Peebles’ Brandon Rayburn goes airborne to deflect this pass attempt by West Union quarterback Branson Pritchett (12) in action form last Friday night’s SOIL battle at Patriot Field. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles defense picks off six passes in victory
This pass intended for West Union’s Jaden Cockrell (7) was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by Peebles’ Kaiden Larouge in the first quarter of the Indians’ 42-0 win over the Dragons on October 3. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles QB Josh McClary threw a pair of TD passes in the Indians’ 42-0 win over West Union. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Patriot Field in Peebles was the site on Friday, October 4 for Southern Ohio Independent League football as the Indians played host to the West Union Dragons. It was a beautiful evening for football and for the Indians, it turned out to be a very successful evening as they raced to an early lead and never looked back, their offense clicking on all cylinders and their defense forcing six turnovers, all resulting in a 42-0 shutout win.
The tone of the game was set early as the Indians got a touchdown run from Nathaniel Cummings on their first possession and tacked on six more moments later when freshman Kadien Larouge returned an interception for a pick-six and a 12-0 lead. The Dragons produced some big chunk plays during the game, numerous of them from senior Jaden Cockrell, but none of them resulted in a trip to the end zone.
An early second quarter interception by Peebles’ Christian Gerth turned into a long scoring pass from quarterback Josh McClary to elusive wideout Brandon Rayburn. After a nice Cockrell kickoff return, it was yet another pick, this one by Eli Gammon that set the Indians up for a McClary TD pass to Larouge and a 26-0 advantage, which ballooned to 34-0 at halftime after a McClary interception led to a 50-yard scoring run by Grady Knechtly.
With the running clock rule in effect as the second half began, the third quarter flew by with neither team scoring, though the Dragons’ defense recovered a Peebles fumble but couldn’t convert it into points.
Late in the final stanza, McClary picked off his third pass of the game and that led to the game’s final points, fittingly a McClary run as time was running out and the late two-point conversion left the final score at 42-0.
It was a big night for the sophomore McClary as he intercepted three passes on the defensive side, threw for two scores and ran for one more.
“Error-free on offense and an opportunistic defense will win a football game,” said Peebles head coach Mike McDonald after the game. “Our offensive line played much, much better tonight. Unfortunately, that has been our weakness in non-conference games but tonight the o-line did a really good job.”
McDonald also had high praise for McClary, his sophomore signal-caller.
“I can tell you that as the high school coach for Peebles football, I’ve been blessed to have two very good quarterbacks. What it boils down to is intelligence, it’s not even athleticism. Our quarterbacks have been very smart on the field, we call the plays and they have the chance to audible out of that play according to what they see. It’s very nice to have that kind of flexibility.”
“We have to finish the season in the SOIL and when we played much bigger teams in our non-conference schedule, our kids held their own,” McDonald continued.
These same two teams will meet again this Friday (October 11) at Freedom Field in West Union for the annual “Battle of 41”.
