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GHS beats Cloverdale to remain perfect
CLOVERDALE -- When Cloverdale welcomed Greencastle to its football field Friday night; it was literally a tale of two teams. The Tiger Cubs are riding a wave of success the school hasn't had in many years, while the Clovers were just trying to make it through game unscathed and find something that works.
While Greencastle came away with a commanding 64-0 victory, both teams could count Friday night as a success. Greencastle was able to move to 7-0 on the season and Cloverdale found something that's evaded them throughout the start of the 2012 season -- a way to move the ball.
From the opening kickoff, Greencastle took control of the game with Tyler Scott leading an aerial assault that resulting in five touchdowns on the night.
Of Greencastle's opening 13 plays of the game, 12 were passing plays on which Scott completed 11 passes and three touchdown. It might seem like a lot of numbers, but it would be the theme of the night.
For the game, Scott collected 236 yards and five touchdowns while leading an offense that amassed 448 total yards.
"We're fortunate to have some depth at quarterback," GHS head coach Josh Buis said. "Our backup quarterback, I feel, is one of the better ones in our league. He has great vision, he throws a great ball, and to be honest with you, he runs a little bit better than (Nick) Gilliam. He's an extremely talented young man."
But Friday's game went well beyond individual achievements.
With the win, Greencastle is on win away from a conference title and a perfect regular season is still within sight.
Buis took a moment following the win to take about how significant Friday's win was.
"It's an exciting night. Tonight we had a lot of stuff at stake," Buis said. "This is the first time in a long time the Greencastle Tiger Cub football program was able to retain the bucket. It seems like every year, football loses it and basketball gets it back. That's a big step for this senior class to retain the bucket as a football program.
"It's always nice to get a conference win. After the game I told those guys, the only thing we're guaranteed is a share of the conference and we have to make sure we come out next week ready to play against Cascade because these kids have worked too hard to get an asterisk by their name."
By halftime, Greencastle had collected six touchdowns and a safety to take a 43-0 lead to the locker room. Although his team was down a significant margin, Cloverdale head coach John Butler had something to be excited about.
With less than three minutes to go in the first half, the Clovers switched up their offense and began to move the ball down the field. Andrew Howard carried the ball four times, collecting 14 yards, while quarterback Justin Wilson completed two passes for 14 yards.
Butler knew with his team unable to find a rhythm in the first half, he need to make a change. Enter what the coach described as, 'Plan B.' Butler moved some things around and in turn his team began moving the ball down the field.
"We struggled and we tried to stick to the game plan," Butler said. "That's what we always do. Here's the plan (showing play list), we put a lot of time into it, but we had our plan B and our plan B was the formation you saw. I feel like we won the game 50-0 because we found offense. We found the formation. We didn't change the playbook, we found the personnel that works.
"If we can gain yards against that football team right there, we can beat a decent football team. We feel really, really good about how this game turned out."
Greencastle continued to cruise in the second half with Alec Pettit, Nate Christy and Evan Coble each collecting a rushing touchdown.
The win moves Greencastle to 7-0 on the season, a feat GHS hasn't experienced since 1995.
The Tiger Cubs will host Cascade Friday, and if they win, they will also achieve something that hasn't happened since the '95 season -- sole possession of the West Central Conference title. Buis said the team will start prepping the Cadets Monday and will need to give it everything they have.
"These kids are going to be ready to practice," Buis said. "They're going to be ready to play hard all week long, starting in the weight room at 3:30 p.m. Monday. It's been a long time since Greencastle's won a conference. It's been since 1995. One of our players tonight said, 'coach, I was six months old.' There are some kids on this team that weren't even born.
"It's been a long time since Greencastle football has retained the bucket as well as had the opportunity to win the conference against Cascade next week."
Cloverdale was able to finish Friday's game without an injury and that is an achievement all its own. The Clovers have had more than their fair share of season-ending injuries, but Butler credited a revamped practice schedule as helping keep his team healthy. So far so good.
He said the team felt positive after being able to move the ball against a good Greencastle team and was happy the players were finally able to see some positive results from their hard work.
"That was the confidence that they've been looking for," Butler said. "They've heard us for weeks now telling them to stay positive and we're going to find it. Two or three minutes when we went to that package, I didn't want to do it in the first half, but I was like, 'I have to get them something.' Let's go to plan B a few minutes early and wow, it worked."
He said the team's emotions at halftime weren't ones of a team that was losing 43-0. They knew they hit upon something they've been striving for and know what they could be capable of if they continue to work hard.
Cloverdale will travel to Owen Valley next Friday, while Greencastle will host Cascade during its homecoming festivities. Both games start at 7 p.m.
At Cloverdale
Greencastle 29 14 14 7 -- 64
Cloverdale 0 0 0 0 -- 0
First Quarter
GHS -- Scott 5 yard pass to Brown, kick good 9:10
GHS -- Safety
GHS -- Scott 54 yard pass to Christy, kick failed
GHS -- Pettit 1 yard run, kick good 3:58
GHS -- Scott 5 yard pass to Brown, Kick good
Second Quarter
GHS -- Scott 39 yard pass to Pohler, kick good 4:14
GHS -- Scott 16 yard pass to Brown, kick good 1:38
Third Quarter
GHS -- Pettit 5 yard run, kick good 6:21
GHS -- Christy 5 yard run, kick good 10:40
Fourth Quarter
GHS -- Coble 12 yard run, kick good 3:18
Individual Stats
Greencastle
Rushing -- Christy 14-88 TD, Pettit 11-50 2 TD, Scott 2-18, Pohlar 2-15, Coble 3-30 TD, Hyten 2-21
Passing -- Scott 14-16 236 yards, 5 TDs
Receiving -- Brown 5-73 3 TDs, Christy 4-94 TD, Pohlar 2-47 TD, Nicholson 2-15, Alspaugh 1-7
Cloverdale
Rushing -- Mescall 6-(-1), Wilson 7-(-6), Howard 14-40, Warren 4-4
Passing -- Wilson 7-25 86 yards, 2 INT
Receiving --Warren 1-39, Osmialowski 2-17, Mescall 2-20, Howard 2-10