#RockReport - JV and Freshmen

JV

The Junior Varsity Westfield Football team had an outstanding end to their JV season with a 51-18 victory over the Bronchos of Lafayette Jeff. This win propelled the JV football team to a winning record for the season with a 5-4 record.

The Offensive unit for the JV Rocks was clicking all night. The night started out with a 6 yard run by Brandon Karsnick on the first snap for the offense. The next score came from the player of the game, Ryan Pepiot, to Max McCool on a 10 yard pass. The two later hooked up for another score and the big play of the night for the offense, this time with a 56 yard pass from Ryan to Max with love. Pepiot also scored on two rushing touchdowns on the night, one from 2 yards and one from 4 yards. The “Mr. Consistancy” award winner for the night was Julian Lytle, who ran hard all night and scored on a 5 yard rush. Jordan Grimes finished the scoring for the JV Rocks with a 3 yard run. With all of this scoring, the offensive line did an outstanding job led by Zach Krieg and Austin Gould.

The Defensive Rocks also had an outstanding game, causing 4 turn overs and denying the Bronchos offense on a goalline stand. The night started out with a bang when Cameron Harrison intercepted the Bronchos QB on the 3rd play of the game setting up the Rocks for their first score. Chris Davis caused a fumble on the Bronchos third possession which was recovered by Evan Harlan. Later in the half, the JV Rocks defense had a goalline stand led by Tyler Keller and Josh Heyward. The duo combined on two consecutive plays to drive the Bronchos backwards and force them to throw an incomplete pass on 4th down and caused a turnover on downs. Ryan Rubicz had a big night with an interception to end the half, and a fumble recovery in the second half. The second fumble of the night was caused by Jacob Pence and Noah B. Smith combining for a tackle and strip of the ball.

Special Teams rounded out the night with big play after big play. The first big play was on the Bronchos second possession of the night. Lafayette Jeff’s Offense was forced to punt and Jacob Eccles came screaming through their punt team and blocked the punt attempt through the back of the endzone for a safety. This gave the Rocks a 9-0 lead. Will Harrison made all of his extra point attempts and placed the ball perfectly on kick-offs so that Daniel Kainrath and Colin White could make numerous tackles. Gavin Cross also got in the action with a big kick-off return for the Rocks on special teams.

This victory by the JV football team insured that all three phases of High School football for Westfield had a winning record. The Varsity 8-1, Junior Varsity 5-4, and Freshman football at 7-2. This marks a great ending to this stage of the year for the JV football team. The players will now help the varsity prepare with their Resolve to Return and the second season of the year, the playoffs.

Freshmen

The Freshmen Football Team finished their season on Monday night with a victory over Lafayette Jeff 18-0. This victory gives the rocks a 7-2 record and a share of the HCC conference championship for freshmen. The rocks started out the game with the defense forcing a 3 and out. Jackson Garrett returned the punt and gave the offense great field position on the Bronchos 35 yard line. The offense stalled and couldn’t get the ball into the end-zone. The defense came out ready to go and again stopped the Bronchos offense. This time the Freshmen Rocks offense got into the end-zone on an Andy Sweet pass to Evan Manley for 25 yards. The defense came back out and Josh Tuffnell and Justin Frey did not let them get any yards. The two of them led the defense on the stop. Brian Skelton got a sack to force a punt by the Bronchos. The offense got the ball on the 45 yard line and was determined to score again before half. Caleb Sanburn and Jared Bayha lead the ground attack by rushing to the left side then the right side and mixing it up with a jump cut here and a stiff arm there. The ball got down to the 12 yard line. Then Andy Sweet threw a ball that was just out of the reach of the defender and fell right into the hands of Evan Manley for another touchdown. The rocks attempted a fake field goal by a shovel pass from Jackson Garrett to Hank Grenda but it got stopped on the 1 yard line. Making the score 12-0 at halftime.

The second half started with a kickoff return by TJ Trzil to the Rocks 40 yard line. TJ was then the running back and made a couple great carries and reads to get the ground game going. The offensive line of Asher Gannon, Austin Dollens, Greg Pietsch, Josh Tuffnell, Levi Gleason and Chad Reeh did a great job pushing the piles and keeping the defense out of the backfield. The defense stepped up in the second half forcing turnovers. The first was an interception by Carson Broshar. He made an excellent play and dove to catch the ball right before it hit the turf. The offense used this interception for another Sweet to Manley TD. This time it was a 33 yard pass. The defense followed up one interception with another interception this time by Connor Voorhis. He returned it 12 yards to the Bronchos 23 yard line. The offense faced with several penalties turned to Mitch Alderink to try and put the ball in the end-zone. He fought his way through several arm tackles but was never able to get into the end-zone. The special teams for the Freshmen Rocks were very special. On two straight punts the rocks forced a fumble and recovered the ball. The first was recovered by Hayden Russell and the second by Drew Neustifter.

The Freshmen Rocks team showed a lot of resolve this year fighting back on several different games to snatch a victory from the other team right at the end of the game. They put in a lot of hard work and have a bright future in this program. Congratulations to the Freshmen Football team, coaches, managers and everyone involved for this very successful year.

Awesome seasons, Rocks. And thanks go to Coaches Bennett and Pribbeno for filling us in each week! Now... Resolve to Return!