BEVERLY – The Fort Frye Cadets held off a late push by the Marietta Tigers Friday night to walk away with a 28-21 win.
The Twin State League victory puts Fort Frye at 6-2 for the year.
Cadet running back Clayton Miller began the night 62 yards away from reaching the 1,000-yard rushing mark on the season and hit that milestone on his first run of the night, rumbling for a 66-yard score midway through the first quarter.
“Obviously we want him to get that 1,000 yards, and I’m really glad that he did,” Cadet head coach Eric Huck said. “Real proud of him. He’s a heck of a player.”
The Cadets continued pounding the ball on the ground and reached the end zone again on their next possession when Tyce Beardsley scored from 21-yards out, boosting their score to 14-0.
The Tiger defense responded by forcing two punts on the following drives and holding the Cadet offense to a field goal attempt. Fort Frye missed the field goal giving the Tigers the ball back with 6:17 left in the half.
The Tigers pushed the ball down the field with a 31-yard pass from quarterback Drew Warden to Seth Britton setting up a 16-yard scoring run from Carson Charvez.
“I was proud about how our kids were resilient,” Marietta head coach Jason Schob said. “They were down 14-nothing, and they were inside our territory. We got the stop and went down and scored.”
The Tigers came out of halftime energized only down 14-7 but just couldn’t stop the ground game of the Cadets. Beardsley scored his second touchdown of the night – rushing in from 37 yards away to cap off an 80-yard drive to begin the second half and Cadet quarterback Grady Hesson ran in another score from 19 yards away on their next possession to extend their lead to 28-7.
“That’s what we do, so we’re going to stick with it,” Huck said. “Whatever they were giving us, is what we were running. Whether it was (Miller) or Tyce (Beardsley), they’re both really good, and our quarterback ran the ball really well, too.”
Things looked bleak for the Tigers as they entered the fourth quarter down three scores but the team unleashed their passing attack with Warden finding wide receiver Will Tornes for a 16-yard score making it 28-14 with 5:21 left in the game.
The Tiger defense forced a three-and-out the next Cadet possession and got the ball back with 3:35 left in the fourth. Warden went back to work and the team got a pass interference call on the first play of the drive to put the Tigers on the Cadet 35. Another pass to Tornes, and an incomplete pass, put the Tigers on the 30 with a third-and-6 with 2:58 to go. Warden threw up a jump ball to the corner of the endzone to Owen Riley who elevated above two defenders to come down with the catch – closing the gap to just 28-21.
“We just made some adjustments based on what they were doing, and I was proud of how our kids were resilient,” Schob said.
The Tigers attempted an onside kick that went out of bounds giving the Cadets good field position to start the next drive. The Tiger defense again stepped up and forced fourth-and-2 from the Marietta 35. Just before the next snap, the Tigers were called for offsides, ending any hopes of a comeback. The Cadets were able to go into victory formation and run out the clock.
“We definitely thought we had a chance to come back and potentially win it,” Scob said. “We were hoping to get a stop right there and then go down and score and potentially make the comeback. And we had opportunities, but we just made too many mental mistakes.”
Looking ahead to next week’s game against Point Pleasant, Schob said the team will work on building consistency in the passing game, after showing they have the capabilities to put the ball in the air.He also mentioned cleaning up their mistakes.
“We have to eliminate those,” Schob said.
Huck said he was proud of his Cadets and praised Marietta’s passing game behind Warden.
“Their quarterback can throw, and that was one thing we were worried about – he did a nice job,” Huck said.
Huck said the team will need another good week of practice as they head into Warren to face the 5-3 Warriors next Friday.
“They’re another really good team and we’re going to their place,” Huck said. “We just need to clean some things up and have another good week of practice.”