Wenning leads Coldwater to win over Marion Local
Article by Alex Sator
MARIA STEIN – Coldwater quarterback Keith Wenning effortlessly made the big plays and that was the difference in Friday’s Midwest Athletic Conference showdown with Marion Local, as the Cavaliers prevailed, 42-19.
The highly anticipated match up between two state-ranked contenders was the MVP Game of the Week.
Wenning – who also contributed 84 yards on 14 carries – was an almost perfect 22-of-24 for 204 yards and three touchdowns in the air. The Tebow-esque signal caller was the easy choice as the MVP Star of the Game.
Seriously, the man looked as if he were Arnold Schwarzenegger teaching a kindergarten class out there.
“Their quarterback, I don’t know what his completion percentage was (try 91.67%), but it had to have been way up, there,” Marion Local head coach Tim Goodwin said after the game. “I mean, way, way up there. He’s a nice athlete…
“And now we are going to have to regroup. It’s not going to get any easier for us, and now we are going to have to regroup.”
More on the truth in that statement later.
The Cavaliers have a reputation for living as close to the edge as they can get on offense. And it’s true that they are all about having fun wile playing football, but in this particular game they ran a balanced attack ¬– even if it was out of an unusually wide variety of sets.
So, on one hand wild-and-crazy Coldwater had 204 yards passing, and yet on the other hand they had 193 yards rushing… that’s not a crazy play mix, it’s a sensible one.
“(Marion Local) brings so much pressure,” Reed once said. “That to thrive you are going to have to execute. There is no other way, because if you turn the ball over you’re in a lot of trouble against them.”
Coldwater took the opening kickoff and proceeded to march 75 yards in 13 plays to take a 7-0 lead. Wenning found Adam Rammel in the end zone for the 10-yard touchdown.
On a sequence destined to make the folks at miamivalleysports.com look like geniuses (see for yourself at 2:20 of the video, as well as at 23:22 of the podcast), the Flyers almost immediately fumbled a snap to eventually set up a 1-yard scoring run, courtesy of fullback, Kurt Westerheide.
In contrast, Coldwater runs what they call a mini-gun offense, with their quarterback lined up either three or five yards behind the center. It looks really flashy, but contrary to public opinion neither that, nor utility, is why they use the formation.
“It’s just a preference that we have,” Reed laughed by phone earlier in the week. “I’ve been coaching for a long time and when you’ve had some things happen to you negatively, you learn to say, ‘Nuh-uh, no sir. I’m not going to put myself in that position again.”
So, the Cavaliers line up in the mini-gun. Surprise! No one’s teen aged sensibilities are threatened and no fumbles are usually the result. Now you know.
Largely the result of a fumbled snap (at 1:21 of the first quarter), the score was: 14-0 Coldwater at the end of one quarter.
“(Not turning the ball over) is just another part of their game,” Goodwin said. “That’s why they are so tough.”
Moments later, Marion Local’s Jared Prenger scored on a pretty 62-yard touchdown strike from Ryan Mescher to tighten the score–but Ross Wermert returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to dash any comeback fantasies the Flyers may have been harboring.
Undefeated Coldwater improves their record to 4-0 (2-0, Midwest Athletic Conference) and will play another highly regarded league foe in Anna (4-0, 2-0 MAC) next Friday night. It’s a rough deal for sure, but they aren’t complaining.
That’s because Friday was just the beginning of a long scheduling nightmare for the Flyers (3-1, 1-1 MAC) as they must play the state’s top ranked D-V team in St. Henry (4-0, 2-0 MAC) on Friday, before facing another potentially undefeated rival the following week in Delphos St. John’s (4-0, 2-0 MAC).
The Blue Jays, it should be noted, are the state’s defending D-VI champions.
Coldwater? St. John’s? St. Henry? All in a row? Not cool! That’s worse than anything that could ever happen to you in the post season draw.
“We were already thinking about that a little bit tonight before the clock ran out,” Reed laughed. “You know, how long does my team get to enjoy this? The answer is, we don’t. We have to get ready for Anna.”
And Marion Local has to get ready for St. Henry and Delphos St. John’s – or suffer the ugly consequences.
We’re talking about the kind of consequential ugliness that his team might have to suffer regardless of how well they handle the challenging situations positioned in their immediate future.
Niles Keller led the way for the Flyers with 138 yards rushing on 18 carries against Coldwater. Mescher was 5-13 passing for 131 yards (and a touchdown) in the losing cause.
A FINAL POINT OF EMPHASIS: Marion Local had no trouble moving the ball as they had a very respectable 281 yards of total offense (157 rushing) in this contest. They just weren’t able to make enough big plays, while their friends the Cavaliers were finding it a very, very easy thing to do.
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