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A
swarming Greenville defense made the difference Friday as the Wave
dismantled Preble Shawnee, 40-19 at
Harmon Field. Up 27-19 heading into
the final quarter, it was the Wave defense that made the difference in
the
final outcome. CNO Photo by George Starks
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Wave puts one
in the win column over Preble Shawnee
Special teams get the ball rolling
By George Starks
GREENVILLE- Coming in with big wins over National Trail and Dayton
Christian, Preble Shawnee looked to make Greenville its third victim of
the season.
The Wave had other ideas and losing their third straight football game
of the young season wasn’t an option.
Greenville got its first win of the 2014 campaign Friday with a 40-19
victory over the Arrows at Harmon Field.
“It feels good to get that first win under our belts,” said Wave coach
Aaron Shaffer. “With all this team has been through in the past couple
of weeks here, I couldn’t be more proud of the way they played. When
things got tough, we pulled ourselves back together and obviously able
to get a nice win tonight. It really feels good.”
About the only thing Greenville lost on this night was the opening coin
toss.
Even in losing that, the Wave made the visiting Arrows pay right off
the bat.
With the Wave kicking off, it was the special teams that set the tone
early as Shawnee fumbled the opening kick and Greenville recovered at
the Arrows 21 yard line.
Three plays later, Wave sophomore quarterback Kyle Phillips connected
with junior running back Cody Byrd on a 15 yard pass play and with
10:37 showing on the first quarter clock, Greenville held a 7-0 lead.
After an exchange of punts, the Wave struck again and once again it was
through the air on a 25 yard touchdown with 5:48 remaining and a 14-0
lead.
Greenville kept the aerial assult going in the second frame when
Phillips connected with senior Alan Tabler on a 24 yard toss and a 20-0
lead.
At that point, it looked as if the Arrows had packed up and went back
to Preble County.
Shawnee finally found pay dirt with 3:58 left in the half on a seven
yard scamper by senior running back Brandon Frost, closing to within a
20-7 count at the half.
In the opening half, Phillips was 4/7 passing for 66 yards and three
passing scores. Phillips also added another 85 yards rushing for 151
yards of the Greenville 170 yards of offense in the first half.
“We said all along after Clay’s (Guilliozet) injury that we had a
quarterback,” said Shaffer. “The offensive line has picked him us and
kept him on his feet a good deal of the time. Our receivers have made
some real nice plays for him but Kyle is defiantly capable and we are
blessed to have a quarterback of his caliber.”
With the Arrows holding focus on Phillips in the second half, it was
Byrd that paved the way on the ground.
Held to only 13 rushing yards in the opening 24 minutes, Byrd ran for
146 yards on 12 carries with two touchdowns, one of 63 yards.
“Running the ball isn’t something we’ve done well this season,”
admitted Shaffer. “We didn’t run the ball well last week and that was a
point of emphasis for us this week. We knew everyone from the offensive
line to the tight end had to get it together. We were able to get it
going, especially in the second half. Cody is a tremendous runner and
has a low center of gravity. He has some speed with that low center of
gravity.”
With the Wave holding, what seemed like a commanding lead at the break,
the third quarter belonged to the Arrows and with three quarters in the
books, the Greenville lead had been trimmed to a slim 27-19 advantage.
That’s when the Wave defense stepped up and shut the Shawnee offense
down while putting up two more touchdowns on the board in the final
frame.
“Preble Shawnee may be a small school but they are a very good football
team,” said Shaffer. “We knew coming in that this wasn’t going to be a
roll over type of game. Our defense stood tall in the fourth quarter
and that was huge. We talked about what your demeanor was after
something bad happens.
In the past, when something bad happened, our defense needed to stand
up and make something good happen for us. Tonight, our defense did that
and I’m really proud of them.”
Now 1-2 on the season, the Wave will host the Lebanon Warriors next
week in a GWOC crossover game.
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