MARYSVILLE – A week after struggling in a 28-7 loss against Wayne Valley (NJ) at home, the Lancaster football team needed something positive to happen on Friday when it took to the road to make the long trip to Marysville.
However, before the game against the Monarchs even started, the Golden Gales faced some adversity when their team bus was involved in an accident on 270. This caused them to be late and pushed back the start of the game.
To the players’ credit, they never lost focus and never wavered. Late in the first quarter, Lancaster received a huge pick-me-up when Hunter Metz picked up a fumble and returned 74 yards for a touchdown, and if that wasn’t good enough, midway through the second quarter, Braylon Young intercepted a pass and returned it 90 yards for a touchdown.
The Gales’ offense added another score late in the first half when Caiel Woody scored from a yard out, giving Lancaster a 21-0 halftime lead. In the second half, the Gales continued to play complimentary football and were able to secure a 28-14 nonconference win over Marysville.
“To get in an accident, we get here late, to go in and get taped, get dressed, and having to get locked back in after dealing with all that stuff, all the credit goes to our players,” Lancaster coach Bryan Schoonover said. “They did such a great job responding mentally to the situation they were dealt with because they had every opportunity and every excuse to come up with why they wouldn’t succeed and they didn’t do that. I am so proud of them because they had a lot of adversity they had to deal with and they dealt with it.”
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Gales' offense and defense played complementary football
Lancaster’s offense still struggled at times against the Monarchs, but it was able to do enough, scoring a pair of touchdowns on nice drives, and the defense answered the bell with two scores of its own.
Marysville outgained Lancaster 303-176 in total yards, but the defense held when it had to, and the offense made just enough plays, including a sensational 59-yard touchdown run from junior running back Isaiah Sweatte with 7:35 remaining to give the Gales a 28-7 lead.
On the run, Sweatte took the handoff behind the line of scrimmage, made an incredible cut to make a defender miss in traffic, and then was off to the races.
Marysville scored its second touchdown with only 1:35 left to cut the margin to 28-14. Before that drive, the Gales’ defense came up huge when it stopped the Monarchs on fourth down.
That would be the theme most of the night on the defensive side of the ball for the Gales: They would allow Marysville to move the ball but were able to come up with stops when they needed them, and created turnovers and turned them into scores.
The Monarchs went for it on fourth down six times, and Lancaster stopped them on four of those fourth-down conversion attempts.
“We had a ton of respect for Marysville, and we knew they were a tough football team, so it feels great to go out there and out-tough them,” said Lancaster senior linebacker Cody McCoy. “We preached all week that we had to be tougher than them, and we were. We had the ball bounce our way and when that happens, you have to take advantage of it, and we were able to score twice on defense.”
Schoonover said the Gales’ aggressive play on defense was all about having the right mindset.
“That is the mindset they had. Seeing the improvement from last week to this week, and seeing our guys get after it, that’s a choice you have to make as a person,” Schoonover said. “That’s not a coaching thing. Playing aggressive and bringing it on a football field, that’s a mindset a player has to have and our kids were aggressive and they played tough, so hats off to them.”
By the numbers
Sweatte led the Gales with 90 yards rushing on 16 carries. Junior quarterback Brody Burke completed 8 of 12 passes for 82 yards, with four of those going to junior tight end Kam Griffith, who caught three passes for 46 yards.
Up next
Lancaster improved to 2-1 overall and will begin Oho Capital Conference-Buckeye Division play next Friday and will travel to Teays Valley to take on the 2-1 Vikings.
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: After bus accident, Lancaster football finds focus when it matters most to beat Marysville
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