Pioneers hold on to bounce Bearcats
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
By RANDY PAYTON - Wayne County News

WAYNE ­ Wayne head coach Tom Harmon didn't run to the trainer's room in search of antacid following the conclusion of yesterday's Class AA semifinal against No. 7 Grafton, but no one could blame him had he done so.

Harmon's third-ranked Pioneers were forced to fend off a valiant fourth quarter comeback by the Bearcats in order to secure a 14-7 win on a sun-splashed day at jam-packed Pioneer Field. The victory sends Wayne (11-2) into next Friday's state championship game against intra-county rival Tolsia (11-2) at Wheeling Island Stadium. The game will mark the first time that two teams from the same county have squared off for the Class AA crown.

"It certainly wasn't easy and I don't think it was as much our ineptitude as it was their aptitude," Harmon said, referring to the win and Grafton's late comeback bid. "They were making plays all over the place and giving every one of us on our sideline heartburn."

The Bearcats (9-4), who were held at bay for the better part of 3-1/2 quarters by Wayne's ball-control offense and stifling defense, scrapped their patented ground game for a no-huddle, shotgun passing attack over the final eight minutes. The change produced a 14-play, 80-yard scoring march which culminated in a 2-yard touchdown run by senior fullback Jarod Shaw with 4:17 left in the game and sliced a 14-0 deficit in half.

After forcing a Pioneer punt, Grafton got the ball back at its own 38-yard line with 2:19 remaining in the contest. A pair of fourth down conversions, including a 37-yard pass from quarterback Zach Stemple to wingback Theo Frey on fourth-and-25 from the Grafton 23, helped the Bearcats reach the Wayne 15 with just over 30 seconds left, but a pair of incompletions and an intentional grounding penalty preceeded a victory-clinching interception by Pioneer defensive back Justin Followay at the Wayne 13 with one second to play.

"We came up a little short, but Wayne deserves a lot of the credit for that," said veteran Grafton head coach Mike Skinner. "They've got a fantastic team. They were physical, they had a good gameplan and they did their job. We didn't quit and we sure gave it a run there at the end, but we didn't play at the level that I thought we would today."

Harmon added that the nail-biting finish had nothing to do with a defensive letdown on the part of his team.

"We had situations where we applied pressure, we had situations where we covered their receivers well, we had spots where we put them in long down situations, we tipped passes ­ it certainly got interesting," he said. "Give them credit, though. They kept on making plays."

Although they found points hard to come by early on, the Pioneers controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the day and enjoyed a huge advantage in time of possession (29:40-18:20). Grafton had just 21 plays from scrimmage ­ four of which were punts ­ through the first three quarters.

"A lot of the credit needs to go to our offensive and defensive lines," Harmon said. "These guys don't get their names in the paper very much and very rarely do you see their pictures, but they're the backbone of our program. We played well in those facets today."

Grafton collected 122 of its 203 total yards and six of its eight first downs on its final two possessions of the game. The Bearcat ground game, which featured three players with more than 600 yards for the season, was limited to just 46 yards on 23 carries. Wayne grabbed a 7-0 lead on the opening possession of the second half when junior tailback Justin Gilkerson capped a 15-play, 72-yard march with a 3-yard TD run at the 4:44 mark of the third quarter. Gilkerson finished with a game-high 125 yards on 24 carries.

Followay extended the Pioneer lead to 14-0 with 8:04 left in the contest on a 43-yard scoring scamper. Travis Thompson finished with 72 yards on 17 carries and Followay added 65 yards on five attempts for Wayne, which finished with 300 yards on the ground as a team. Stemple completed 10 of his 23 pass attempts for 122 yards, including four to Frey for 65 yards, to lead Grafton.

"We thought we might go to the air in the second half, but we never had the ball in a position to do that until we were down two scores and had to," Skinner said.