NEW PHILADELPHIA – The defense owned the night for the New Philadelphia football team on Friday.
The opportunistic Quakers came up with seven turnovers – five interceptions and two fumble recoveries – to turn back Mansfield Madison time and again in a 21-0 shutout victory on Homecoming.
New Philadelphia won its second game in a row and improved to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference. The Quakers host Lexington next Friday.
“I thought we would have some opportunities for turnovers, but I never thought it would be anything like this,” said Quaker senior linebacker Thad Van Arsdalen, who picked off two Ram passes, recovered a fumble and deflected another pass that was intercepted by New Phila. “Our defense as a whole was really playing good and flying to the ball all game.”
New Philadelphia also got interceptions by senior Dakota McCune and juniors Jordy Delacruz and Zach Rothrock, along with the other fumble recovery by senior Willy Wallace.
“The game really was never in question because of the way our defense played and controlled things,” said New Philadelphia coach Mike Johnson. “Those guys just really played well as a unit and jumped on opportunities when they had them. I’m really proud of that type of effort and focus for all four quarters.”
On a night when the offense was stymied a bit for New Phila, the defensive performance was all the more impressive.
The Rams (0-7, 0-4) didn’t look the part of a winless team that has given up on their season, competing all game long even after falling behind quickly 14-0 in the first quarter. Madison, which has lost 14 consecutive games, also has now lost 59 of its last 61 games.
The Madison defense also had its own moments, forcing the Quakers to punt eight times and short-circuiting several promising drives by New Phila.
New Phila got off to a fast start after Wallace took the opening kickoff and nearly went to the house before a shoestring tackle by a Rams’ defender stopped him at the Madison 24 yard line. Five plays later sophomore quarterback Keaton Fausel rifled a dart to Delacruz in the corner of the end zone to make it 7-0 only 90 seconds into the contest.
Following McCune’s interception at the Ram 24, New Phila senior running back Trevor Bean capped off the ensuing drive with a 1-yard TD plunge and it was 14-0 with 1:45 remaining in the first.
From there, the teams traded punts (New Phila) and turnovers (Madison) for most of the remainder of the game before the Quakers added a clinching 1-yard burst by Bean with 1:28 remaining in the game.
“We kind of fell back into some bad habits and mistakes on offense a few times,” Johnson said. “But we did move the chains several times when we needed to, and we dropped some passes when we had guys open and in the right spots. We’ll fix those things and get better.”
The Quakers actually were outgained by the Rams (230 yards for Madison to 187 for New Phila).
For the Quakers, Bean rushed 23 times for 81 yards and the two TDs, and Fausel completed eight of 19 passes for 57 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. Five Quakers actually carried the ball as New Phila attempted 40 rushes in the game for 130 hard-earned yards.
For this night, though, it was the defense that carried the Quakers from start to finish.
“We’re building confidence and that’s what our program is built on, too – doing the work every day and getting better,” Johnson said. “The wins are great and we really like to see our guys individually and as a team making strides. We saw that tonight and it really feels good.”
Phone: 330-343-8615
Address: 525 West High Avenue, Suite 160, New Philadelphia
Email: cjones1973@roadrunner.com
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