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11/09 - 7:00 PM Football Final Tri-Valley 3 Wadsworth 13
DOVER, Ohio – For the second straight week, Wadsworth trailed by three points at halftime in a playoff game. And for the second straight week, the Grizzlies found a way to come back for the win, with a touchdown run by Mason McMillen as the game-winning score each week.
This time it was a tough 13-3 win over Dresden Tri-Valley in the Division II, Region 7 football regional semifinals at Dover’s Crater Stadium Friday night in which both defenses were relentless.
“We said this was going to be a sledgehammer game,” Wadsworth coach Justin Todd said. “I told our boys all through the week and I told them at halftime – it’s who is willing to swing their sledgehammer the most and the longest and the hardest. And we did tonight.”
With Tri-Valley holding on to a 3-0 lead late in the third quarter, the Wadsworth offense finally struck gold in the red zone, where it had struggled all night. Quarterback Trey Shaffer turned and handed the ball to McMillen, who plunged it into the end zone from six yards out to give the Grizzlies their first lead of the game at 6-0 after a missed PAT.
“My coaches put so much faith in me and they trust me so much,” McMillen said. “So when I get on the field, it’s never too big of a moment because I know I have my whole team behind me.”
Wadsworth (12-0) then did what it had done most of the night defensively – stop the Tri-Valley offense. The Grizzlies forced a turnover on downs with 9:26 left in the game at the Wadsworth 27-yard-line.
“We knew their defense was pretty good coming in so we had to do our job,” Wadsworth senior defensive back Alec Miller said. “We know what we can do and we trust each other. We just come out and play.”
After getting the ball back, the Grizzlies offense went to work and scored another touchdown. This one was a 10-yard pass from Shaffer to Tyler Montgomery on a fourth down play with 4:35 left in the game. It was a big play for the Grizzlies offense, even if the pass wasn’t caught by the player for whom it was intended.
“I saw Jack Simmons come across the middle on the slant and I was throwing it to him,” Shaffer said. “It was great ball awareness by Tyler to catch that ball. At that point, I don’t really care who catches the ball as long as we punch it in.”
The drive not only gave Wadsworth a 10-point lead, but it took 4:51 off the clock.
After another forced turnover on downs by the Wadsworth defense, Tri-Valley got the ball back on a fumble recovery on the first play of the Grizzlies possession with 3:10 left in the game. The Scotties drove inside the Wadsworth 10, but a fumble recovered by Wadsworth in the final minute sealed the win. It was the third turnover for the Grizzlies defense, along with interceptions by Miller and Jake Herbert.
“We knew we had to get our offense the ball as many times as we could by forcing turnovers,” Miller said. And we needed to keep them out of the end zone, which we did. It was big.”
Wadsworth, the No. 3 seed in Division II, Region 7, will now play Massillon in the regional final next Friday night, November 16th at 7 p.m. Top-seeded Massillon defeated Whitehall-Yearling 35-17 Friday night. The location for the game will be announced by the OHSAA on Sunday.
“What I told them is now there are eight teams left in the state (in Division II) and you are one of the eight,” Todd said. “You are playing for an opportunity to be in the final four. There are a lot of other teams who would love to be in our position.”
While the Grizzlies will be looking forward to the regional finals next week, they will also reflect on the history this team made Friday night when it comes to Wadsworth football.
“We have to enjoy this tonight because no Wadsworth football team has ever won 12 games,” Todd said. “That was a goal of theirs. We won that 12th game and why stop now? Let’s prepare for number 13.”
Ryan Isley is a freelancer from Akron
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