Fort Frye’s Gavin Rauch (11) carries the ball during Friday’s game against Waterford. (Photo by Patti Miller)

WATERFORD — It’s for certain that one play can not win or lose a high school football game.

That said, one play can go a long way towards setting the tone for a game and put the momentum squarely on the side of one given team.

That was exactly the case Friday night as the Waterford Wildcats came into the game against arch rival Fort Frye trying to snap a losing streak to the Cadets that is closing in on two decades long.

With three wins in a row the Wildcats had to like their chances but it took just 13 seconds for them to find themselves in a hole.

Fort Frye junior Gavin Rauch returned the opening kickoff 80-yards for a touchdown and the Cadets never looked back as they blanked the Wildcats 28-0 to pick up their 19th straight win against Waterford.

Fort Frye’s Kainan Bradford (10) delivers a big hit on Waterford’s Hayden Jones (3) during Friday’s game. (Photo by Patti Miller)

Rauch fielded the ball near the Fort Frye sidelines and appeared stopped for a moderate return before somehow breaking free and racing down the sidelines to give the Cadets the early lead and deliver a huge blow to a fired up Waterford squad.

“I try not to get too excited but it’s hard not to when you take the opening kickoff back,” said Huck. “That was huge and definitely set the tone.”

Both teams struggled a bit offensively early on as they exchanged punts.

The Wildcats looked like they just might regain some momentum when junior quarterback Hayden Jones broke free on a 40-yard run to move the ball near mid-field.

That drive abruptly came to an end when Jone’s pass was picked off by Cadet line backer Kainan Bradford to give Fort Frye possession of the ball near midfield.

Fort Frye’s Grady Hesson (2) turns to hand the ball off during Friday’s game against Waterford. (Photo by Patti Miller)

Once again the Fort Frye offense sputtered a bit and they were forced to punt the ball back to the Wildcats.

“We really kind of struggled to get going offensively there on our first couple of possessions,” said Huck. “Finally things started to click for us.”

For the second straight possession the Wildcats turned over the football as this time freshman Clayton Tulius intercepted a Jones pass to once again give the Cadets the football near midfield.

This time the Cadets would make the Wildcats pay for their turnover as they marched 53-yards on just seven plays with Rauch scoring on a 2-yard run.

The kick was blocked by Jones leaving the Cadets with a 13-0 lead.

Once again the usually potent Waterford offense would struggle as they were forced to punt the ball back to the Cadets.

After the early struggles to get their running game untracked it would all come together for the Fort on the next drive as they marched 62 yards on 12 plays featuring four different Cadet ball carriers.

Quarterback Grady Hesson put an exclamation point on the drive with a four-yard touchdown run.

After a pair of penalties on the point after try moved the ball inside the one the Cadets elected to go for two and Rauch made it look easy as he scored untouched to stretch their lead to 21-0.

Huck was pleased to see his offense hit on all cylinders.

“We were grinding and that’s what this team is built for,” said Huck. “The line was getting movement up front and the backs were running hard and they all did a really nice job.”

While the Cadets offense took a minute to get going, their defense was ready to go from the opening whistle to the final buzzer.

The Fort Frye defense limited Waterford to just one first-half first down and a grand total of five in the football game.

The Wildcats were limited to just 142 total yards in the game and never made it inside the red zone the entire game.

Fort Frye added a final touchdown in the fourth quarter on a Bradford nine-yard run with just two minutes to play.

Waterford head coach Eric McCutcheon made no excuses and gave credit to the Cadets for hanging the first loss of the season on his team.

“They were a good football team and we knew they were a good football team and they just get better and better every week,” said McCutcheon of the Cadets. “It just wasn’t our night… it started out with the kickoff and we got behind the eight ball and could just never really recover.”

Fort Frye rushed for 213 yards in the game on 47 carries led by Tyce Beardsley who tallied 100 yards even on 13 carries.

Bradford added 58 yards on 10 carries and Rauch carried the ball 14 times for 41.

The Cadets completed just two passes in the game both going from Hesson to Beardsly.

It was a rather quiet night for Jones and the Wildcat offense as he carried the ball 13 times for 66 yards.

The Waterford quarterback combo of Jones and Avery Pottmeyer was intercepted four times by the Cadet defense.

Bradford, Beardsley, Waller and Tulius each came up with interceptions for the winners.

While the loss to their arch rival is always a tough one to take, McCutcheon looks for his team to bounce back in a big way.

“We’ll move on and we have been in this situation before ,” said McCutcheon. “Playing these guys (Fort Frye) definitely makes us better and hopefully we can run off several wins in row from here.”

After suffering a week one loss to Barnesville, Fort Frye has gotten back to playing Cadet like football as they have reeled off three consecutive wins in a row against some pretty good competition.

“Our guys were pretty upset with the way that Barnesville game went and they haven’t let that go,” said Huck. “They have been working hard every week and getting better and better.”

Fort Frye will have a rare Friday night off this week while the Wildcats travel to Nelsonville-York.