The ghosts are gone as Knights find a way in win over Generals

For the West Holmes Knights, the ghost of Wooster football losses is gone.

For the Wooster Generals, all they can do following a heartbreaking 41-37 loss to the Knights at West Holmes Stadium Friday, Sept. 24 is hope to grow from the experience.

In a game that both teams could have won, it would be the Knights who would find a way to remain perfect on the season at 6-0 while the Generals slipped to 3-3.

Knights head coach Zach Gardner said ridding themselves of the ghosts that have haunted West Holmes in losses to Wooster over most of the last decade is a relief.

“Eight years they’ve beaten us, and we have come into the game with them undefeated three of those seasons,” Gardner said. “Tonight, we could feel those ghosts moving in, but our kids showed a lot of heart and resilience and found a way to win a game. It feels mighty good to sweep those ghosts away.”

For Wooster head coach Austin Holter, all he could do to console his despondent players following the loss was to inspire them.

“These kids played their hearts out tonight, and we did everything but come away with a win,” Holter said. “One of the great things about football is the chance to find redemption, to find ways to grow and to see how kids respond when things don’t go your way. We did so many great things tonight and I am so proud of these kids. We fought our tails off against a really good football team tonight and didn’t get the result we wanted, so now it’s time to dig deep and see how we respond.”

Ridding themselves of the ghost of Wooster Past wasn’t easy for West Holmes in what was a terrific back-and-forth contest that wasn’t over until the waning seconds.

The Knights got on the board with a beautiful opening drive that culminated in a 3-yard Brent Shearer score. Wooster responded in kind, putting together a scoring drive that ended in quarterback Drew Becker’s 9-yard keeper that tied it at 7-all.

Tucker Kaufman’s 45-yard catch and run set up Sam Williams-Dixon’s 5-yard score, and the Knights recovered a fumble leading to a 25-yard Williams-Dixon run that made it 21-7. Wooster got a field goal and WHHS had a chance to push the lead out, but a turnover led to a 10-yard scoring strike from Becker to Jack Williams. The two-point conversion was no good, and with under a minute to play in the half it looked like that would be the score, but three big runs by the Knights set up a field goal for Nick Ginsburg, and his 38-yarder just cleared the bar for a 24-16 halftime lead.

Becker found Williams to start the second half to cut the lead to one, but Ginsburg connected again to make it 27-23. The lead last eight seconds, because Becker located Dew Dossi flying down the left sideline and the result was a 61-yard touchdown romp that gave Wooster its first lead at 30-27.

West Holmes then coughed it up again on a botched snap by the punter and the Generals took advantage, scoring quickly when Becker fired a bullet to Zachary Harpster for a 37-27 edge with 10:12 to play.

West Holmes never panicked and went to work on the ground, chewing its way downfield before Williams-Dixon went in from a yard out to trim the deficit to 37-34 with 5:12 to play.

Looking for the knockout punch, the Generals drove from their own 30 to West Holmes’ 23 on the legs of Gregory Adams, where on fourth-and-eight, Becker fired a strike for a first down, but in a violent collision in the middle of the field, Knights defensive back Owen Jeffries stole the ball away from Micah McKee for an interception.

“Right as he caught it, I had my hands on it and stripped it away,” Jeffries said. “It felt great, because earlier in the game they were getting some big stuff on me, so it felt great tom make a play.”

“All season long we’ve found ways to make big plays, and none was bigger than that one,” Gardner said of Jeffries play.

The ghosts that were swooping in backed off a bit. West Holmes then made sure they swept them away for good.

With 3:20 to play, Williams-Dixon started reeling off chunk plays for yardage, and Noah Clark hit Garrett Eastep for 10 yards to move past midfield. A pair of Williams-Dixon runs around a keeper by Clark moved the ballot Wooster’s 29. Two more runs totaling 16 yards and Clark’s keeper placed the ball on the 3-yard-line with 32 seconds to play. Williams-Dixon plunged in from there, and with 29 seconds left, the ghosts were on the verge of being vanquished.

Wooster still had hope, but four deep balls went incomplete and the Knights had finally found a way to defeat the Generals.

“That was insane,” said West Holmes senior Sawyer Pritt. “We just found a way to win. It took a big effort by all of us against a really good team, but we found a way to pull through. We just never gave up and we found a way to get a win.”

Gardner said a large number of self-inflicted wounds could have kept the ghosts in-house, but they were fortunate to find a way to overcome them.

“That would have hurt a lot watching that film in defeat and seeing all of the things we did wrong, but we were fortunate and made plays when we had to. Give Wooster credit, they played a great game and hung in there when we had a chance to put them away. Right now, we just want to win each day and get better.”

Holter also took a positive approach to the outcome, noting that in the loss he felt his team grew up a lot and took some really positive strides.

“I love these kids and this program,” Holter said. “What we did tonight was face a great football team and we went toe-to-toe with them. I couldn’t be prouder of this group of young men.”

He pointed out Becker in particular, who fired four scoring strikes and added a running touchdown in a sensational performance.

“Drew was incredible,” Holter said. “I’m so proud of his development and the way he handled the pressure tonight. He was just so special tonight, but credit West Holmes, they did what they had to do to get a win.”

Gardner agreed with Holter’s assessment of Becker, saying, “He’s a quality player and he was really on tonight. It was a special night for him and we couldn’t stop him.”

On a night of many big plays, perhaps none was more relevant that the Knights finally swatting away the ghost of Wooster Past, finally putting that one to bed.