Golden Beavers tame Wolverines 47-14
The Ellwood City Wolverines have not had much success recently in Beaver County in many of the 22-23 Fall Sports matchups, and that trend continued on Saturday as the Wolverines traveled to Industry, PA to take on the Western Beaver Golden Beavers - and unfortunately lost 47-14.
The moment the game kicked off, the Golden Beavers were locked in as it took just one play for Western Beaver to get a lead. A 67 yard reception by WR #1 Mikey Crawford from QB #4 Xander LeFebvre gave the Golden Beavers the lead 6-0 just 16 seconds into the game. 2 Point conversion run was good by QB LeFebvre as the score read 8-0.
The Wolverines started their first drive of the game at their own 41 as RB #5 DaiLonn Currie had a great return on the kickoff. The Wolverines drove all the way down to the 15 yard line, but on third down QB #12 Chris Smiley was hit from behind as he was about to throw the ball, leading to a muffed pass that landed into DL #50 Drew Mitchell’s lap as Western Beaver took over.
From there on, everything went in favor of the team in Purple - a total of 4 turnovers by the Wolverines lead to essentially 4 drives for scores as Western Beaver finished the day with 7 touchdowns on the day.
Adding to the scoreboard in the first quarter was another pass by QB LeFebvre that was caught in the endzone by WR #13 Levi Gray from 7 yards out making the score 14-0. The PAT kick was no good as the quarter ended in favor of the Beavers.
Quarter two saw much of the same of the first quarter as the Golden Beavers added two more scores as QB LeFebvre ran one into the endzone from 7 yards out while he threw another passing touchdown - his third on the day - to WR Gray - his second receiving touchdown on the day - to make the halftime score 28-0.
The Golden Beavers outgained the Wolverines 330 yards to 68 in the first along with forcing 3 turnovers in the first half to build a big lead that would carry them to a big victory.
Third quarter action went in favor of the Golden Beavers as just like the 1st quarter and 2nd quarter, two more scores were added to the board. This time by RB #5 Tyson Florence adding two rushing touchdowns, both from 1 yard out. Both PATs were good by K #25 Paxton Short. Florence finished with 21 carries on the day for 113 yards while also counting for 3 receptions and 42 yards.
With the score being 41-0, the mercy rule was in effect as the 4th quarter action began. The lone bright side of the game was RB #2 Elijah Palmer-McCaine who picked up 141 yards on 23 carries for the Wolverines and added the Wolverines’ first points of the day to the scoreboard as he rushed 10 yards up the right side of the field to make the score 41-6. PAT kick was good by K #19 Caitlen Kreitzer, making the score 41-7.
With the game in hand, both teams started subbing in several second string players to finish the remaining 4 minutes of the game. Western Beaver did advance the ball fairly easily in those 4 minutes as another score was added from 31 yards out by QB #11 Jaden Bishop on the keeper. PAT kick was failed as the score read 47-7.
The final score of the day was by Ellwood City as RB #40 Deklan O’Brien subbed in the backfield and had one of the biggest runs on the day for the Wolverines, scampering into the endzone from 22 yards out. PAT was good by Kreitzer as the score read 47-14 with just 2 minutes remaining.
The last two minutes ended with the Beavers finishing their last drive to run out the clock while padding up the yardage stats. Western Beaver outgained Ellwood City 520 to 217 in yards. Western Beaver won the turnover battle as well as they finished +4 on the day, making the Wolverines -12 in the 5 games played so far.
The Wolverines now fall to 1-4 (0-2) on the season and will have to turn around on the short week to travel to Bessemer, PA to take on the Mohawk Warriors Friday at 7 PM. ECS will have Live Video Stream coverage of the MAC conference game.
