DEFENSIVE GAMBLE PAYS BIG DIVIDENDS FOR WAVERLY IN 31-7 WIN OVER EAST SYRACUSE MINOA
By: Tim Birney | WaverlyAthletics.com | September 3, 2021 | Photo courtesy David Alliger
WAVERLY — Waverly coach Jason Miller took a gamble defensively, and it
paid big-time dividends in a season-opening 31-7 win over Section III’s
East Syracuse Minoa here Friday night in non-league football action at
Memorial Stadium.
Miller’s defense pitched a shutout. ESM’s lone score of the game with a 78-yard kick return by El Rahkhem in the second quarter.
“This
is the first time since in the nearly 20 years that (defensive
coordinator) David (Shaw) and I have been together that we’ve played
man-to-man coverage,” said Miller. “It’s the first time in a game ever,
that we’ve played man-to-man, with two safeties behind, in what we call
Cover-5.
“Man, it worked pretty good,” laughed Miller.
“It worked pretty good against this kind of offense. If we do that against a Section IV running teams, it ain’t working.
“We
mixed up our coverages, too,” noted Miller. “We gave the same look, and
played some zone; that’s difficult to read. When you’re bringing three,
and covering with eight, that’s a quarterback’s nightmare.
“I
think we surprised them with it. I don’t think they were ready for it,”
added Miller. :I think they thought they were going to see a 4-4
Cover-3, and that’s not what we did.”
The Wolverine defense held
the Spartans to 219 yards in total offense — 129 rushing yards on 28
carries, and just 90 yards through the air.
“The big difference
in this game was us having five men in the box, making it difficult for
them to throw, and their inability to run the football despite us having
just five in the box,” said Miller. “I would have never thought that
would happen, but it was a risk we took.
“Our inside backers
(Cayden Turcsik and D.J. Shaw) played great, Ty Beeman played great,
Tyler (Talada) and Jake (Benjamin) played great on the outside, did a
great job containing it,” he noted.
“And having those two (Joey Tomasso and Jay Pipher) in the back is a safety net for the defense,” added Miller.
Offensively,
sophomore Joey Tomasso completed 17 of his 34 pass attempts for 279
yards and two TDs, with sophomore Jay Pipher hauling in six catches for
161 yards and one TD.
Miller was impressed with Tomasso’s decision-making in the win, and by the play of Pipher.
“We
talked about getting rid of the ball quickly because of the way (ESM)
brings pressure, and with how athletic they are off the edge.
“It was something we emphasized to Joey … we told him he had 1.75 second to get rid of the football.
“Joey did a great job. He kept his composure and threw catchable balls, and we made some great plays.
“(Pipher)
just made great plays. There were a couple times, he broke them down,
and got behind the defender, but for the most part, he just made great
plays, and great catches,” added Miller.
Senior Brady Blauvelt recorded five catches for 62 yards, and senior Tyler Talada added four receptions for 34 yards and one TD.
Tomasso was not sacked despite dropping back to pass more than 35 times.
“I
thought we did a really good job protecting Joey,” said Miller. “(ESM)
typically brought six, and we were able to pick it up. A couple times
they got away, and pressured him or hit him after the throw, but (Joey
Tomasso) has great feet. He’s elusive, a lot more elusive than he looks.
“(ESM)
did do a great job bottling him up in our quarterback counter game,”
added Miller. “They matched up with him man-to-man, and we got nothing
out of that.”
Sophomore Gage Tedesco led the Waverly ground game
with 68 yards and one TD on 16 carries, while Pipher added 39 yards on
five carries, and Tomasso added a rushing TD.
Miller said a big factor in the win was Waverly’s conditioning.
“(ESM)
got a little tired,” he said. “They were just not as conditioned as we
were. That’s always a factor in these Week Zero, Week 1 games … if you
look back at some of the wins we have in the first week of the season,
we are in better condition.
“It goes back to our conditioning
program that started in June with Eric Ryck running our conditioning,”
Miller added. “We had 40 guys here doing a well-organized conditioning
program, three nights a week, and that makes a huge difference.”
Another factor were the penalties. ESM was flagged 19 times of 179 yards, while Waverly had nine penalties for 79 yards.
The
Wolverines opened the game with a bit of trickery, as junior kicker
Ryan Clark recovered an onside kick after it ricocheted off the face
mask of an ESM player, give Waverly the ball at it own 44 to start the
game.
