SIDNEY — Sidney is hoping a big offensive night against West Carrollton last Friday is a sign of things to come the rest of the season. The squad is just hoping a Miami Valley League game at Fairborn this Friday doesn’t turn into a shootout.
The Yellow Jackets (3-4, 3-3 MVL Valley) scored a season-high 56 points and had 400 yards of offense in a 56-26 win over the Pirates. It’s the second time Sidney has amassed 400 or more yards this year; they accumulated 439 in a 49-48 double overtime win over Greenville in Week 3.
Sidney senior receiver Jy Foster-Wheeler rushed for a touchdown, caught a touchdown pass and also threw a shovel pass to Julius Spradling, who raced 30 yards for a TD.
That is the first time a player has had a rushing, throwing and receiving TD in the same game in coach Adam Doenges’ 12-year tenure, and possibly is a program first.
Foster-Wheeler also ran for a two-point conversion. He played at quarterback a couple of times and could see more time at the position the rest of the year.
“We’ve been working on that all season,” Doenges said. “We hadn’t been completely comfortable running that package, but we’ve gotten to the point where we’re good with it. He can do some different things at quarterback.”
Sidney junior quarterback Tucker Herron threw for a season-high 232 yards. He completed all but five of his 20 pass attempts and threw for four TDs with one interception.
“Obviously, that was big confidence booster for him. We’ve played some tough defenses this year, including (Piqua and Troy) the last two weeks,” Doenges said. “As a first-year starter, with us running a different type of offense, it’s taken some time. He’s made some really nice plays, and made some bad reads and throws. It’s just a matter of him getting used to things and having the game slow down for him a little bit.”
West Carrollton also had offensive success. The Pirates accumulated 458 yards of offense and matched their season high in points.
Sidney’s defense wasn’t ineffective. The Yellow Jackets had 8.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Myles Vordemark forced a fumble, which Brice Hughes recovered. And the squad was effective in late-down situations; the Pirates were 4-of-11 on third-down tries and 3-of-5 on fourth-down tries.
Still, West Carrollton moved the ball at times, and matched Sidney with 20 first downs.
“We felt really good coming in, but it got frustrating,” Doenges said. “… They made some big plays on some of our big-time players. They made some plays on our corners that we’ve felt have played pretty good all year.
“Hopefully, it’s an anomaly. I think it kind of humbled some of those guys a little bit. West Carrollton has some athletes, and Fairborn has some similar types of athletes. If you don’t do things correctly, they can make you look silly.”
Doenges hopes West Carrollton’s playmaking ability will be a wakeup call heading into this Friday’s game against Fairborn (1-6, 1-5).
The Skyhawks have shown big playmaking ability. They’ve scored 21 or more points three times and average nearly 300 yards of offense per game.
Fairborn accumulated a season-high 381 yards in a 36-35 victory over Greenville in Week 4; junior quarterback JT Smith scored on a 7-yard TD run with 39 seconds left to lift the Skyhawks to the win.
Fairborn also played Vandalia-Butler and Stebbins close, but the Aviators and Indians each scored two TDs in the fourth quarter of their matchups to pull away to victories.
“Watching the film on their offensive plays, a couple of times I stopped and thought, ‘Wait, what was the score of this game?’ You look at the score and the games might not have been close, but they were able to move the ball,” Doenges said.
“They’re scary, what they do on offense. They worry us a lot. They have a new coach from Cincinnati who has a triple-option background, so they’re doing some of those concepts from the shotgun. They do some things we haven’t seen all year that could be a problem for us.
“We’ve stressed to the kids all week that while they’re 1-6, they’ve had some games get away from them at the end and have struggled being consistent, which has been our bugaboo also. The team that can come out and play more consistently this week will have the edge to win.”
Smith has thrown for 826 yards and three TDs with eight interceptions and has run for 380 yards with five TDs. Caelan Bush has caught 38 passes for 421 yards. Jay Kidd has gained 339 rushing yards on 71 carries.
It’ll be the last time Sidney plays at Fairborn’s Buschemeyer Field, which is located at Baker Middle School in the northern part of the city. A new stadium is being constructed at the site of Fairborn’s new high school, which will be near Dayton-Yellow Springs Road and close to Insterstate-675. The new stadium will seat 5,000 people. The new school is expected to be completed before the opening of next school year.
Buschemeyer Field is one of two remaining MVL programs which still have grass fields, with the other being Troy Memorial Stadium. (Troy City Schools is operating a campaign to raise $3.9 million to install artificial turf at both the stadium and nearby Bob Ferguson Field).
It’s Sidney first trip to Fairborn since 2018, and it’s the first time the squads have faced off since 2019. The 2020 and 2021 matchups were cancelled due to COVID-19 outbreaks among Fairborn players.
“We rolled out to the grass to practice this week,” Doenges said. “… It’ll be a good experience to get back down there.”
Maurer area’s passing leader
Even after Minster sophomore quarterback Brogan Stephey set a program record with by throwing for 456 yards in a 48-20 win over Parkway, Fort Loramie senior Caleb Maurer still has the most passing yards of any QB in the SDN coverage area this season.
Maurer has thrown for 1,777 yards while Stephey has 1,635 to his credit. Anna’s Alex Shappie ranks third among area QBs; he’s thrown for 1,355 yards. Herron ranks fourth with 1,164, and Riverside juniorMyles Platfoot ranks fifth with 818.
Maurer has the most TD passes (16) of any area QB, but also has had the most passes intercepted (11). Stephey has thrown 11 TDs with just one interception, which happened in Week 2 against St. Paris Graham.
Shappie has nine TDs and six interceptions, Herron has 10 TDs and eight interceptions and Platfoot has 11 TDs and five interceptions.
Stephey has the best completion percentage (63.0) of area QBs; Maurer (61.9) is second and Herron (61.0) is third.
New Bremen 3rd, Versailles 7th in AP polls
New Bremen remains ranked No. 3 in the Division VII Associated Press state poll, while Versailles remains ranked No. 7 in the Div. VI poll.
New Bremen (6-1) didn’t move up, despite last week’s No. 2 team Springfield Catholic Central losing. The Fighting Irish (6-1) lost 20-7 to Cedarville, which entered the contest 3-3. Newark Catholic (4-1), which beat Fort Loramie 27-9 in Week 4, moved up from fourth to second. Catholic Central slipped to No. 10.
Fort Loramie (5-2) received enough votes to be on the D-VII’s poll watchlist this week.
