Generals use late 1st half scoring surge to end Dragons season

PROCTORVILLE — Sometimes you can only hang on for so long.

The Fairland Dragons were able to keep up Ridgewood for much of the first half. However, a late surge of three scores helped the Generals build up an insurmountable lead and go on to beat the Dragons 49-6 in the opening round of the Ohio Division 5 playoffs on Friday night at Jim Mayo Memorial Stadium.

The Dragons finished the season 7-4 overall and a second place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference under first-year head coach Ron Wooten. The Generals moved their record to 7-4 and will be making another trip to Lawrence County next Friday to face top-seeded Ironton.

"Hopefully this is one of our worst seasons we have," said Wooten jokingly. "(Ridgewood) has been in the playoffs 21 out of 23 seasons and that's exactly what we're trying to model ourselves to be."

As expected, but squads tested each others rushing attacks against one another as they combined to run off 51 rushing plays. But it was Ridgewood getting the best of the Dragons by out-gaining them 257 to 78.

Logan Israel was the bellcow for the Generals ground attack with 122 yards on just 12 carries and scored twice. Bryce Tolliver, Drayden Stoffer and Brady Miller all found the end zone to give the Generals 5 rushing scores.

While the Generals didn't throw much, they were efficient. Quarterback Wyatt Marlatt completed 4 of 7 passes for 115 yards and a passing score. Marlatt's lone TD pass came midway through the second quarter on a screen pass to Maverick Lockard for a 49-yard score.

Lockard would also get into the end zone another time, returning a punt 55 yards up the Ridgewood sideline during the third quarter to extend the Generals lead out to 42-0.

Going into the game, Wooten knew Ridgewood was much better than their record showed and that his team needed to take some chances early on to stay in the game. Unfortunately, the gamble didn't pay off the way the Dragons wanted.

Fairland gambled on their first drive, going for it on fourth down with a lineman screen pass to AJ Brammer that came up shy of the line to gain.

Ridgewood scored in two plays with Israel getting his first score of the night to make it 7-0 at the 9:48 mark of the quarter.

Then on the second drive of the game, the Dragons dipped into their bag of tricks with a fake punt that saw Ford Rickard convert the 4th-and-6 play. Then Kinyon Smith's screen pass to Kylan Blake went for 18 to get the ball down to the Ridgewood 27.

But faced with a 4th-and-1, the Dragons would be stopped for a loss and the Generals took over at their own 23.

"Not scoring on that second drive really took the wind out of our sails. We got down there pretty good and had some issues with a couple things. But that was our problem all year, we'd get down there and get some chances but not quite finish."

Fairland would keep it a one-score game until midway through the second un

The Generals would get a huge play on 3rd-and-9 as Manlatt completed a screen pass to Lockard and the senior scampered down the far sideline to double the lead.

From that point on, the Generals would begin to roll.

An interception from Kory Belt set up Tolliver's touchdown run. Then the Generals closed out the half with a 62-yard scoring drive that featured a 27-yard pitch-and-catch by Manlatt to Andrew Kinsey and was capped off by Israel's final score from 18 yards out to make it 28-0 at the break.

The Dragons would break up the shutout early in the fourth as Xander Collins scored from two yards out for his final touchdown run as a Dragon to make it 42-6. The drive was also highlighted by a 30-yard burst from Christian Bompus to help set up the score.

Wooten praised his senior class and while it was a small group, he was thankful to have them for his first season at the helm.

"We've got five total on the roster and we'll have a lot of guys back next year but we're going to definitely miss them," said Wooten. "Xander Collins, Christian Bompus, AJ Brammer played a lot of snaps for us. Then Jayden Cyrus played for us in spots and Brody Allison as well. They were such a great group of kids to have for a first-year head coach."

Ridgewood  7    21    14    7  =  49

Fairland 0      0    0    6  =  6

First Quarter

R — Logan Israel 1 run (Jadon Smoulder kick), 9:48.

Second Quarter

R — Maverick Lockard 49 pass from Wyatt Marlatt (Jadon Smoulder kick), 6:25.

R — Bryce Tolliver 7 run (Jadon Smoulder kick), 4:21.

R — Logan Israel 18 run (Jadon Smoulder kick), 1:01.

Third Quarter

R — Drayden Stoffer 1 run (Jadon Smoulder kick), 9:24.

R — Maverick Lockard 55 punt return (Jadon Smoulder kick), 5:23.

Fourth Quarter

Fa — Xander Collins 2 run (run failed), 8:41.

R — Brady Miller 23 run (Jadon Smoulder kick), 4:30.

———————

            R    Fa

First downs   13   7

Rushes-yards 26-257 25-78

Passing yards   115     38

Total yards   372     116

Cmp-Att-Int  4-7-0 7-13-2

Fumbles-lost     2-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 6-55 2-16

Punts-average     1-39.0 3-25.33

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING — Ridgewood: Wyatt Marlatt 5-15, Drayden Stoffer 3-5 TD, Bryce Tolliver 3-25 TD, Logan Israel 12-122 2-TD, Josh Young 1-64, Maverick Lockard 1-6, Brady Miller 1-23 TD; Fairland: Kinyon Smith 4-minus 2, Ford Rickard 1-6, Kylan Blake 6-20, Christian Bompus 8-45, Xander Collins 6-9 TD.

PASSING — Ridgewood: Wyatt Marlatt 5-7-0 113 TD; Fairland: Kinyon Smith 7-13-2 38.

RECEIVING — Ridgewood: Andrew Kinsey 1-27, Maverick Lockard 1-49 TD, Christian Horstmann 2-39; Fairland: Ford Rickard 2-17, Kylan Blake 2-13, Xander Collins 2-11, AJ Brammer 1-minus 3.