Defense flexes muscle to clinch 4th-straight SOC title for Pirates

WEST PORTSMOUTH — A Week 10 showdown with cross county rival Portsmouth West brought a hard-hitting, physical challenge to a battle-tested Wheelersburg team that had seen plenty of ups and downs this season.

In the end, Wheelersburg's defense rose to the challenge to keep West's rushing attack in check, and the offensive produced explosive plays at opportune times to give the Pirates a 31-13 win on Friday night and claim the Southern Ohio Conference championship.

"When you play a tough schedule you harden your team, iron sharpens iron. That's what coach Mike Bartrum said to our team at our leadership breakfast," said Wheelersburg coach Rob Woodward. "We went out and played some tough teams — Jackson, Chillicothe, Steubenville, those kinds of things is what sharpens us to put our best players out there."

The win secured the No. 5 seed for the Pirates in Region 19 and will give them a home game next Friday against either Grove City Christian. The Senators will also finish as the 5th seed in Region 23 and host the Versailles Tigers next Friday night.

Defensively, the Pirates allowed West to just 154 yards on the ground for the game. But in the second half, the Pirates 71 yards on 14 carries — with 43 those yards coming on one carry from Anthony Bishop midway through the fourth.

Wheelersburg also showed some resiliency on the depth chart as well. The Pirates were already without the services of offensive weapons like Stephen Hall and Cameron Conn. But on Friday, Graer Woodward was thrusted into the quarterback role after Jack Doerr suffered a lower body injury to keep him out of action.

Woodward was pleased with how effective his running backs were and happy Graer's performance at being able to handle playing both ways on such short notice.

"Canaan ran like a beast tonight with his strength and speed and Jay I thought did his best running all year," said Woodward. "Graer has been giving us everything he can defensively, but I told him you're gonna have to give us on both tonight."

The combination of Arthur and King sparked the running game, as Arthur carried the ball 20 times for 175 yards and two scores while King had 56 yards on 7 carries.

Through the air, Woodward completed 4 of his 6 passes for 95 yards and a score. His top target all night was Brew Hanzel who finished with a 3 catches for a game-high 96 yards and a TD catch.

The game would start off as a defensive slugfest with both teams punting on their first possessions.

On the Pirates second possession, they would go to the air twice and get the results they wanted.

Woodward would connect on a key third down pass to Hanzel for 8 yards. Then two plays later, Woodward would make a fake to Arthur and loft a pass down the middle of the field to a wide open Hanzel who would make the catch and burn the defense for 59 yards and the games' first points.

Gabe Campbell added the extra point to put the Pirates up 7-0 at the 4:02 mark o f the first.

West (8-2, 5-1) would find its footing on its next possession, driving 53 yards in 8 plays to tie it up.

Anthony Bishop would carry the ball 4-straight during the drive, including a 2nd down carry where Bishop broke out of the pack and went for 35 yards up the West sideline to the Pirate 6.

Two plays later, Tilton Rapp would take a handoff and plunge his way in from 3 yards out on the opening play of the second quarter. Eli Blevins added the point after to make it 7-all.

Woodward and Hanzel would hook up again on the Pirates' ensuing possession with a 29-yard pitch-and-catch to the West 37.

After a false start from the Pirates, King took a handoff towards the far sideline, ran through a defender at the 30 and dashed his way to the West 2.

One play later, Woodward took a read option keeper in for the final 3 yards for the score and put the Pirates back ahead 14-7.

West would get more prime starting field position on the ensuing kickoff and set up shop near midfield. Ratcliff would carry the ball 5 times in the drive to help the Senators get the 22 but faced with a 4th-and-3.

Keyser would make a play fake and try to dump a pass out to Braden Adkins but Jay King was right there to snuff out the play and give the Pirates the ball back.

But the big stop would pave way for one of the best defensive individual plays of the night on the next play, as Woodward's pass would be tipped into the air and caught in one motion by Rapp at around the 26 and Rapp would rumble to the front pylon for an interception return.

Bryson Montavon would come off the edge to block Blevins' extra point attempt to keep the Pirates ahead 14-13 with 5:23 remaining before halftime.

Backed up a their own 18 following the kickoff, Wheelersburg (7-3, 6-0) would need just one play to answer West.

Arthur would take a handoff from Woodward to his right and slide to the outside and right up the far sideline and shrug off a would-be tackler just past midfield and race 82-yards for the score and extend the Pirates lead to 21-13.

Wheelersburg's defense would bow up on the next possession by West and force a three-and-out and then get a short punt from West to take over in Senator territory with 3:39 before the break.

The Pirates would stay on the ground during the drive. One of their big plays on the drive was a 15-yard gainer by King to get the Pirates inside the 10.

But the Pirates couldn't punch it in and were forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal from the foot of Campbell and the senior's kick snuck inside the left upright to give the Pirates a 24-13 lead at halftime.

In the second half, both defenses would begin to take over as both teams forced each other to punt on their first 3 possessions of the half.

One of those key defensive stops came from Wheelersburg at about the midway point of the third.

West went for broke on a 2nd-and-12 play with a double move from the receiver to get open down the home sideline However, Woodward was able to break away from his receiver and go over to break up the catch attempt and foil a big play attempt by the Senators.

Still trailing by two scores in the fourth, West would be backed up deep in their own territory and be forced to try and get big chunks of yards.

From their own 12, Keyser made a play fake and went up top to Gunnar Shonkwiler, but Jonah Collier would go up with Shonkwiler on the 50/50 ball and win the battle for the ball to get the interception with 7:49 left to play.

Arthur would carry the ball four-consecutive times with his third carry being a 23-yard burst with a physical finish at the 3. His next carry would follow the blocks of Case Emmett, Hunter Lawson, Kouns and Hanzel into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night.

Campbell would add the extra point to round out the final score.

Wheelersburg 7 17 0 7 = 31

Ports. West 0 13 0 0 = 13

First Quarter

Wh — Brew Hanzel 59 pass from Graer Woodward (Gabe Campbell kick), 1:21.

Second Quarter

PW — Tilton Rapp 3 run (Eli Blevins kick), 11:57.

Wh — Graer Woodward 3 run (Gabe Campbell kick), 9:10.

PW — Tilton Rapp 26 interception return (kick blocked), 5:23.

Wh — Canaan Arthur 82 run (Gabe Campbell kick), 5:01.

Wh — Gabe Campbell 29 field goal, 0:00.

Fourth Quarter

Wh — Canaan Arthur 3 run (Gabe Campbell kick), 1:21.

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            Wh PW

First downs 10 9

Rushes-yards 43-252 30-154

Passing yards 95 56

Total yards 347 210

Cmp-Att-Int 4-6-1 12-16-2

Fumbles-lost 3-0 2-0

Penalties-yards 5-35 1-15

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING—Wheelersburg: Canaan Arthur 20-175 2-TD, Jay King 7-56, Graer Woodward 8-29 TD, Team 2-minus 8; West: Westyn Ratcliff 15-88, Anthony Bishop 10-53, Carter Keyser 2-4, Tilton Rapp 3-9 TD.

PASSING—Wheelersburg: Graer Woodward 4-6-1 95 TD; West: Carter Keyser 11-15-1 53.

RECEIVING—Wheelersburg: Brew Hanzel 3-96 TD, Xavier Miller 1-minus 1; West: Westyn Ratcliff 2-0, Zane Evans 2-6, Gunnar Shonkwiler 5-40, Tilton Rapp 2-6, Ryder McCormick 1-4

MISSED FIELD GOAL—None.