Mohawk comes up a touchdown short of Freedom
Mohawk (0) vs. Freedom (7)
Written: Sep 11, 2015
By Shawn Fox
New Castle News
FREEDOM — The Mohawk High football team’s defense made several big plays Friday night against Freedom.
All that was missing was one from its offense.
The Warriors limited the Bulldogs to less than 100 yards of offense in the game, but came up short, as Freedom posted a 7-0 victory in a WPIAL Class AA Midwestern Athletic Conference game at Bulldogs Stadium.
“They fought hard, but it wasn’t enough,” said first-year Mohawk coach Tim McCutcheon, whose team fell to 0-2 in the conference and overall. “It’s hard to win when you don’t score any points.”
The Bulldogs (1-1 conference and overall) got the only points they would need on their second possession of the game.
Taking over at the Mohawk 31-yard line following a punt, Freedom drove the distance in six plays. Quarterback Noah Wolfe connected with running back Nick Henderson on a fade route in the front corner of the end zone for the score. Zach Greene added the point-after kick to give the hosts a 7-0 lead with 1:58 remaining in the first quarter.
“It feels awesome to get that first win,” Freedom coach Tim Dubovi said. “We knew it would be a dog fight. We knew they were a good team. We fought and scrapped last week, and only hung in there for about two quarters. We want to go on a roll now.”
Outside of the scoring drive, Mohawk’s defense was rock solid. The Warriors limited the Bulldogs to just 99 yards in 41 plays, and seven first downs in the contest.
“We’ve just been trying to be aggressive,” McCutcheon said. “I think at the end of the day we tackled well and played with an edge. They kept us in the game and gave us a chance at the end.”
Mohawk also forced four turnovers, with Aaron Novad, Shawn Gallagher and Brett Ryan each recovering fumbles and Cayne Yakubik coming up with an interception. Mehmet Iclek and Shawn Cline each had sacks.
“We work on that in practice,” McCutcheon said. “We know we’re a team that has to get turnovers if we want to get wins in this conference.”
Mohawk’s offense, which sputtered most of the game, made things interesting late in the game.
Taking over at their own 20-yard line with 3:17 to go in the game, the Warriors drove to the Freedom 29. Quarterback Jaydon Johnson hooked up with Jesse Wolfe for a 44-yard completion to highlight the drive. Johnson also scrambled for 14 yards.
“Their pressure from their linebackers was giving us trouble all game,” McCutcheon said. “We tried to hit some quick perimeter stuff on the last drive to take advantage of their pressure off the edge. It was just too little, too late.”
But, facing a third-and-10 from the 29, Johnson was picked off by Cole Johnston at the 4-yard line to end the drive.
Freedom took a knee to seal the victory.
“I was just looking for a big play from our defense on Mohawk’s last drive,” Dubovi said. “They came through.”
Other than the final drive, the Warriors’ offense was, well, offensive. Mohawk finished the game with 65 total yards in 50 plays. The Warriors had eight first downs. They punted seven times.
“You can’t try to re-invent the wheel,” McCutcheon said of his team’s offensive woes. “We have to try to stay on our blocks a little better and just get better overall.”
Mohawk will host McGuffey on Friday in non-conference play.
“We were a play away, but we still came up short,” McCutcheon said. “We’re 0-2 and that’s not where we want to be right now. All we can do is dust ourselves off and get ready to go next week. We finally get a home game, so we’re looking forward to that.”
(Email: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com)
MOHAWK FREEDOM
8 First downs 7
78 Yards Rushing 71
67 Yards Lost 22
11 Net Rushing 49
10 Passes Attempted 16
3 Passes Completed 7
1 Passes Intercepted 1
54 Yards Passing 50
65 Total Yards 99
5-2 Fumbles-Lost 3-3
7-21.4 Punts-Average 6-38.2
6-65 Penalties-Yards 8-71
MOHAWK 0 0 0 0 — 0
FREEDOM 7 0 0 0 — 7
Scoring play
FREEDOM — Nick Henderson, 18-yard pass from Noah Wolfe (Zach Greene kick).
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