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MCCONNELSVILLE – The Caldwell Redskins had the experience advantage over Waterford in Friday night’s Ohio District 7, Region 27 district semifinal at Morgan Raider Stadium in McConnelsville.That experience edge paid huge dividends as the Redskins took advantage of five Waterford turnovers and held on for a 20-13 win to advance to next week’s regional championship game against Eastern. Time and day of the game is yet to be determined. Waterford turned the ball over four times on offense and also made a huge special teams error that allowed the Redskins to score a touchdown on a very short field. “It was all about perseverance because we knew this would be a tough ball game for us to win,” said Caldwell head coach Chance Rucker. “We knew coming in that we would have to win the turnover battle to win the game and at the end of the day we were able to.” Rucker and his staff felt the Redskins needed to get off to a fast start and they did exactly that as they marched 56 yards on 12 plays on the opening drive of the game with quarterback Cale Bender finding Ethan Crock in the end zone for a touchdown and a 7-0 Caldwell lead.The Wildcats came up with a big play on special teams when they blocked a Caldwell punt to give them possession of the ball all the way down at the Redskin 37-yard line early in the second quarter. Waterford head coach Eric McCutcheon decided to give the Redskins a heavy dose of junior running back Colten Jones and that plan worked to perfection as Jones carried the ball six straight times with the final one a 14-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7 with just under eight minutes to play in the half. Both teams came up empty on their next possessions, but the Wildcats made a huge mistake on a punt attempt with less than three minutes to go in the half. The snap to Wildcat punter Ryker Hutchins was way off the mark and all the Waterford kicker could do was smother the ball at his own 13-yard line and giving Caldwell possession of the ball in the red zone. Dylan Wheeler carried the ball three straight times to move it inside the 5-yard line before Bender forced his way into the end zone to put the Skins back in front. “We are reaping the benefits of having Cale (Bender) as a three-year starting quarterback and he played great tonight,” said Rucker. “Wheeler was a workhorse and we are just going to keep going to these kids and let them do what they do best.” That’s the way the score would stay for the rest of the first half but it was the Wildcats who scored first in the second half to pull within a point of Caldwell. Waterford put together a 65-yard drive to open the second half with freshman quarterback Hayden Jones connecting with junior Jared Heiss on a 10-yard touchdown pass to pull the Wildcats to within a single point. The Wildcats made yet another critical miscue on the extra point attempt when the snap got off the hands of the holder forcing Hutchins to fall on the ball once again with Waterford trailing 14-13. Caldwell got a huge 35-yard kickoff return from junior Alex Herlan that gave them the football in Waterford territory at the 44-yard line on the ensuing kickoff. This time it would take Caldwell just six plays to cover the 44 yards with Wheeler hauling in a 27-yard pass from Bender to move the ball into the red zone and then finishing the drive off by powering into the end zone on a 4-yard run. Caldwell elected to go for two with hopes of making it a two-possession game but came up empty keeping the score at 20-13 and giving the Wildcats hope as they game headed into the final period. Unfortunately for the Wildcats they would turn the ball over three times in the final quarter of the game to essentially shoot themselves in the foot and make things a little easier for a very stout Caldwell defense. Waterford began a drive at its own 25 with eight minutes to play and quickly moved the ball down the field. The big play came when Hayden Jones connected on a 37-yard pass and run play to Trevin Zimmer to move the ball inside the red zone. The Wildcats moved the ball all the way down to the 6-yard line but on a second and goal the Waterford defense was able to strip the ball loose from Colten Jones and pounce on it at the 5-yard line. The Waterford defense came up big as usual as seniors Jase Miller and Jud Cooper came up with a big stop of Wheeler on third down giving the Wildcats at least one more possession with a chance to tie the game or go for the win. Those plans ended rather abruptly as Bender intercepted a Hayden Jones pass to give the ball back to Caldwell with just under two minutes to play. Caldwell needed just one last first down to wrap things up and Bender was up for the task one again as he ran for an 11-yard gain. Wheeler led the way for the winners with 23 carries for 91 yards, while Bender completed 9-of 19 passes for 73 yards. Waterford was led by Hayden Jones who completed 8-of-16 pass attempts for 96 yards and a score while his older brother Colten carried the ball 20 times for 83 yards. The Wildcats’ season comes to a close with an 8-5 record but with a sense of pride after getting better and better every single week of a grueling schedule. “I just hate it for our seniors because I think we let one slip through our hands tonight,” said Waterford head coach Eric McCutcheon. “Credit to Caldwell they are a solid football team that executed tonight and we just made a few too many mistakes.” The Redskins (10-3) look like they are back to being the team that reeled off six straight wins to begin the season before going into a three-game losing streak. “We used that little skid as motivation for us,” said Rucker. “I got to play in a regional championship game back in high school and it’s something super cool and these kids will get to share these moments forever.” McCutcheon felt his squad left everything they had on the football field and that the improvement they made from the start of the season to the end was incredible. “Every one of our kids from the freshmen to the seniors improved every single week and that was exciting to see,” said McCutcheon. “You can’t take that a way and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

https://www.mariettatimes.com/sports/2023/11/turnovers-cost-waterford-in-20-13-loss-to-caldwell/

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