Western Brown’s Josh Fry runs for extra yardage after hauling in a reception in the Broncos’ week three win over Ross.

 

Rockets, Broncos claim victories – 

By Wade Linville – 

In an exciting week three on the gridiron, the Western Brown Broncos and the Fayetteville-Perry Rockets would both come up with victories.
The Fayetteville-Perry Rockets upped their overall record to 3-0 on the season with their 36-6 week three win over Notre Dame.
The week three victory moved the Rockets to sixth place in unofficial OHSAA Division VI, Region 24 rankings. They will need to finish their regular season among the top eight in Division VI, Region 24 rankings to become the first Fayetteville-Perry High School football team in the program’s history to earn a berth in the state playoffs.
It was a week three road win that saw the Rocket offense rack up a total of 365 yards, racking up 242 yards on the ground and over 120 yards in the air.
Fayetteville’s senior quarterback completed seven-of-11 pass attempts for a total of 123 yards and two touchdown passes.
Fayetteville’s Bowen Doane hauled in four receptions for 52 yards. Chase Lockwood pulled down two receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown, while CJ McCulley came through with a 32-yard touchdown on his only reception.
The Rockets’ ground game was once again fiere, led by freshman running back Hunter Jester who took 10 carries for 81 yards and one touchdown.
Fayetteville senior Seth Allen took 13 carries for 59 yards, and Lockwood took six carries for 66 yards and rushed for one touchdown, his longest carry being 42 yards.
The Rockets were scheduled to host Hillcrest in week four on the gridiron Sept. 15, looking to up their overall record to a perfect 4-0.
In a thrilling ending to what was a close bout throughout, it was the Western Brown Broncos pulling off a narrow 22-21 victory over Ross in week three on the gridiron.
The Broncos rose to a 22-15 lead in the second half with a touchdown and a successful attempt at the two-point conversion that followed, but it was fourth-quarter touchdown by Ross that cut the Bronco lead to just one. Ross first planned to go for the win with an attempt at the two-point conversion, but in the wake of a penalty they decided to rely on their kicker for the extra point with hopes of sending the game into overtime. Their attempt would fall shy of the uprights, resulting in the Broncos’ first victory of the season, a much needed win for the Western Brown varsity team that suffered losses in their first two weeks of the season.
“It was about as exciting as you can ask for,” Western Brown head football coach, Don Sizer, said of the week three game against Ross. “I think we showed a great deal of improvement. The outcome of the game didn’t start on Friday, but the Saturday before when we had our team meeting. We talked about it (past weeks) in the meeting and the things we wanted to accomplish (against Ross). We talked about how the things keeping us from being good at football are non-football related things such as focus, effort, and mental preparedness.”
Coming off a 32-0 loss against Little Miami in week two, the Broncos looked to be a completely different team in week three, showing intensity early on.
It was Western Brown junior quarterback Josh Taylor topping off an offensive drive with a touchdown run, followed by a successful kick for the extra point by senior Lane Sexton, that gave the Broncos’ a 7-0 lead.
Ross’ junior running back Dylan Caldwell took a carry 16 yards to pay dirt with 8:39 to go in the first half, and with a successful kick for the extra point the two teams found themselves knotted at seven.
Defenses on both ends of the field prevailed for the remainder of the first half, and the game remained tied at seven going into halftime break.
The Bronco offense was able to score one touchdown in the third quarter and reached pay dirt once again in the fourth quarter, while the Western Brown defense came through with stop after stop, showing much improvement from the prior two weeks in which it gave up a combined total of 87 points to opponents.
“Overall, we improved 100-percent on tackling and pass coverage,” Sizer said of his Bronco defense in week three.
Sizer said he looks for his Broncos to carry some of the same things they showed on the field in their week three win over Ross to week four as they play host to Jackson.
Offensively, the Broncos totaled 404 yards in their week three victory, 298 passing yards and 106 rushing yards.
Taylor completed 30-of-45 pass attempts for 298 passing yards and delivered two touchdown passes. He also rushed for 105 yards off 17 carries.
Taylor’s most popular receiver was in week three was senior Wyatt Fischer, who hauled in 13 catches for 130 yards with one touchdown reception.
Western Brown senior Josh Fry pulled down 10 receptions for 93 receiving yards.
Western Brown’s sophomore receiver Keegan Collins took five receptions for 68 yards.
Defensively, Broncos forcing fumbles in week three were freshman Wil Sizer, senior Aaron Fischer, Wyatt Fischer, and junior Dylan Mosher; while recovering fumbles were senior Eric Altman (2), Mosher, Fry, and sophomore Christian Whisner.
The Broncos stood at a 1-2 overall record following the Sept. 8 win over Ross.