Recovery recovers

ROCKFORD, Ohio — If there was any question as to whether or not the Indians had moved on from their disappointing loss to the Flyers last week, it was answered by halftime Friday.

Clay Schmitz threw for three first-half touchdowns and the Fort Recovery High School football team reached the end zone on six of its first seven possessions in a 43-6 thumping of the host Parkway Panthers.

“This one feels amazing,” said Schmitz, whose Indian team held a fourth-quarter lead against defending Division VII state champion Marion Local in week one but gave up 16 unanswered points in a 23-14 loss. “Coming off last week, we thought we had them there, but you know, we end up losing.

“Finally all of us are coming together, meshing, and I guess we’re playing pretty good football right now.”

The Indians (1-1, 1-1 MAC) forced a three-and-out on the Panthers’ first possession, then proceeded to go to work offensively. Schmitz hit Regan Martin for a 21-yard strike on first down from the Parkway 44-yard line, and on the next play he booted to the right and found Logan Homan for a 23-yard touchdown.

Parkway (0-2, 0-2 MAC) botched the snap on a punt after another three-and-out, giving Fort Recovery the ball at the Panther 10. Derek Jutte plunged through the middle of the line of scrimmage on the third play of the drive for the first of his two TDs.

Jutte then recorded the first of his two interceptions following yet another botched snap on a punt, and the Indians took over at their own 37. Schmitz capped the four-play scoring drive, which included a 37-yard fade to Gavin Thobe, with a 23-yard touchdown by Martin, who beat a Panther defender for the jump-ball pass.

Schmitz wasn’t quite done with the big plays just yet. Parkway went three-and-out and Fort Recovery got the ball back on its own 39. Jutte started the drive with a 4-yard run ahead of a 57-yard touchdown pass to Thobe.

It was the third and final TD pass for Schmitz, who was 11-of-17 through the air for 244 yards — 184 of which came in the first half — and added 29 yards on five carries. Thobe and Martin each caught three passes for 94 and 92 yards respectively.

“We felt like we had some good match-ups, and with the coverage they were playing it was kind of like they were going to challenge us at the line of scrimmage and see if they could hold up in man coverage,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp, whose team has beaten Parkway each of the last six games and is 13-13 all time against the Panthers. “We were able to exploit that, which we hoped we could do, and things went the way we wanted in that regard.”

Fort Recovery, which opened the game by scoring 28 consecutive points, allowed 181 yards of total offense. Nearly a third of that came on one play in the second quarter, a defensive breakdown in which Parkway quarterback Elijah Rich hit Liam Ferroggiaro in stride on a post route for a 55-yard touchdown.

“We have to keep getting better mentally and learning, because that was a busted coverage,” said Niekamp, noting he was pleased with the way his team has been playing physically on both sides of the ball so far in the early season. “There were a few times where we got away with coverages that weren’t right. We’ve got to keep learning and keep putting ourselves in good position (so) when we’re in good position we’re making good plays.”

Following Parkway’s lone score, which at the time made it 28-6, Fort Recovery scored once more before half to reestablish its dominance. Owen Moorman was the beneficiary on this drive, catching a 36-yard pass to take the Indians inside the red zone down to the 18. The senior then covered the remaining yardage over the next three plays, bruising his way into the end zone for a 12-yard TD on third down.

Despite having just 39 yards on eight carries, Moorman was the team’s leading rusher. Jutte, who added a 6-yard score in the third quarter, ended with nine carries, two of which reached the end zone.

Both Schmitz and Niekamp praised the offensive line, which helped the Indians rack up 348 yards of total offense.

“In the past something that hurt us was our ability to get the ball out,” Niekamp said. “That is a lot of things — our offensive line firing on all cylinders, Clay making the right reads and getting the ball out quick. He did well with his progressions tonight. We protected him well tonight. That’s the end result.

“When you’re able to pass that well it can loosen up and open some things up in the run game. They were really going to stack things in (defensively) early on. We were able to throw well enough to be able to do both later in the game.”

Fort Recovery, which nearly beat Marion Local for the first time in program history, will look for its first win against Coldwater (2-0, 2-0 MAC) on the road next week.