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Olentangy Orange hands New Bremen first loss

Sunday, 31 August 2008

By Matt Zircher

Sports Writer

NEW BREMEN — Saturday’s matchup here between Olentangy Orange and New Bremen was one of two programs trying to build for now and the future.

Orange is in its first season of football in 2008 while New Bremen, after making the playoffs in 2004, has won just five games since, including an opening week decision at Covington.

As is often the case with building programs, there are bound to be mistakes, as the two teams combined for six turnovers and over 200 yards in penalties.

Despite those mistakes, though, there was also plenty of offense as Bremen jumped out to a 13-10 lead after a quarter, only to see the Orange Pioneers outscore the Cardinals 28-7 the middle two periods for a 38-20 victory.

Orange improves to 2-0 on the season while Bremen is now 1-1.

It took only five plays for the Pioneers to open the scoring as after gaining 24 yards on four rushes, Blake Joe went to the left untouched for a 64-yard touchdown just 2:34 into the contest.

The Cardinals turned it over deep in Pioneer territory on their first drive, but following a sack and a short punt, started their second series at the Orange 36. After Bremen converted a fourth and eight with a 20-yard screen pass from Caleb Williams to Corey Jutte, Jutte scored from a yard out on the next play to tie the score.

Bremen again had excellent field position as Kyle Craft recovered a Joe fumble on the Pioneers’ first play of the ensuing drive and the Cardinals quickly took advantage as Williams connected with Spencer on the very next play for 39 yards and a 13-7 lead.

Back came Orange as quarterback Corey Joe hit Ross Smith with a 49-yard strike down to the Bremen 31, which later resulted in a 23-yard field goal from Luke Rice to cut the margin to three.

After the Pioneers recovered another fumble on their own 25 early in the second quarter, two running plays along with two 15-yard penalties on the Cardinals advanced Orange all the way to the Bremen 35.

A high snap, though, turned into a 15-yard loss and a penalty set up a third and 32 on the Pioneer 43.

The Cardinals, however, were called for pass interference on that third down play, which resulted in a first down. After two more Bremen penalties and six rushes, Jake Vacheresse capped off the strange drive with a five-yard scamper to the left to put Orange in front to stay at 17-13 with 2:35 remaining in the half.

The Pioneers again drove into Cardinal territory to close out the half, but a 42-yard field goal attempt by Rice was short as time expired.

Orange held a 232-131 advantage in total yards in the opening two quarters, including a 132-4 differential in rushing yards.

“We just shot ourselves in the foot with the turnovers and penalties,” said Bremen coach Rob Messick. “We couldn’t run the football and couldn’t stop them from running it. We didn’t tackle very well on the outside and weren’t very aggressive.”

It was all Vacheresse in the first five minutes of the third quarter as following a 14-yard touchdown run on the first possession by the Pioneers, the sophomore running back broke free for a 73-yard score on the second play of the next series to extend the Orange lead to 31-13.

Orange outgained the Cardinals 408-269 for the contest, including 261-58 running as Vacheresse finished with 90 yards on just eight carries and three touchdowns while Blake Joe had 110 yards on 14 carries with a score. Corey Joe was eight of 11 passing for 147 yards and a touchdown.

Williams was 16 of 29 for 211 yards passing for Bremen, with Rohr catching three of those passes for 95 yards.

YARDSTICK

O B

First downs 14 13

Total yards 408 269

By rushing 261 58

By passing 147 211

Passes attempted 13 29

Comp/Int. 8/0 16/1

Penalties/Yards 10/82 12/130

Fumbles/Lost 4/1 4/4

Punts/Average 3/26 5/26