West Liberty-Salem hung around early with visiting Mechanicsburg, but couldn’t get anything going offensively in the second half of a 28-7 defeat Friday in an Ohio Heritage Conference game.
West Liberty-Salem’s Holden Nease takes off after catching a pass during Friday’s game against Mechanicsburg. (EXAMINER PHOTO | NATE SMITH)
WL-S drops to 4-2 overall and 0-1 in league play as Mechanicsburg remains unbeaten at 6-0, 1-0.
The Indians, ranked fourthin the state in Division VI, found the end zone on the third play from scrimmage Friday on a three-yard touchdown run by quarterback Logan Hurst, and never trailed in the contest.
An 18-yard touchdown run by Trevor Woodruff tied the game for the Tigers midway through the first quarter, but WL-S would not score again.
Two third-quarter touchdowns put Mechanicsburg ahead for good.
A 35-yard TD run by Joey Mascadri broke the tie with 6:51 left in the third quarter as Mechanicsburg went up 14-7. A second TD run by Hurst, from two yards out, put the Indians up 21-7.
Hurst completed 7-of-14 passes for 173 yards and one touchdown, and running back Aaron Conley rushed for 136 yards on nine carries to help pace Mechanicsburg offensively.
Keith Bebout added three receptions for 125 yards. He caught a 58-yard touchdown pass from Hurst with 6:23 to play in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
The Indians rushed for a total of 259 yards on 32 carries, racking up 483 yards of total offense for the game.
Woodruff totaled 134 yards of total offense to lead WL-S, completing 14-of-19 passes for 100 yards. He also rushed eight times for 34 yards.
Ethan Larson and Holden Nease each caught four passes for 27 yards, and 23 yards, respectively.
Trenton Douthwaite and Zach Glock each caught one pass for 19 and 18 yards, respectively.
The Tigers’ defense forced two first half turnovers, including a red zone interception by Jayce Wade with under a minute left in the second quarter to preserve the tied game going into halftime.
Wade recorded five tackles, in addition to that interception to help lead WL-S defensively.
Major Stratton recorded six tackles and assisted on eight others, and Reed logged four tackles. Nick Burden recorded the other interception for the Tigers.
WL-S plays at Tried next Friday.
INDIANS @ TIGERS
Mechanicsburg 7 • 0 • 14 • 7 – 28
WL-Salem 7 • 0 • 0 • 0 – 7
TEAM STATISTICS MB • WLS
First downs 18 • 7
Total net yards 483 • 159
Rushes/yards 32/259 • 21/59
Passing 224 • 100
Comp-att-int 9-18-2 • 14-19-0
Punts/avg 0/0 • 6/39.7
Fumbles-lost 0-0 • 0-0
Penalties-yards 4-25 • 10-80
CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO VIEW SLIDE SHOW
{gallery}stories/SLIDESHOWS/FootballSlideshows/2018/092818_WL-MECH{/gallery}