conference battle with West Geauga at Howell Field.
The Wolverines (1-1) and their visitors had a feeling out period in the first quarter as it was scoreless after one quarter. Riverside had two good chances to strike first, but was stopped at the West Geauga 14-yard line on a fourth down try early in the quarter. They had another chance at the start of the second quarter but missed on a 27-yard FG attempt by Garrett Biese that hit the cross bar.
The Beavers’ young running game showed promise, totaling 79 yards in the first quarter while quarterback Kyle Shaffer connected for 24 passing yards.
Not being able to take advantage of the field position made everything just snowball in favor of the Wolverines from there.
“We didn’t get too worried in the first part of the game and you want to be smart,” West Geauga coach Dave Bors said. “Feel each other out. After the first, we were still making adjustments.”
“In the first quarter, we were able to move the ball down the field and the defense was good,” Riverside coach Ryan Wolf said. “We moved the ball, but just couldn’t get it in. We were doing everything we wanted to do coming in. They had a good defense, which is fine. Then we couldn’t get off the field. That was a heck of a run by (Link).”
After the missed field goal, the ball was placed at the 20-yard line where the Wolverines would put together an impressive 13-play, 80-yard drive. Quarterback Lou Link (nine rushes, 47 yards) sprinted to his left after a collision with his own lineman in the backfield and raced into the end zone for a 21-yard score and a 7-0 lead about midway through the second quarter.
Then the next three and half minutes turned into a scene like that out of the Twilight Zone for the Beavers.
Riverside (0-2, 0-0) fumbled the next kickoff at its 11-yard line and three plays later, Jeff Corbo scored, his first of this two TD runs.
Again deep in their own territory, the Beavers had to punt, but a low snap and a knee hitting the ground by the punter put the ball at the Riverside four yard-line. Corbo scored from four yards out once again. Just like that, it was 21-0.
If that wasn’t enough, the ensuing kickoff was fumbled and Tom Kelly scooped it up and hit paydirt with a 12-yard return of the fumble.
The Wolverines added an exclamation point to end the half when the reliable Josh Puskar drilled a 29-yard field goal.
The Wolverines’ Kelly then had magic fingers again to start the third when he recovered the fumbled opening kick, this time picking it up in stride and sprinting 26 yards for another easy score.
Puskar ended the third period with another successful boot, this one from 30 yards for a 41-0 advantage.
“Our defense had been playing really well, especially giving up two scores in the fourth quarter last week against Padua (26-19 loss),” Bors said. “We need to be consistent and play four quarters. Learning how to win and how to finish is all part of the equation.”
The final West Geauga TD came in the fourth quarter after Riverside turned the ball over again, this time in the punting game, when the punter’s knee again touched the turf and was ruled down.
Joe Pinto took the next handoff for a 3-yard TD.
The Wolverines outgained Riverside, 246 to 92 in total yardage.
“We have to figure out what we did wrong and keep working on it,” Wolf said. “Our punting game was not real good. We have a stretch of games that we think are some winnable games. We don’t want to be (0-2). We just need to get better.”

Hall is a freelance writer from Andover.