Ottawa-Glandorf’s Jayden Stechschulte, left, congratulates Titan head coach Ken Schriner on Friday night after Schriner’s 200th career win.
Jessica Trinko | The Lima News
OTTAWA — Ottawa-Glandorf scored 28 unanswered points to rally back from an early 7-0 deficit on Friday, handing Elida a 28-7 defeat and Titan coach Ken Schriner his 200th career victory.
Schriner, in his 29th season leading the Titans (2-2, 2-1 Western Buckeye League), became the 56th Ohio coach to reach the 200-win plateau, according to statistics from the Ohio High School Athletic Association. His teams averaged 7.1 wins per season over his tenure with only six losing seasons. It was an impressive turnaround for a school that went 12 years without a winning season before the Tiffin Calvert and Bowling Green State University graduate arrived in 1996.
“I mean, we’ve got two wins under our belt. That’s the only thing that’s important,” Schriner said. “I’ll look back there someday and see it, but you know, it’s about the guys. It’s about the players. I learned a long time ago: Coaches lose games, and kids win the games.”
Friday night’s victory at Titan Stadium had all the characteristics of a Schriner victory, with a dominant run game and stifling defense that only allowed 50 second-half yards against Elida (1-3, 0-3 WBL).
The Titans rolled up 224 rushing yards, with six players carrying the ball. Grant Evers led the way with 17 carries for 131 yards, including a 23-yard touchdown in the third quarter when he skimmed the right side of the offensive line untouched just before the end of the third quarter for a 21-7 lead.
Trevor Rump added 69 yards rushing, including a 56-yard TD when he went up the middle and burst through for the long run with 9:31 left in the second quarter, tying the game at 7-7. Vinnie Brinkman added a 6-yard touchdown run just before halftime for a 14-7 lead at the break.
The Titans effectively found Elida’s star edge player, 6-foot-3, 235-pound Parker Crim, and ran the other way, said O-G quarterback Peyton Kuhlman.
“We studied Parker Crim a lot this week and kind of based our run game off him,” Kuhlman said.
The rushing effort made the Titans’ coach proud.
“The run game is what we want to do. It’s always a chess match,” Schriner said. “Elida always does a great job of playing our H-back and has a scheme for what we do. We had a couple wrinkles to go opposite Crim, and I think that was some good stuff tonight.”
Offensively, Elida’s A’mari Wash had some good stuff too. On the Bulldogs’ opening five-play, 68-yard drive, Elida’s speedy receiver ran jet sweeps to the right for 24 yards and 35 yards, with the latter good for a touchdown and a seven-point lead four minutes into the game.
“Shoot, they went down like knife through butter there,” Shriner said. “We didn’t look too hot. But you know, our kids found a way to be resilient and stuck with the game plan.”
Wash finished the game with 156 total offensive yards. The Titans held him to five carries for 15 yards after those first two big runs. He also had five catches for 82 yards.
“You know, A’mari plays hard. A’mari makes plays,” said Elida coach Kyle Harmon. “He stepped up making plays for us, and we just have to continue to get better.”
The Titans’ defense did a good job limiting the play of Elida quarterback Ryan McGue, sacking him five times. He completed 9 of 19 passes for 94 yards, about 34 yards short of the Bulldogs’ season average.
Kuhlman also had two sacks that ended Bulldog drives and provided momentum. He also completed 3 of 9 passes, including a 15-yard touchdown pass to Dane Duling in the fourth quarter.
“He’s been an excellent addition to our defense,” Schriner said of the two-way starter. “He’s rushing off the edge, and he gives us another weapon. He’s long and athletic. We decided we had to get him on the field defensively to help us out, and he’s doing what we want.”
“You’ve got to keep trying to ride the highs and lows,” Kuhlman said. “You try to stay on the highs and stay off the lows. We’re just going to play our style of ball.”
Kuhlman said Schriner wasn’t emotional about the 200th victory, but the team was still proud to deliver it for him.
Harmon offered his admiration of the WBL’s longest-tenured head coach.
“Coach Schriner is awesome. He does great things over there,” Harmon said. “They’re so fundamentally sound and well-coached every time you play Ottawa-Glandorf. They’re going to do things right, and they’re going to be physical. Congrats to him.”
Ottawa-Glandorf 28, Elida 7
Elida Ottawa-Glandorf
11 First downs 11
188 Total yards 257
94 Rushing yards 224
94 Passing yardage 33
9-19-1 Passing 3-9-0
3-0 Fumbles-Lost 1-1
3-47 Punts 3-42.7
3-25 Penalties 2-15
Score by quarters:
Elida 7 0 0 0 — 7
Ottawa-Glandorf 0 14 7 7 — 28
First quarter
E-A’mari Wash 35 run (Isaac Jones kick), 8:01
Second quarter
O-G-Trevor Rump 56 run (Cooper Fischer kick), 9:31
O-G-Vinnie Brinkman 6 run (Fischer kick), 0:41
Third quarter
O-G-Grant Evers 23 run (Fischer kick), 0:19
Fourth quarter
O-G-Dane Duling 15 pass from Peyton Kuhlman (Fischer kick), 3:42
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
