WEST PORTSMOUTH – It has been a crazy week in Versailles, from being out of the playoffs last Friday night to being back in on Saturday morning. Being in and being told you have to travel three hours to your first-round game. The Tigers were more than happy to make the trip.
“We’ll take it. We’re playing.” Coach Scott Broerman said, “There’s a lot of teams that would have driven three hours if that meant they were still in.”
The trip was all business for the Tigers. The first order of business was transportation. An anonymous donor called and donated charter buses for the team to travel. Once those arrangements were made, the Tigers needed to get to know their opponent. The Portsmouth West Senators ran a similar style of offense.
“They wanted to run the ball and throw only when needed. We just went about business this week.” Broerman said, “Did our thing and here we are.”
The Tigers took care of their business, scoring early and playing tough defense, holding the Senators in check for all but one play in the third quarter.
“It was a hard-hitting game. They had some solid kids over there.” Coach Broerman said “Defense played well, offense I thought we finished drives so good all-around victory.”
The Tigers will move on to week two of the playoffs with a 38-7 victory.
The Senators moved the ball on their first possession but gave the ball up on the Tiger 19-yard line. They took 6:04 off the clock but came away empty-handed. The Tigers wasted no time moving down the field. Blake Monnin ran to the 34; he found Alex Westgerdes on a pass to the 47-yard line. The Tigers moved inside the ten-yard line, where Monnin would run it in from eight yards out.
The Senators would have to punt on their next possession. The Tigers pressured the punter, and the punt would roll dead at the Tiger 48-yard line. The Tigers would only need four plays to make it 14-0. Landyn Knapke would run it in from 38 yards out with 9:57 left in the second quarter.
The Senators could not get any offense going and punted from their 19-yard line. The Tigers’ passing game made it 21-0 on a three-play drive with 5:47 left in the half. A pass would move the ball to the Senators’ 39-yard line. On second and six, Monnin hit Kade Schwartz for a 35-yard touchdown pass.
The Tigers would get the ball back with 1:41 left in the half. The Tigers moved down the field, but a third-down sack forced them to try a field goal. Schwartz would drill a 34-yard field goal as time expired. The Tigers led 24-0 and received the second-half kickoff.
They would go on a ten-play, 60-yard drive. Nick Meyer would run it in from nine yards to make it 31-0 and a running clock. The Senators would get the ball at their 30 and would have their biggest play of the night. A 70-yard run by Braden Adkins. The score would temporarily stop the running clock.
The Tigers substituted out the varsity skill players and brought in backups. The Tigers would score with those players on a five-play, 52-yard drive. Ian Hemmelgarn would make it 38-7 on a three-yard run. The Tigers sealed the win on a Simon Broering interception with 41 seconds left in the game.
The Tigers will travel to Cincinnati next Friday to take on the No. 4 seed Cincinnati College Prep Lions. College Prep is 8-2 on the year. Their Lions’ two losses were to Cin. Hughes and Wheeling Central Catholic. The Lions do not have a home field, and as of Friday night, the game was scheduled to be played at Roger Bacon’s field. The Tigers played there in 2020 when Roger Bacon had Mr. Football Corey Kiner.
