By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

ANSONIA — The Ansonia Tigers moved to 7-1 on the season and are still in the hunt for at least a share of the WOAC (Western Ohio Athletic Conference) title after their 44-6 victory over the Tri-County North Panthers.

The Tigers started slow and didn’t put up any points in the first quarter. “We came out a little flat,” said Coach Adam Hall. “You’ve got to give credit to Tri-County North. I thought they came out firing tonight. I thought they played very well tonight; played very hard. It took us a little bit to get going. We have a lot of good football players on our team and when we do the right things, good things happen for us.”

In the second quarter, the Tigers started doing things right. Just over a minute into the quarter, Ian Schmitmeyer connected with Keegan Weiss for the first score of the night. Weiss scored again with 3:48 remaining in the half on a two-yard run. The two-point conversion was good and Ansonia was up 14-0.

The defense was able to get a quick three and out on the Panther’s next possession and Coach Hall used his time outs effectively to give his team a chance to put more points on the board before the end of the half. With 2:44 left in the half, the Tigers started the drive from their own 46. It ended with another score from Weiss. This time it was a 32-yard run. The conversion was good and Ansonia went into the locker room with a 22-point lead.

Exzaviar Moody extended the lead in the third quarter on a 27-yard touchdown run with 9:56 left in the quarter. With the conversion, the Tigers led 30-0.

The Tiger defense made it difficult for the Panthers to get anything going. They were able to limit Colton Vanwinkle’s yards, the WOAC’s leading rusher. He came into the game with 945 rushing yards.

Tri-County North had an opportunity to score in the third quarter when they moved the ball to Ansonia’s 7-yard line. However, on third down the Panthers fumbled and Schmitmeyer recovered on the 23-yard line.

A 63-yard run from Moody set up a five-yard touchdown run from Garret Stammen and with the extra point, the Tigers were up 38-0.

Coach Hall put his second string in the game in the fourth quarter, but they were also able to move the ball. Wyatt Spencer contributed with a 26-yard touchdown run. The extra point missed left and the Tigers were up 44-0.

With under four minutes to play, Logan Flory broke up the shutout bid with a 34-yard touchdown run.

The score would stay at 44-6 for the rest of the game.

Coach Hall likes where his team is with only two weeks remaining in the regular season but said it doesn’t do any good to look at the seedings or the standings. “You’ve got to win every week. The only thing we can worry about this week is Preble Shawnee. We know they are a very good football team. We know we’ve got to play our best to beat them. We’ve got to prepare to do that this week.”

With a share of the conference title still up for grabs, both teams will come into the match-up with one defeat. What do the Tigers have to do to beat the Fighting Arrows? Hall said, “We cannot beat ourselves. We’ve got to take care of the ball. We cannot have any missed assignments. We’ve got to do our job and we can’t have any penalties. We’ve had too many penalties over the last few weeks and that will get you beat.”

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].