Breaking News
Local Sports

‘We needed that’: Waterford reigns in TVC showdown vs. Eastern

By Jay W. Bennett 6 min read

WATERFORD – Finn Pennock's offensive debut started and ended the scoring with a touchdown reception here Friday night as Waterford's defense put on a dominating effort in a 35-0 Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division victory versus Eastern.

Pennock, who had one of the Wildcats' three interceptions, hauled in a 39-yard scoring strike from Avery Pottmeyer with 3:24 left in the opening stanza as the hosts had all the points they would end up needing after Cale Harris booted the first of his five extra points.

"These past two games, not the outcome we wanted but it made us better for sure," admitted Pennock, who had three grabs for a game-high 115 stripes as Pottmeyer completed 12 of 16 aerials for 219 yards that included a 62-yard bomb to Pennock at 6:39 of the fourth, which started the running clock.

"I've only been playing defense and then Kam Johnson, who has been playing the position I filled in today, got hurt last week on a sprained ankle, so I walk in Monday to practice and coach is like 'how do you feel about filling in' and I was like 'oh, I don't know,' and then I just came in and then I showed up I guess," Pennock added.

Eastern, which slipped to 4-2 for head man Jason Jackson with a road trip up next Friday to Federal Hocking, managed to drive the ball to the WHS 28 despite a trio of holding calls on the opening possession of the game, but turned the ball over on downs.

The Eagles' next drive stalled at the Waterford 40, but Trace Barnett picked off Pottmeyer. However, the WHS defense forced a three-and-out.

Waterford was driving and got into the red zone on its next series, but Jake Parker forced a fumble on Hayden Jones, who had game-highs of 24 carries and 106 yards, that was recovered by Blaise Gilmore.

Braxton Yonker hooked up with Clay Moore for a 12-yard gain and a first down for the visitors, who then used a couple of short passes to Parker Durst to get the ball across midfield. However, the drive ended when Jones picked off Yonker, which allowed the hosts to take over at their own 43.

Pottmeyer, who added 75 ground yards on a dozen totes, ripped off a 15-yard gain on first down. He then found Jones for a 19-yard completion and Braydon Smith for a gain of 16 yards to make it first-and-goal at the 7. Despite a holding call, the Wildcats of head coach Eric McCutcheon grabbed a 14-0 halftime advantage as Pottmeyer hit Jones for a 17-yard touchdown with 41.7 ticks left on the clock.

Runs of 15 yards by Jones and a 9-yard gain by Pottmeyer to open the second half along with a personal foul penalty on Eastern, which was flagged 11 times for 115 yards, got the hosts into the red zone. Pottmeyer then hooked up with tight end Lucas Roberts for a 15-yard score in the front corner of the end zone to make it 21-0 just 75 seconds into the third.

"It means a lot to us," Pottmeyer said of the win. "That's a pretty big rival for us. Coming off a couple losses we just needed to get something going and get our spirits back up this week.

"Everybody stepped up. Everybody did their role great tonight. We just played as a team and stuck together through it all."

Eastern appeared as though it would respond on the ensuing series as a personal foul against Waterford, which had 10 infractions for 90 yards, got the ball across midfield. The visitors went to a hurry-up offense and Kyler Basham, who had 17 carries for 83 stripes, broke off runs of 12 and 13 yards to get into the red zone. However, the drive stalled at the WHS 16.

"We needed that," said coach McCutcheon, whose 4-2 squad snapped a two-game losing skid after falling to Fort Frye and Nelsonville-York and welcomes in Southern next Friday. "That was a brutal stretch, but our kids kept their heads up.

"We kept getting better at what we were bad at against the really, really good teams and that's what you got to do. We stack that schedule up for games like this. We're now in our league and we feel like we got some things rolling now. Our kids are playing with some confidence now, which is big."

Eastern's next two drives ended with interceptions by Carson Farmer and Pennock.

Following the pick by Pennock, the Wildcats had it first-and-goal at the 3 after a Jones 26-yard burst. Pottmeyer ended up throwing his fourth TD of the night when he hit Brayden Smith out of the backfield and he made a would-be tackler miss at the 5 and waltzed into the end zone.

"Jason's got a solid ballclub there. They are a solid football team. Solid upfront. Their backs are quick. They have a really good quarterback, but our defensive coaches, great job to them," added McCutcheon, whose squad had Eastern doubled up in total yards at intermission, 218-109, while finishing with a 399-172 advantage.

"They put a great gameplan in. We had some guys down today, so some guys stepped up for us that's played some big minutes for us and we've got a lot of kids playing with confidence right now."

Jones added 58 receiving yards on a quartet of receptions as the Wildcats pitched their first shutout versus Eastern since a 53-0 victory back in 2007 at East Shade River Stadium.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Waterford 35, Eastern 0

EHS (4-2) 0 0 0 0 – 0

WHS (4-2) 7 7 7 14 – 35

W: Finn Pennock 39 pass from Avery Pottmeyer (Cale Harris kick) 3:24, 1st

W: Hayden Jones 17 pass from Pottmeyer (Harris kick) 41.7, 2nd

W: Lucas Roberts 15 pass from Pottmeyer (Harris kick) 10:45, 3rd

W: Braydon Smith 3 pass from Pottmeyer (Harris kick) 9:44, 4th

W: Pennock 62 pass from Pottmeyer (Harris kick) 6:39, 4th

Team stats

EHS: First downs: 10; Rushes-yards: 36-117; Passing yards: 55; Total yards: 172; Passing: 7-19-3; Punts-average: 3-32.0; Fumbles-lost: 0-0; Penalties-yards: 11-115

WHS: First downs: 24; Rushes-yards: 39-180; Passing yards: 219; Total yards: 399; Passing: 12-16-1; Punts-average: 1-30; Fumbles-lost: 3-1; Penalties-yards: 10-90

Individual stats

EHS: Rushing: Trace Barnett 1-(-2), Braxton Yonker 6-8, Parker Durst 12-28, Kyler Basham 17-83; Passing: Basham 0-1-0, 0 yards; Yonker 7-18-3, 55 yards; Receiving: Brison Schuler 2-15, Blaise Gilmore 1-13, Durst 3-15, Clay Moore 1-12

WHS: Rushing: Team 2-(-10), Avery Pottmeyer 12-75, Hayden Jones 24-106, Finn Pennock 1-9; Passing: Pottmeyer 12-16-1, 219 yards; Receiving: Devin Pottmeyer 1-1, Lucas Roberts 1-15, Jones 4-58, Pennock 3-115, Gavin Hiener 1-11, Braydon Smith 2-19

Next games: Eastern at Federal Hocking on Friday; Southern at Waterford on Friday.

Starting at /week.