GREENVILLE – Landon Eldridge’s fourth touchdown of the night was his biggest as it gave Greenville a 35-34 overtime win over West Carrollton on Friday night at Harmon Field.
The matchup between the two future Miami Valley League foes was back-and-forth for much of the night with neither team holding more than a 14-point lead during the game.
Greenville struck first when Tyler Beyke rumbled 20 yards to the end zone and with the Ethan Flanery kick the Green Wave was up 7-0 with 9:49 left in the first quarter.
It took West Carrollton less than 2 minutes to tie the game, however. Austin Jones caught a 4-yard touchdown strike from Tristan Dillon and a Brent Paesler kick made it 7-7.
With 6:32 left in the opening frame, Eldridge scored the first of his four touchdowns on a 7-yard run. Flanery’s kick made it 14-7for the home team.
West Carrollton scored again with 1:32 remaining in the first period on a 2-yard run by Sean Garvey. The Pirates tried for a two-point conversion, however and failed leaving them down one point to GHS, 14-13 heading into the second quarter. But Dillon put his squad on top with 5:59 left in the first half when he scored on a 5-yard rush. A two-point conversion run by Tommar Coles made it 21-14 in favor of the Pirates. WC tried to pull away from the Wave when they scored again in the second quarter on a 1-yard run by Jordan Ward. Paesler’s PAT made it 28-14 for the Pirates, the biggest lead either team would have on the night.
Back came Greenville to start the third quarter when Eldridge burst open for a 334-yard scoring jaunt. Flanery’s kick brought the Green Wave to within seven at 28-21. Eldridge again went to work for the Green Wave and scored from 1 yard out with 1:04 left in the third frame to tie the game 28-28.
There were no scores in the fourth quarter and the game went to overtime. West Carrollton scored first on a 1-yard run by Ward, but a critical two-point conversion run by Dillon was stopped by the Greenville defense meaning all GHS had to do was score a touchdown and kick the extra point to win the game.
And that is exactly what happened when Eldridge ran it in from 3 yards away and Flanery put the kick through the uprights for the dramatic overtime victory.
Eldridge was the workhorse for Greenville rushing for 258 yards on 29 carries and four touchdowns. Greenville as a team ran the ball 43 times for 316 yards. Beyke completed 5-of-9 passes for 116 yards. He also had 9 carries for 35 yards and a touchdown. Making receptions for Greenville were Marcus Wood (2 for 18 yards), Hayden Sharp (1 for 51 yards), Tony Sells (1 for 38 yards) and Di’Maurye Ewing (1 for 9 yards).
In addition to his 5-for-5 on PATs, Flanery had two punts for 73 yards (36.5 average).
Defensively, Greenville was led by Sharp with 8 tackles, Alec Fletcher with 7 tackles, Wood, John Butsch and Dru Quinn each had 6 tackles and Ewing and Nathan Fry had 5 tackles apiece. Wood also had a pair of interceptions and Fletcher had 1 INT.
For West Carrollton, Dillon threw for 243 yards on 19-of-29 passing and one touchdown. Ward was the Pirates leading rusher with 180 yards on the ground and two scores. Dillon’s favorite receiver on the night was Jones, who caught eight passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. In all, West Carrollton had seven receivers with at least one reception.
In comparing team statistics, West Carrollton had 4457 total yards while Greenville had 432. Greenville out rushed the Pirates by slightly more than 100 yards, 316-214, but WC threw the ball way more with Dillon reached 243 yards compared to Beyke’s 116.
Each team had three turnovers and Greenville had more time of possession (33:33) than West Carrollton (26:27). In penalties, Greenville was flagged 9 times for 66 yards, while the Pirates had 4 penalties for 35 yards.
Greenville will host Vandalia Butler this Friday night for its Homecoming. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Greenville players seeded at sectional tournament
Greenville first singles player Natalie Milligan and the first doubles team of Anna Manges and Marabelle Lance received No. 2 seeds on Sunday at the Division I sectional draw and seed meeting.
Milligan, a junior, has a first round bye and will play the winner of Jo Velasco (Butler) and Rachel Smith (Northmont) when action begins on Wednesday, Oct. 3 at Troy High School. The tournament begins at 8:45 a.m.
In the doubles bracket, Lance and Manges also have a first round bye and will face the winner between Northmont’s Ayana McCain and Ashton Slusher and Springfield’s Katrina Dooley and Jenna Grinvalds.
Also competing in the singles bracket for Greenville will be Emily Marchal and Abby Swensen. Marchal, a sophomore, will face off against Xenia’s Autumn McCray in the first round, while Swensen, a junior, will open against Springfield’s Emily Hasecke. The winner of that match will advance to face top-seeded Xia Ling of Vandalia Butler.
Over in the doubles bracket, the Greenville pairing of Felicity Lance and Amanda Chui will begin tournament play against Melissa Le and Caitlin Bowling of Fairborn.
The top four singles and doubles players will advance to the district tournament with seeding matches to be held on Oct. 6 at Troy. The district tournament will be held on Oct. 11 and 13 at the ATP Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. The state tournament will be held Oct. 18-20 also at the Mason facility.
BOYS GOLF
Versailles fourth at MAC Tournament
The Versailles Tigers shot a team score of 360 on Saturday to finish in fourth place out of 10 teams in the Midwest Athletic Conference tournament at Arrowhead Golf Course.
Minster was the conference team champion with a score of 316. They also had the overall medalist for the tournament in Grant Koenig, who carded a round of 76.
Connor VanSkyock was the top golfer for the Tigers. He shot 84 and made the MAC first team by placing fourth overall. Also contributing to the Versailles team score were Isaac White (90), Ethan Kremer (93) and Alex Keiser (93). Austin Pleiman (96) and Will Eversole (97) also competed in the tournament for the Tigers. They also received honorable mention in the MAC.
Versailles will be back in action at 9 a.m. today in the Division II sectional tournament at Pipestone Golf Course in Miamisburg.
GIRLS GOLF
Versailles finishes second in MAC Tournament
Versailles came in just a few strokes behind St. Henry for the Midwest Athletic Conference championship on Saturday at the Mercer County Elks Golf Club.
St. Henry shot a 393 and Versailles shot 397 with New Bremen at 400 in third place.
Morgan Heitkamp led the Tigers with a 97. She was followed by Morgan Barlage with a 98, Maddie Durham with a 99 and Alexis Jay with a 103 to count for the team score. Also competing in the tournament was Cayla Batten (112) and Hayley Dirksen (123) for the Tigers.
Barlage was named to the MAC first team, while Heitkamp, Durham and Jay all were named to the second team. The overall medalist was Taylor Homan of Minster with an 87.
The Versailles girls will return to action at 9 a.m. today in the Division III sectional tournament at Stillwater Valley Golf Club.