Division 4 - Red Hawks Fly Away From Wildcats 49-28
The Division 4 state championship game was played as the last game of day 1. The Wildcats of Three Rivers met the Red Hawks of Marshall. Three Rivers is coached by J.J. Wagner. They wore purple jerseys and white pants while Marshall wore black pants with white jerseys. Their main colors are black and red. Marshall is coached by Rich Hulkow who is in his 26th season.Â
The Red Hawk offense is predicated on the run. They will run it a whole lot if they can. Three Rivers uses the spread, so they pass to set up the run and get some running room with their players from one sideline to the other. 26,722 people attended the games today.
Three Rivers got the kickoff, but went three and out and were forced to punt. Marshall was pinned deep, but moved the ball out. Then, Jamar Wimberly rumbled 44 yards down to the 11. A penalty moved the ball to the three yard line and Wimberly punched it in on third down. Marshall didn’t want to kick deep, so both times they kicked it was a squib. The second time it backfired on them because Three River returned it to the Red Hawk 44. The spread offense of Three Rivers moved the ball without too much effort. A fourth down attempt went incomplete and quarterback Aaron Spence took a huge hit after he released it. Marshall started their drive from their 35. Four plays later, they were at the Wildcat 40. Garrett Woods helped on the drive and soon they found themselves in the red zone. Caleb Vincent completed his first pass to Seth Votava for 17 yards to get a first and goal at the eight yard line. A pretty one yard run ended the quarter.
On third and goal from the five, Vincent hit Kyle Waidelich for a score. The two point conversion was successfully made by Wimberly. Again, Marshall kicked off and Dan Shutes had a nice return out to the 32. The drive stalled out and they had to punt it back to Marshall. Woods had a tough run and gained 14 with the help of his linemen pushing from behind in the scrum. A few plays later, he rumbled 49 yards for a score. Not bad for a fullback! When it looked like Three Rivers was dead in the water, quarterback Aaron Spence busted off a 43 yard gain to the 24. Dan Shutes caught a pass for a first down, but an intentional grounding moved the ball back to the 23 with goal to go. On third and goal from the 23, Spence hit Drew Shutes for a score. The kickoff went out of bounds so Marshall took over on the 35. Wimberly had a nifty 35 yard run down to the two yard line and then pushed it in on the next play. Three Rivers had a few chances for some big plays, but the receiver didn’t catch one and was overthrown on another. With the second quarter winding down, Marshall started their drive at the Red Hawk 40. The ball kept moving toward the end zone and Vincent completed another pass, his fourth of the game. Wimberly had a 12 yard run to set up first and goal on the six. On third and goal, Wimberly scored from six yards out. The Wildcats moved the ball down the field to the seven yard line with seven seconds left to play in the half. With one play, Spence took the shotgun snap and hit Thomas O’Dell for a score. The drive went six plays for 69 yards in only 38 seconds. A kickoff ended the half.
The combination of Woods and Wimberly dominated the first half. When the second half started, the coaches went right back to them. They moved into Wildcat territory with ease and moved right into the red zone. Marshall faced third and three twice in opponent’s territory and both times converted with ease. A holding penalty backed them up to a first and 13 from the 19. A false start put them in a fourth and 15 situation. The attempt was not converted and Three Rivers took over on the 15. It started as a promising drive, but Spence’s pass was intercepted by Wimberly on the 36. Facing fourth and two on the 15, Marshall came out of their timeout with a plan; that plan was to run Woods and it worked to perfection, giving the Red Hawks a first and ten on the 13. Two plays later, Woods scored six from the six. After the kickoff, Spence hit O’Dell for an eight yard gain and then ran for 27.
On fourth and four, Spence hooked up with Drew Shutes for a 39 yard score. The Red Hawks kept with their running game and the clock kept rolling. By the 7:21 mark in the fourth quarter, Marshall had lost their starting running back (Wimberly), their starting fullback (Woods), and their quarterback (Vincent) to injuries. Facing a fourth and four nine without them, Marshall elected to punt. That punt went 11 yards to the 23 of Three Rivers. Roughing the passer pushed the ball to the 42 with the fourth quarter nearing the halfway point. On the very next play, Spence hit Drew Shutes for a 58 yard touchdown to make the score 42-28. A poorly executed onside kick gave Marshall the ball on the Three Rivers 49. Woods and Wimberly were able to return to the game and had fine runs on the drive. Wimberly did his best to move the ball close, but Woods scored from nine yards out. With under three minutes to play, Marshall had a commanding 49-28 lead. Three Rivers didn’t threaten after that.
Marshall set a record for most rushing attempts in the finals with 71. Jamar Wimberly ran 32 times for 226 yards and three touchdowns. Fullback Garrett Woods ran 22 times for 195 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Caleb Vincent completed three of his seven passes for 38 yards and a touchdown. On the Three Rivers side, Aaron Spence completed 12 of his 28 passes for 219 and a touchdown. He also ran seven times for 75 yards. Alec Friel rushed nine times for 12 yards. Drew Shutes caught five passes for 136 yards and three touchdowns.
