TOWN OF PHILADELPHIA –– The Homer football team scored first and last Friday night at Indian River, but the Wolves rattled off 52 consecutive points on 574 total yards in a 52-14 win.
The Trojans marched down the field on their opening possession and scored on a 29-yard connection from Max Franco to Brycen Poole.
That was the last of Homer’s success until the final drive of the game, when Logan Griffin carried the ball five times and ended it with a 22-yard rushing touchdown. Evan Sullivan connected with James Hunter for the 2-point conversion.
Indian River ran its flexbone to perfection all night, rushing for 530 yards. Homer did a decent job early on stuffing the fullback dives and inside handoffs, but the Wolves had success running sweeps and outside handoffs.
“They were able to get outside on us a lot,” Homer head coach Greg Roskos said. “The first half it was a little more the C gap. Then we changed it up and they started getting us in the D gap. They’re a very good football team that runs a very good scheme. Their O-line push against our front seven, they were pushing us down the field a bit.”
Indian River scored on every drive until its final two. Trevor Shawcross went for 270 yards and three touchdowns on the ground on 17 carries and also completed a 31-yard pass to Colton White. Ariel Raymond had 11 carries for 108 yards and a score and had a 13-yard reception. Quarterback Teagan Wynne went 1-for-3 throwing for 13 yards, but added 80 yards and a pair of touchdowns on five carries. Fred Haynes Jr. notched 45 yards on 11 touches, Zach McMahon ran the ball twice for 4 yards and a score, Aiden Reff had two carries for 11 yards, Tiasen Taft ran it four times for 8 yards and Caiden Elliott had a 6-yard rush.
Homer also helped Indian River early on, committing four offside and encroachment penalties for a total of 20 yards in the first half due to the Wolves use of hard counts.
“I think we fixed that early on,” Roskos said. “Our discipline this game was way better than it was last week. I was proud of our guys for that. We finished strong.”
Homer’s offense struggled mightily between scored. The Trojans only racked up 138 yards of offense, with star running back Alex Votra being limited to 23 yards on 20 carries. Homer ran for 103 yards as a team, with Griffin recording 42 of those on the final possession.
“We just couldn’t block their five-techniques, their guys over our tackles,” Roskos said.
Homer was eventually forced to drop back and throw the ball, but Franco didn’t have time to get throws off. He resorted to scrambling for the first time all year, running for 24 yards on five attempts and picking up a few first downs to extend drives. Ultimately, he finished 2-for-7 throwing for 35 yards and the score.
“We’ve got to figure a couple things out to be a little more diverse,” Roskos said. “Max Franco did a great job running the ball. We have to get better at getting open and protecting the quarterback. Even when we wanted to throw he was getting hit pretty hard. Our O-line will have to step it up a lot next week if we want to win a rivalry game.”
Poole had the receiving touchdown, but was held to negative-2 yards on four carries, Jack Brady had a 6-yard catch and 16 rushing yards on three carries and Hunter Lines had a carry for no gain.
Homer now sits at 2-4 with a pair of winnable games to end the season. The Trojans will take a short trip across town Friday to face Cortland for the Home-Cort Jug, then will host Westhill a week later.
Roskos wants to focus on beating Cortland to get back in the win column and retain the jug.
“We’ve got to have a great week of practice,” Roskos said. “Every game is our Super Bowl. Our next game is a Super Bowl and it happens to be our rival. We’re going to have to have a great practice Monday, then follow that up with another great practice Tuesday.”