A 12-yard run by Pipher on a jet sweep, and a 31-yard
complete from Tomasso to Pipher quickly moved the ball to the Spartan
25, but the drive stalled there.
The teams exchanged possession, with Waverly taking over on downs at its own 28 with 2:35 remaining in the first quarter.
After
a first down on a 9-yard completion from Tomasso to Blauvelt, the
Wolverines used a pass interference call against the Spartans to move
into ESM territory.
On the next play, Pipher hauled in a 28-yard completion to give Waverly first-and-goal at the 10.
Pipher
nearly scored on the next play, but was driven out-of-bounds at the ESM
1. The Spartans stiffened, and Clark’s 19-yard field goal gave Waverly a
3-0 lead with 10:24 remaining in the first half.
After an
exchange of fumbles, ESM turned the ball over on downs at the Waverly
37, and the Wolverines needed just four plays to march 63 yards to take a
10-0 lead.
On second-and-10, Tomasso connected with Pipher for a
34-yard gain to the ESM 29. Two plays later, Tedesco broke loose off
tackle and raced 25 yards untouched for a score. Clark’s PAT made it
10-0 with 4:02 remaining in the half.
Moments later, Rahkhem
broke through the middle of the Waverly kick coverage team and raced 78
yards for a TD. Tyler Bell’s PAT kick trimmed the deficit to 10-7 with
3:50 left in the half.
The Wolverines took the ensuing kickoff
and march into ESM territory. They seemed poised to score after a
29-yard pass from Tomasso to Pipher put them in a first-and-goal
situation at the Spartan 3.
At that point, the wheels fell off. A
holding call while Tomasso was scrambling and trying to find a receiver
pushed the ball back to the 20, and Kayleb Bechy was dropped for an
8-yard loss on a jet sweep. The possession ended when Tedesco was decked
for a 3-yard loss at the ESM 33.
Waverly, which won the coin
toss and deferred to the second half, took the third-quarter kickoff and
marched 55 yards on seven plays to take a 17-7 lead.
Junior Nate DeLill returned the kick 14 yards to the Waverly 45 to put the Wolverines in prime field position.
On the second play of the possession, Tomasso hooked up with Blauvelt on a 31-yard pass to the ESM 20.
Senior
Kaden Wheeler gave the Wolverines a first-and-goal at the 6 with a
10-yard run, and Tomasso capped the drive with a 2-yard scoring run,
breaking a tackle at the line-of-scrimmage in the process.
Clark’s PAT kick made it 17-7 with 9:06 left in the third quarter.
ESM
quickly found itself in Waverly territory, at the 35, on its next
possession, but a pair of penalties bogged down the drive, and the
Wolverines at its own 6 following a 38-yard punt by Bell.
Waverly
was forced to punt after a three-play possession, and ESM had good
field position at the Waverly 29, following an 11-yard return by
Rahkhem.
The Spartans moved to the Waverly 13, but a bad shotgun
snap resulted in a 14-yard loss, and they ended up turning the ball over
on downs at the Wolverine 15.
Ten plays later, Pipher made a one-handed grab of a Tomasso pass for a 30-yard TD to make it 24-7.
Early
in the drive, Tomasso connected with Blauvelt for 10 yards on a
third-and-10 play. Later in the possession, DeLill hauled in a 19-yard
reception while falling flat on his back, securing the catch after he
was already on the ground.
Clark’s PAT kick made it 24-7 with 10:54 remaining in the game.
Waverly
finished off the scoring with a 7-yard TD pass from Tomasso to Talada
with 1:04 left in the game. It capped a 13-play, 95-yard drive that
included three pass interference, one defensive holding, and one
encroachment call against the Spartans, and two penalties against the
Wolverines.
Bell completed 9 of 15 passes for 90 yards for ESM,
including four for 34 yards to Rahkhem. Jackson Palumb led the ESM
ground game with 44 yards on 14 carries, and Bell added 27 yards on
seven carries.
Miller is pleased with his team’s progression throughout the preseason, following a 1-4 spring season.
“We’re in a different place than we were in the spring, and that’s quite obvious,” he said. “This was just a great team effort.
“I’m
really pleased with how our under classmen helped us prepare for this
game,” noted Miller. “We had a great two weeks of practice, and it
showed on the field tonight.
“This is a good win,” added Miller. “ESM is one of the best Class A teams in Section III.”
Waverly returns to action Friday when it hosts Owego.
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