GREENVILLE — Sidney retained the Little Brown Jug and secured a home game in the first round of the playoffs with a 40-8 Greater Western Ohio Conference victory on Friday at Greenville.
“We wanted to have some momentum (going into the Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs),” Sidney football coach Adam Doenges said. “We wanted to keep the Jug at our place. It’s important to our guys. It’s a big deal for us. Now we’ve got it two years in a row. We knew if we did that we were able to secure home field so we play in a playoff game next weekend at our place.”
Sidney started quick in its quest to secure a home playoff game as the Yellow Jackets scored on their opening possession. After forcing a Greenville three-and-out, the Jackets went 44 yards in six plays with Andre Gordon taking in a quarterback keeper from 5 yards out for the game’s first score.
Later in the opening quarter Gordon scored another rushing touchdown to increase Sidney’s lead to 13-0.
Sidney increased its advantage to 20-0 with 7:03 remaining in the second quarter when Gordon scrambled to buy time then found Ratez Roberts for a 23-yard touchdown pass.
Greenville got on the scoreboard late in the first half in part due to the wet field conditions. A snap went through the hands of Sidney’s punter, setting up Greenville at the Jackets’ 7-yard line. Three plays later Micah Light ran for a 1-yard touchdown to cut Sidney’s lead to 20-6.
Doenges thought his team handled the conditions well overall despite a couple miscues.
“We had really, really good weather this year for the first nine games,” he said. “You know one of these types of games is bound to come. We told the kids control what we can control, and the weather is one thing that we couldn’t control. I thought the kids did a nice job playing through it.”
In the third quarter Sidney broke the game open.
Less than a minute into the second half, Isaiah Bowser broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run. Gordon also ran for two touchdowns in the quarter – giving him four rushing touchdowns for the game – to put Sidney up 40-6.
The game’s final points came in the fourth quarter with Sidney’s backups on the field. A snap went through the quarterback’s hands and out of the end zone for a safety, bringing the score to 40-8.
Sidney finished the night with 309 total yards to Greenville’s 118. The Jackets had 200 on the ground and 109 through the air while the Wave had 70 rushing yards and 48 passing yards.
“We did what we needed to do,” Doenges said. “We wanted to come here and execute our game plan. Kids played well. We wanted to make sure we ended on a high note.”
Bowser had 176 rushing yards and one touchdown on 19 attempts. Gordon had 62 yards and four touchdowns on 13 carries.
Gordon was 9-of-12 passing for 106 yards and a touchdown.
Sidney finished the regular season with a 9-1 record overall and 4-1 mark in the GWOC. Greenville finished the year 2-8 overall and 0-5 in the GWOC.
