Austin Hannah, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
KINNICKINNICK — Defense wins championships.
That old adage held true Friday night for Zane Trace in what showcased itself to be an important game in the SVC championship race.
After giving up a first quarter touchdown, the Pioneers (5-1, 3-0 SVC) buckled down and played dominant defense while the offense continued to roll, adding up to a 20-7 win over Westfall.
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
“We had a simple game plan, which was to not turn the ball over, cut down on the penalties and play our style of football,” Zane Trace coach Dylan Wears said. “The way we started the game wasn’t necessarily our brand of football, but the guys really dialed it in once the second half came and found a way to get it done. That’s the most important thing.”
After both teams punted on their opening possessions, Westfall (4-2, 1-1 SVC) made quick work of its next chance. Needing only four plays to find the end zone, Quinn Eberly sold the play-action and tossed a 38-yard touchdown to an open Landon Sparks for a 7-0 lead.
Throughout the rest of the first half, the Mustangs’ defense took center stage.
They managed a fourth down stop on Zane Trace’s next possession and followed that by forcing and recovering a fumble, keeping a 7-0 lead intact at halftime.
“The effort was there in the first half for sure. Guys were doing their jobs and playing hard. That wasn’t the issue at all,” Wears said. “We had some mental lapses, a couple of penalties and some problems with ball security. There wasn’t anything that we changed during halftime. We just reemphasized some things like playing cleaner football.”
The script completely flipped in the second half.
Zane Trace had the opening possession and sent a message that there was still a lot of football to be played.
The Pioneers put together an 11-play drive featuring a heavy dose of Brice Johnson in the backfield. In the end, though, it was a fourth down pass that put the Pioneers on the board as Gunnar McCullough found Mason Hartley for a 25-yard touchdown, knotting it up at 7-7.
Heading into the final stanza, Zane Trace once again pieced together a scoring drive, in part due to Johnson, as he rushed for a chunk play of 23-yards. Jayden Higgins then broke the tie with a 29-yard touchdown run to put Zane Trace ahead 14-7 with 10:06 left in the game.
“All the conditioning and work we did throughout the summer prepared us for that second half,” Higgins said. “We had to get our minds right during halftime since we knew we weren’t playing well. We had to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and start winning the field position battle.”
The Pioneers’ defense forced a Westfall punt, and that was the opportunity the offense needed to put the Mustangs away for good.
Zane Trace controlled the clock and melted away time before reaching into its bag of tricks. Higgins took a fourth down pitch and hit an open Mason Hartley on a halfback toss for a 24-yard touchdown pass, sealing the victory.
Statistically, Johnson rushed 26 times for 187 yards while Higgins had 11 carries for 49 yards and a score. McCullough finished 2-of-6 passing for 31 yards and a touchdown, and Hartley added two catches for 48 yards and two scores.
As for the Mustangs, Eberly was 5-of-12 passing for 68 yards and a score while tacking on 19 rushes for 54 yards. Sparks had two catches for 43 yards and a touchdown.
Zane Trace returns to action on Friday for a big-time contest against undefeated rival Unioto. Meanwhile, Westfall aims to rebound that same evening, hosting Adena.
“We have the same process every week, although I’ll admit that there will definitely be some extra juice and extra focus this week in practice for us,” Wears said. “I was happy with how we played in the second half, but we still have to clean things up and get better.”
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