Garaway plows to Elite 8 with win over Dalton

Garaway’s Division VI opponent in the Region 21 Sweet 16 game at Dalton High School Friday, Nov. 14 shouldn’t have been filled with too many surprises because these two schools have been knocking heads plenty of times over the past dozen-plus years.

While the Bulldogs owned the Pirates early in the rivalry, the Pirates have found success in recent years, and despite playing on Dalton’s home turf, the Pirates were able to grind out a 25-16 victory that sent them into the Elite 8 Region 21 finals against another well-known foe, Kirtland.

“At this point a win is a win is a win. I don’t care how we get it,” Garaway head coach Jason Wallick said. “We killed ourselves at some inopportune times, but I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss at this point.”

On the game’s opening drive, in less than two minutes, Garaway took the lead. Matthew Frey reeled off a run of 34 yards early on to the Dalton 14, and quarterback Grady Miller kept it for a 12-yard run to the 2-yard line, setting up Frey’s 2-yard plunge. However, a missed PAT left the score at 6-0.

The Pirates forced a punt, and Miller raced for 14 more yards, but a strip sack from Dalton’s Braylon Stutz gave the ball back to the Bulldogs. Garaway’s Colson Keller made a nifty stop for the Pirates to force a Dalton punt.

Taking over deep in their own territory, Garaway escaped and struck quickly on a 93-yard connection from Miller to Micah Yoder, which gave the Pirates a 12-0 advantage.

“That play was huge for us,” Wallick said. “We were deep in our own side, and we were just hoping for a few yards to get us out of our own end so we could hopefully flip the field. Then Micah turns it on, takes it to the house, and we score a huge touchdown that really gave us life and got us going.”

Dalton answered with a lengthy drive that took it to the Garaway 3-yard-line, with the drive culminating on a Conner Mori 3-yard touchdown plunge that saw the Bulldogs trim the deficit to 12-7 at the end of the first quarter.

A Miller to Micah Yoder strike of 14 yards took the ball to Dalton’s 34. Miller then broke off a nice run of 11 yards, but Dakota Knetzer’s tackle knocked the ball loose, resulting in a second Pirates turnover.

With Dalton threatening to take the lead for the first time, Keller proceeded to knock down his second pass from quarterback Carter Hignight, and after a 7-yard pass, the Pirates defense held and forced a punt.

Deep in their own territory, Miller botched a snap, and after a wild scrum, he was able to come away with the ball, keeping the Pirates in possession. Miller then quickly hit Frey for a 38-yard pass to move the ball to the Garaway 45. Frey then reeled off an 11-yard run to Dalton’s 40 and followed that two plays later with a 15-yard dash around the right end to the Dalton 25.

Dalton’s Jaxon Ryder made a nice play defensively to set up a fourth-and-long play for Garaway, but somehow Miller found Micah Yoder between three Bulldogs defenders who were draped all over him, giving the Pirates life at the Dalton 12-yard line.

That stunner of a play led to an eventual Frey 3-yard scamper into the end zone that provided the Pirates with an 18-7 lead that they took into the locker room at the half.

Hignight hit Reese Lecon for a 10-yard gainer to the Dalton 48 near the start of the second half, and after Dillon King blew up a run for a loss of 3 and after taking over on downs, Garaway was poised to build its lead with the ball in Dalton territory, but a strong defensive stand that culminated in an Andrew Galdamez sack on fourth down gave the ball back to the Bulldogs at their own 35.

Garaway’s Braylon Books quickly made a beautiful tackle on Ryder for a 5-yard loss to the 30, and eventually, Dalton punted it away, pinning the Pirates deep. That factored in quickly when Dalton recorded a safety to trim the deficit to 18-9.

After Garaway punted, Hignight churned out a couple of big plays, setting up the Bulldogs near pay dirt, but on third-and-1 from the 3, Colson burst through for a tackle for loss, setting up a huge fourth-down play. Dalton surged to get a first down, and Hignight capped off the scoring drive with a sneak to make it 18-16 in favor of Garaway at the start of the final quarter.

A nice run from Frey and Miller’s scrambling pass to Yoder set the Pirates up near midfield. Frey chewed up some clock in driving to Dalton’s 20, but a huge hit on Miller by Galdamez pushed the ball back to the 22. That was when Miller came through big, rolling right and finding Garber open in the end zone to give the Pirates breathing room at 25-16.

With 7:30 to play, Dalton needed two scores, but Garaway’s defense buckled down. The teams traded possessions, but with only 2:30 left with Dalton in possession on its own 10, things looked dire for Dalton.

On fourth-and-6, Garaway made the stop to secure the win and move on to face Kirtland for the fifth time in 11 years.

For the Pirates, Books was all over the field, racking up 13 tackles.

“Our defense played really well, and Braylon was sensational,” Wallick said. “He has become such a student of the game.”

Miller threw for 206 yards with two scoring strikes while Frey racked up 156 rushing yards for two scores, adding 51 receiving yards.

“I think our kids grew from this game,” Wallick said. “I think they realize the importance of taking care of the ball and recognizing that we can’t make those types of mistakes at this juncture of the season. We were fortunate to get away with some mistakes, but at the same time, we made some big plays.”

Big enough to move on to meet one of Ohio’s finest small-school programs in the Elite 8.