By JAMIE BAKER
STAFF WRITER
PANDORA — It was a mulligan for Pandora-Gilboa football Saturday night.
It was a chance for the Rockets to atone for last week’s manhandling by Arlington.
And boy did the Rockets bounce back in a big way by taking care of Warren John F. Kennedy 27-13 in a nonconference game.
Credit a strong performance by the Pandora-Gilboa offensive line which opened up plenty of holes for Seth Schmenk to run through as the senior quarterback racked up 203 yards on 23 carries with three rushing touchdowns and another passing.
“We looked at this as our do-over week and we are extremely pleased with the outcome,” Pandora-Gilboa football coach Carey Arthur said. “After last week’s performance, we made an extreme emphasis about being physical up front and it paid off.
“We invented drills this past week to get us to be more physical this week. Even though we have a big line they outweighed us up front. We knew we had to win it or lose it up front.”
The big boys up front for the Rockets had few problems on either side of the football.
Pandora-Gilboa (3-1) racked up 307 yards rushing on 49 attempts thanks to a big push from the Rockets’ front five.
Warren JFK (1-3) got the scoring started on a 1-yard, fourth down quarterback sneak by Greg Roscoe on its first possession.
“We sort of got that indication we were going to have some problems on that first series when we drove the ball inside the 5 yardline and it took us four plays to get the ball in the endzone,” said Warren JFK coach Dave Pappada, a Findlay College grad who got his coaching start at Riverdale back in 1968. “They just beat us up front on the line of scrimmage.”
The Rockets took the lead for good as soon as Schmenk and company got their hands on the football.
Schmenk marched the Rockets 80 yards in nine plays capped by his 2-yard run for the score. Reed Hovest added the first of three PATs to give the Rockets a 7-6 edge with 3:58 left in the first quarter.
Schmenk decoyed the Warren JFK secondary for Pandora-Gilboa’s second touchdown.
He rolled out and stepped up like he was going to run the ball. The Warren JFK defenders came up to play the run and Schmenk found a wide-open Alex Osborn for an easy 38-yard touchdown pass with just 11 seconds left in the first.
In the second half, a mishandled punt return by JFK was pounced on by Pandora-Gilboa’s Brad Walther set up a touchdown drive that gave the Rockets a bit of breathing room.
Five running plays after the Walther recovery, Schmenk took the ball 18 yards right up the gut for a score pushing Pandora-Gilboa’s lead to 20-6 with 6:00 remaining in the game.
A 54-yard pass from Roscoe to Division III state 100- and 200-meter dash champion Carl Zallow helped set up another fourth down 1-yard quarterback sneak by Roscoe with 2:14 left to cut the Rockets’ lead to 20-13.
Pandora-Gilboa senior right tackle Jared Tousley fell on the onside kick attempt and Schmenk rolled left on a quarterback keeper and went 50 yards to stick a dagger in Warren JFK’s comeback hopes.
Jacob Basinger also had a productive night for the Rockets with 110 yards rushing on 22 carries.
Defensively,
Pandora-Gilboa’s defense thanks to a some relentless pursuit and pressure kept the Eagles’ rushing game in check as JFK picked up just 29 yards on 27 attempts.
And that was no tall order considering the Eagles have perhaps the two fastest players in all of Division VII in state 100-meter meter dash champion Carl Zallow and his brother Chad, a state champ in the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles last spring.
“We just can’t get them loose. If we got them in space we’d be alright,” Pappada said. “We haven’t been able to do that and we didn’t do it tonight either.”
Arthur, meanwhile couldn’t be happier with his team’s turnaround performance on defense that bottled up an athletic group of Warren JFK skill players all night long.
“We were extremely happy there too. The one Zallow won the 100 last year and his brother won the high and the low hurdles as a sophomore last year. We had to know where they were on the field at all times,” Arthur said.
“We also let the grass grow a little more than normal. It was just assignment football, knowing where the Zallows were at all times.”
The Rockets host Vanlue in their annual homecoming game next Friday night.
Warren JFK 6 0 0 7 — 13
Pandora-Gilboa 14 0 0 13 — 27
First Quarter
JFK — Roscoe 1 run (kick failed)
P-G — Schmenk 2 run (Hovest kick)
P-G — Osborn 38 pass from Schmenk (Hovest kick)
Fourth Quarter
P-G — Schmenk 17 run (kick failed)
JFK — Roscoe 1 run (Bolfenkamp kick)
P-G — Schmenk 50 run (Hovest kick)
JFK P-G
First Downs 10 15
Rushes-yards 27-29 49-307
Passing Yards 207 35
Comp-Att-Int 14-26-0 3-12-1
Punts-Avg. 6-37.9 4-35.5
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 2-0
Penalties-Yards 4-54 3-25
individual statistics
Passing — Warren JFK, Roscoe 14-26-0, 207 yards. P-G, Schmenk 3-12-1, 35 yards.
Rushing — Warren JFK, Roscoe 14-17, Smith 6-7, Carl Zallow 4-6, Chad Zallow 3-(minus 1). Pandora-Gilboa, Schmenk 23-203, Basinger 22-110, H. Hovest 3-0.
receiving — Pandora-Gilboa Osborn 1-38, H. Hovest 1-(minus-3), Basinger 1-0. Warren JFK, Coates 2-27, Chad Zallow 6-65, Carl Zallow 2-63, Watt 2-12, Smith 1-(minus-1).
Baker: 419-427-8409,
jamiebaker@thecourier.com
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