’Hounds rally to upend Grove City
Wilmington (28) vs. Grove City (18)
Written: Aug 30, 2014
 By Corey J. Corbin
CNHI NEWS SERVICE
GROVE CITY— Wilmington High football coach Terry Verrelli wasn’t a happy man after one quarter last night.
The Greyhounds were having difficulties holding onto the ball, had a handful of penalties and found themselves down 12-0 after 12 minutes. Wilmington rebounded for a 28-18 District 10 non-region battle in the season opener at Forker Field last night.
“I’m just a little depressed about the first quarter,” the veteran Greyounds coach admitted. “I wasn’t too impressed with the first quarter, believe me. That’s not Wilmington football and I told them that. It’s my job to get that straightened out. Pathetic is what it was.”
Grove City forced four first quarter fumbles, recovering two, but only managed one touchdown off the turnovers.
After Justin Orlowski recovered a Reese Bender fumble, the Eagles covered 38 yards in three plays and took a 12-0 lead on a Jared Graham 11-yard scamper.
“I’ve been happy with him all summer,” Grove City coach Sam Mowrey said of Graham, who finished with a team-high 80 yards rushing. “He had some ups and some downs. He was getting frustrated a little early. He came along and made some nice plays. He did a great job running the ball and I thought he made some great decisions.”
From then on, it was all Wilmington.
The Greyhounds pulled ahead with 1-yard runs from Cody Llewellyn and Bender in the final 3:23 of the second quarter.
A 74-yard run from Jacob Sotter early in the third quarter set up Wilmington for a short 4-yard score from Sotter for a 21-12 lead.
The Eagles rebounded early in the fourth quarter by methodically marching down the field and scoring on a Jesse Hodge 2-yard run to cut the deficit to 21-18, but Wilmington put the game away with a Llewellyn-to-Sotter 16-yard scoring strike.
“That last drive is how I expect them to play all the time,” Verrelli said. “Sotter is experienced and is ready to play. I told them at halftime that I’m looking for somebody who wants the football and run with it. Sotter stepped it up.”
The Eagles opened the Mowrey era with a flea-flicker from Hodge to sophomore Nick Davies for 48 yards on the game’s opening play.
Four plays later, Hodge barreled his way into the end zone for an early 6-0 lead.
“I was a little worried about that, but it ended up working out,” the first-year coach said of the Hodge to Davies aerial. “We decided on that last weekend, so it was a matter of getting it ready to go.”
Wilmington was whistled for 74 yards on 11 penalties to go along with five total fumbles.
“I’m sure it was just a case of the nerves,” Verrelli said. “Holy cow, all those fumbles. We almost gave them the game. I take half the (blame) for them playing that way. I’ll get my end straightened out. They’ll have to take care of theirs, too.
“You’ll need a calculator (to add up all the penalties). That’s got to change. It’s my job to get it done. It’s not acceptable.”
The Wilmington defense stymied the Eagle offense for large portions of the evening, limiting the hosts to just 240 yards of offense.
“One of our goals was to get the running game going,” Mowrey said. “We never really did. We hit it a couple times there, but we never really could get it where we wanted to. We knew they were big and physical up front. We definitely struggled with some of our inside zone. We’ll see if we can get that fixed.”
Meanwhile, the ’Hounds racked up 400 yards offensively behind Sotter’s game-high 162 yards rushing and 128 yards passing from Llewellyn. Spencer DeMedal tacked on 64 yards on the ground.
“They get their tight end in the game and start running the ball downhill,” Mowrey said. “Then, they go four-wide and hit some plays there. They definitely mix it up. It’s hard to defend when they can do both. They hit us with some traps. They have a whole crew of good running backs. They’re all talented. They can all catch the ball and can run the ball.”
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
WILMINGTON GROVE CITY
19 First downs 8
272 Net Rushing 133
12 Passes Attempted 17
7 Passes Completed 6
0 Passes Intercepted 0
128 Yards Passing 107
400 Total Yards 240
5-2 Fumbles-Lost 2-1
11-74 Penalties-Yards 7-20
WILMINGTON 0 14 7 7 —28
GROVE CITY 12 0 0 6 — 18
Scoring plays
GROVE CITY — Jesse Hodge, 2 run (kick failed).
GROVE CITY — Jared Graham, 11 run (run failed).
WILMINGTON — Cody Llewellyn, 1 run (James Gardner kick).
WILMINGTON — Reese Bender, 1 run (Gardner kick).
WILMINGTON — Jacob Sotter, 4 run (Gardner kick).
GROVE CITY — Hodge 2 run (kick failed).
WILMINGTON — Sotter, 16 pass from Llewellyn (Gardner kick).
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