ARCANUM – Big plays by Arcanum in the first half helps propel them to a 41-6 win over National Trail in WOAC play.
Arcanum and National Trail traded possessions to start the game. After Trail moved to midfield Arcanum stiffened forcing and took over at the 18-yard line.
MJ Macy on the first play of their second possession busted through the line and split two defensive backs and was off to the races going 82 yards for the games first score.
National Trail although a bit stunned was able to collect themselves and methodically began moving the ball mixing in a few passes and tough runs.
The Blazers appeared to be on their way to answering the bell when quarterback Aidan Martin got to the outside turning up field along the sideline … but sophomore defensive back Ross Wagner came from behind to strip the ball from Martin that was recovered by freshman Paxton Besecker to stop the drive.
On the very next play lightning struck again as Macy popped through the guard and tackle on the right side and high tailed it to the endzone again, this time going 65 yards to go on top 14-0 with 2:38 left in the 1st quarter.
“We kind of ran into a buzz saw last week, and we weren’t quite ready, but we kind of refocused, Trail is a good team, and it took everything we had to stop them on the first two drives,” Arcanum football coach Matt Macy said.
We were fortunate to get some big plays said Macy whose line was still a bit banged up from their physical game with Preble Shawnee last week, who handed the Trojans their only loss this season.
“We kind of figured out the puzzle and ran the ball well, obviously, things were clicking on offense. We didn’t get many reps on offense, but those explosive plays were kind of neat,” Macy smiled.
“Marcus Rayburn, our right guard was checking plays on which way he wanted to run it, and we ran behind him, I know that’s kind of odd, but I thought it worked out pretty well tonight. He did a great job calling the directions of the plays he wanted,” Macy praised.
Getting stops in football is big … but when your offense can make big plays that takes a lot of starch out of an opponent. National Trail showed toughness responding with another nice drive. A couple of completed passes to Jonah Brinkley, a few good runs by Martin and Bousman got the Blazers in the red zone.
A pass to Henry Roberts in the endzone that looked like a TD was called out … but Martin hit Roberts on the next play moving them to the 6-yard line. Brinkley would then take it in for a TD on the next play. The extra point was no good and the score was 14-6.
Arcanum’s next drive got them into Blazer territory and facing a big 4th and 1 at the 45 they would go for it. Bishop Cartwright tried to follow the massive push upfront by the bigs and then somehow bounced outside unnoticed and he went 45-yard up the sidelines for the TD and with the extra point from freshman Joey Marshall they made the score 21-6.
National Trail went on the move again their next possession trying to stay within striking distance and found themselves in the red zone with time ticking down in the half.
A near miss on a throw from Martin to Roberts in the back of the endzone was just out of his reach as the Trojans stopping them from scoring.
“They got down to the five, but we did a great job stopping them,” Macy commented.
“Man, they’ve got a ton of talent, and they are hard to deal with, they do some really good things,” Macy added.
National Trail moved the ball on their first drive of the 2nd half, but the drive was thwarted when freshman defensive back Raysean Miles intercepted a pass inside the twenty and returned it to near midfield.
MJ Macy then bolted 52-yards for his 3rd TD of the game. In all he rushed for 260-yards on 16 carries.
From there out the Blazers just weren’t able to overcome their penalties and the big plays of the Trojans in the game.
Arcanum added two more TD’s from sophomore Hudson Knaus of 55 and four yards to complete the scoring for a 41-6 win for the Trojans.
“I think our offensive line was awesome tonight and without our best offensive lineman who was out. We had Colton pole a junior fill at left tackle, it’s a hard position to play and he seamlessly came in and was great filling in,” Macy complimented.
“I’m pretty real proud of our O-line coming together after a hard week because we had Freeman out and Marcus Rayburn who was out a lot of the week played with an injury tonight,” Macy explained.
“I’m really happy with the way the boys bounced back today from start to finish we played a great ball game,” Macy concluded.
Arcanum improved to 5-1, 4-1 and they will host Twin Valley South this Friday.
National Trail fell to 1-5,1-4 and they will host Tri-County North in a game that will be host by T-Mobile with lots of things going on. As you may know National Trail has been selected as a top 25 Finalist for the Friday Night 5G Lights $1 Million facility upgrade! They are the only school in Ohio to make the top 25 and needs support and voting from WOAC Schools
