Perrysburg wide receiver Dominick Woods runs with the ball after catching a pass during the third quarter of a first round playoff game on Friday at Whitmer Memorial Stadium. Perrysburg defeated Whitmer 20-14. (Scott W. Grau/Sentinel-Tribune)
TOLEDO — Perrysburg 6-foot-4, 214-pound senior defensive end Matt Hubbard is committed to playing NCAA Division I baseball, but someone might want to take a look at Hubbard for football, too.
Hubbard, 5-11. 192-pound linebacker Joe Seney, and the Perrysburg defense suffocated the Whitmer offense for three quarters on the Jackets’ way to a 20-14 Division I first round playoff victory Friday at Whitmer Memorial Stadium.
“They are studs, Man,” Perrysburg coach Dirk Conner said. “Matt Hubbard had not played varsity football ever. I think the last time he played varsity football was his freshman year, which I wasn’t even the coach at Perrysburg at that time.
“He’s one you get out in the hallway and to see how he’s doing, he’s just incredible,” Conner continued. “Joe is an absolute warrior, and the guys we put on the field tonight are, and I’m so proud of them.”
Hubbard said, “It’s just exciting, really exciting. I just love being out here with all these people. You don’t get these crowds with baseball. It’s a good feeling.”
Seney had eight tackles, junior defensive back Carson Pershing had seven tackles, senior DB Samuel Lawanson III had five tackles, including one tackle for a loss, junior DB Iain Hall had three tackles and Hubbard had one sack, but he was constantly in the face of Whitmer junior quarterback Brady Ford.
“We had a great scheme coming in,” Hubbard said. “We saw these guys earlier, we knew what we needed to fix and we schemed it pretty well and we all just did our jobs.”
As a result, Perrysburg shut out Whitmer for three quarters, building a 20-0 lead and then held on as the Panthers mounted a fourth quarter comeback attempt that fell short.
The Perrysburg win avenged a 25-15 loss to Whitmer in Northern Lakes League play that helped cost the Yellow Jackets a chance at an NLL Buckeye Division championship, while Whitmer ended up sharing the title with Anthony Wayne and Findlay.
Whitmer’s season ends at 7-4, while Perrysburg, 8-3, advances to the regional quarterfinals next Friday at Delaware Olentangy Berlin (10-1), 20-0 winners over Marysville Friday.
All three of Perrysburg’s losses came in their last four regular season games to the three Buckeye Division co-champs. Beating one of those teams helped alleviate the pain those losses cost.
“I’m so proud of our guys tonight. They just persevered and overcame a lot of things,” Conner said.
“They bounced back from what has been a rough stretch. This one feels good and I feel good for our kids and I’m happy for them.”
Conner said his team learned some valuable lessons from their prior loss to Whitmer, but more importantly he said it was about not making mistakes.
“When we came up here last time, and hats off to them — I’m not taking anything away from Whitmer — we screwed it up with mistakes,” Conner said.
“Tonight was let’s execute, let’s stay safe, let’s be efficient. When we went up three scores, I knew it was going to be we are going to run clock and trust our defense, right? That’s exactly what we did and that’s what the game plan was coming in.
“We don’t have enough bodies to get into a track meet right now, so we kept the game the way we wanted at the pace we wanted to and those kids executed and got through. Those will be some tired, sore kids tomorrow, but they are going to practice again on Monday.”
Offensively, Perrysburg was right on cue during the game’s first possession, driving 70 yards in 13 plays and scoring on a two-yard run by senior back Nick Oros.
Perrysburg junior quarterback Josh Takats completed all five passes he threw, including three to Lawanson for 23 yards, one to Hall for six yards, and one to senior receiver Gavin Fenneken for 17 yards, setting up Oros’ TD run.
However, most of the rest of the first half was a back-and-forth trade of punts and battle for field position, except Perrysburg had two drives that resulted in field goals by senior kicker Taylor Thomas, a first team All-NLL defender on the soccer team, from 42 and 26 yards to put the Jackets up 13-0 at the half.
At halftime, Whitmer had just 52 total yards of offense, including 19 passing and 33 rushing with two first downs. Perrysburg had 152 total yards and eight first downs.
In the second half, Perrysburg got away from the short hitches and screen passes, and Takats hooked up with junior receiver Dominick Woods cutting over the middle.
Woods ran the final 20-plus yards, showing off his speed to outrun defenders, totaling a 46-yard catch and run for a touchdown to put Perrysburg up, 20-0, with 3:05 remaining in the third.
“Our focus this week was keeping everything short, not being too aggressive, taking what is there and being confident on throws,” Takats said.
“As the game went on things they started to hang close and we just had the opportunity to make a play and we made it.”
Whitmer’s offense woke up in the fourth quarter. Ford connected with a wide open junior receiver T.J. Hutchen in the end zone to put the Panthers on the board with 8:14 remaining in the game.
An onside kick was recovered by the Whitmer kicker, junior Anthony Leboux, at the Perrysburg 49, but a 15-play drive that saw three first downs and two penalties against the Panthers resulted in no points.
After a Perrysburg punt, Ford threw a pass to senior receiver Logan Frank, who broke three tackles on his way to the end zone, just finding the pylon to bring the Panthers to within one possession, 20-14, with 1:27 still on the clock.
Leboux pounced on his own onside kick for the second time at midfield, but the Yellow Jackets forced a four downs and out.
Ford threw a deep pass on a fourth-and-5 at the Perrysburg 45, trying to find sophomore receiver Isaiah Hayward, but Perrysburg senior linebacker Abram Hire broke it up at the five-yard line.
The fight to comeback was nothing new to Whitmer coach Ken Winters.
“We’ve been doing it all year. We never quit,” Winters said. “We always keep fighting.
“We fought, we came back, we came up short. At the end of the day you have to make plays when they are there and we didn’t make enough of them.”
Takats said it was about time the Panthers came up on the right end of the stick in a one-possession game.
“The defense had a game plan and they executed it,” Takats said. “Whitmer is a very good team and very respected by us. They had a great season and they deserve all the respect in the world.
“But we came on, we executed. The focus on practice this week was four quarters. We’re talking that all of our close games this year, including Marysville, we’ve lost all of them other than Marysville (17-14 Perrysburg win).
“They’ve all been nail biters and we just haven’t been able to play a four quarter consistent ballgame. I think that just came out tonight and it’s a testimonial to our team and our coaches and we have to just keep it going.”
Takats completed 13-of-22 passes for 162 yards, including four to Fenneken for 57 yards, four to Lawanson for 26 yards, two to Woods for 72 yards, and one to Zach Schroeder for nine yards.
Takats also ran for 38 yards on 11 carries and Oros had 33 yards on 23 carries. However, Whitmer finished with 264 total yards to Perrysburg’s 240. The game saw 12 punts, including seven by Whitmer.
Ford completed 15-of-31 passes for 190 yards with one interception (Hall), including five to Frank for 91 yards, three to Hayward for 42 yards, and three to Kevion Lee for nine yards. Jaden Jones ran for 47 yards on 10 carries and Joey Morales had 12 yards on four carries.
Next Friday, Perrysburg will take the drive to Delaware County to face No. 8-ranked Berlin, and Conner warns not to count out the Yellow Jackets.
“Let’s do it again next week,” Conner said. “You know we’ve competed with everybody. This is good. It gets us back on track. We want to win again next week.”
