Long ride, quick work

BEAVER, Ohio — Despite having a home game and being eight seeds higher, the Eagles knew not to underestimate their opponents from the northwest.

Yet, the Tribe’s defense clipped the Eagles’ wings as their schedule couldn’t prepare them for a Midwest Athletic Conference opponent.

The 12th-seeded, No. 10 Fort Recovery High School football team rolled to a 38-6 victory over the fourth-seeded Eastern Eagles on Friday in the OHSAA Division VII Regional 28 quarterfinal.

The victory kept FRHS (7-5) undefeated in the playoffs against teams outside the MAC and earned it a date with No. 1 Marion Local on Nov. 14 in the regional semifinal. The Flyers won their 75th consecutive game in the regional quarter final, stomping Lehman Catholic 42-12. 

This is the first time the Indians have advanced to the regional semifinal since 2016, when they fell to Minster.

“Proud of how our guys finished through four tough quarters of football,” FRHS coach Wes Wenning said. “To come out on a three-hour bus ride and play with some field conditions that were tough on both sides really put a damper on the game plan and the things you had to do, so just proud of our guys and the way they finished.”

While the Tribe moves on, it ends the season for the Eagles (10-1). EHS came into the quarterfinal undefeated and had scored an average of 44.8 points per game this season.

The Tribe defense held tight nearly the entire game. The Indians gave up one score to Eastern in the second quarter, but it required the Eagles to complete a 27-yard pass on a fake-punt play on fourth-and-10 as well as an 11-yard pass from Eric Manley Jr. to Boston Webb on fourth-and-8.

Outside of that drive, FRHS only allowed four first downs. Three of them came on the drive to start the first quarter when Brody Barga used his head to break up a pass on fourth-and-goal from the 11-yard line to force a turnover on downs.

“When you see them in film, and watched them live last week, they’re not a 12 seed,” said EHS coach Scott Tomlison, who started the program back in 2014. “They play in one of the best small school leagues in the state for a reason. But we felt like on film we really matched up well with them. We really expected to keep it close and win the thing at the end.

“But, I don’t know what it was, we just never clicked tonight. … I hate to make excuses and say it’s from not playing a good team for three weeks since South Gallia. But we have been sitting for three weeks without playing and we were just never was able to get rolling.”

While the defense did its job, the offense provided all the support it could need.

Breaker Jutte scored twice in the first quarter — first on a 54-yard run down the left sideline and again on a 31-yard pass from Alex Gaerke — to put the Indians up 13-0.

Following the opening quarter, the Tribe got a large amount of its offense from Gaerke connecting with Colson Post.

“I’m so proud of Colson Post, No. 4, for seeing this season through,” Wenning said. “There have been games where he’s had zero targets and then there’s games like tonight where we called his number a number of times and he ended up having four touchdowns. He’s just a guy who stayed ready all the way through.”

The pair connected three times in the second quarter for 106 yards, including touchdowns of 44 and 23 yards.

The connection didn’t end there as the duo continued to find success throughout the second half. Getting consistent offensive production was a big focus during practice throughout the week, and the final two scores from Post and Gaerke helped put the game to bed.

“Our whole motto this week was, ‘Finish,’” said Gaerke, who was 10-for-17 for 270 yards. “So whenever we were down there, (even if) we had a couple penalties, we could rely on No. 4 to get us in the end zone.”

The pair connected again with 13.8 seconds remaining in the third quarter for an 18-yard TD on fourth-and-goal.

Once Fort Recovery got the ball back, Gaerke wasted no time dropping the ball to Post for a final 35-yard touchdown. (The score also broke the school record for receiving touchdowns in a single game held by several players, including Wenning.)

“Just (Alex Gaerke) being able to put balls on a dime tonight helped a lot,” Post said. “He does the same thing in practice, so practice like you play. …

“I didn’t know that I broke the record. But now that I know that it was (Wenning) I broke it from, it feels awesome.”