Pirates, Brown roll past Waverly, 37-7

WHEELERSBURG — Along with a suffocating defensive effort, big plays from Elijah Brown and the rest of the Wheelersburg offense helped the Pirates rout the Waverly Tigers 37-7 in a Southern Ohio Conference game on Friday night.

Brown continued his hot streak with 119 yards on just 5 carries and two rushing touchdowns. Both of Brown's scores were the Pirates first two scores of the game.

The senior back went coast-to-coast on the opening play from scrimmage, going off the left side of the line and bursting through the secondary for a 69-yard romp.

Brown helped set up his second score when Waverly's punter bobbled the snap and Brown was there to make the initial hit, along with Brew Hanzel and Owen Wilburn to clean up the tackle. Two plays later, Brown crossed the goal line from 5 yards. Cooper Heimbach added the point after to make it 14-0 less than 4 minutes into the game.

The Pirates were also sparked by quarterback Braylon Rucker, as the senior play caller threw two touchdown passes.

Meanwhile, the defense for Wheelersburg completely shut down the Tigers, allowing just 35 total yards in the game and even registered a score of their own.

Already leading by two scores, the Rucker made a play fake and hit a wide open Kenyon Evans across the middle of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown toss to give the Pirates a 21-0 lead after one quarter.

The second touchdown came in the opening minute of the second frame, as Rucker navigated around inside the pocket and finally found Brycen Longfellow standing alone in the end zone and hit his receiver for the 6-yard score.

The Pirates generated one more offensive drive before halftime and turned it into points.

Backed up at their own 3, the Pirates got two huge runs to get out of their own end zone. The first came from Rucker, who called his own number and ripped off a gain of 22 yards. Then Brown ripped off the best run of the night on very next play.

Brown took a handoff off the right side, shrugged off two defenders with stiff arms and was finally dragged down out of bounds after a 33-yard gain to midfield.

The Pirates' drive bogged down at the Waverly 26, and Heimbach came on to boot a 43-yard field goal to give Wheelersburg a 30-0 lead at the break.

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In the third, the defense capped off the scoring for the Pirates.

Waverly's Briar Barch found himself under heavy pressure from Brown and tried to scramble out to his left. But Ison Emnett came free, grabbed Barch and knocked the ball out . Luke Kouns came in and scooped the ball up at the 1 yard line and walked in for his first varsity score and a 37-0 lead.

In the fourth, the Tigers put together their best drive of the night by going 65 yards in 14 plays to finally get on the scoreboard.

On the scoring play, Barch lofted a pass into the back corner of the end zone to Hez Nelson for a 10-yard scoring toss. Brian Spangenberg added the extra point to finish off the scoring.

The win moves the Pirates record to 8-0 overall and 4-0 in conference play. Waverly falls to 1-7 overall and 1-4 in the SOC.

The Pirates will be at Minford next Friday. The Tigers will back home against Northwest in their home finale.

Waverly 0 0 0 7 = 7

Wheelersburg 20 10 7 0 = 37

First Quarter

Wh — Elijah Brown 68 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 11:41.

Wh — Elijah Brown 5 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 8:46.

Wh — Kenyon Evans 10 pass from Braylon Rucker (pass failed), 6:10.

Second Quarter

Wh — Brycen Longfellow 6 pass from Braylon Rucker (Cooper Heimbach kick), 11:09.

Wh — Cooper Heimbach 43 field goal, 1:57.

Third Quarter

Wh — Luke Kouns 1 fumble return (Cooper Heimbach kick), 8:00.

Fourth Quarter

Wav — Hez Nelson 10 pass from Briar Barch (Bryan Spangenberg kick), 10:40.

———————

Wav Wh

First downs 5 13

Rushes-yards 28-25 18-212

Passing yards 10 65

Total yards 35 277

Cmp-Att-Int 2-3-0 9-13-0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 0-0 5-42

Punts-average 2-38.5 0-0.0

Time of Poss. 24:23 19:51

———————

Individual Leaders

RUSHING — Waverly: Sawyer Myers 1-minus 1, Hez Nelson 3-minus 6, Briar Barch 8-7, Jordan Poling 15-29; Wheelersburg: Braylon Rucker 5-44, Jay King 1-17, Jack Doerr 1-3, Stephen Hall 2-17, Elijah Brown 5-119 2-TD, Logan Whitt 1-4, Owen Wilburn 1-3, Damian Brannigan 1-5, Ison Emnett 1-0.

PASSING — Waverly: Briar Barch 2-3-0 10 TD; Wheelersburg: Braylon Rucker 4-7-0 33 2-TD, Jack Doerr 5-5-0 32.

RECEIVING — Waverly: Hez Nelson 1-10 TD, Team 1-0; Wheelersburg: Kenyon Evans 2-21 TD, Brycen Longfellow 1-6 TD, Bryson Montavon 1-11, Jonah Collier 1-6, Brew Hanzel 3-12, Graham Hanes 1-9.

MISSED FIELD GOALS — None.