Posen shut out by Cedarville in lopsided regional championship
Posen shut out by Cedarville in lopsided regional championship
Trending
POSEN -- Friday's regional championship game between Posen and Cedarville didn't end up like the previous two meetings between the two schools.
Despite playing at home, the Vikings were shut down by a Cedarville team that played much more physical and the Trojans dominated Posen 44-0 on their way to claiming an 8-Player Division 2 regional championship.
"We knew going in that Cedarville was a talented team. They played a very brutal schedule this season and they're very well coached and well disciplined," Posen coach Greg Pietsch said. "They were just more physical than us and when you play a team like that it's tough. They overpowered us tonight and my hat goes off to them."
Posen was shut down down offensively; something that hasn't happened often this season. The Vikings came in with two 1,000 yard running backs in seniors Sam Brunet and Mark Wisniewski, but the duo was held to just 55 total rushing yards as Wisniewski finished with 34 yards, 26 of which came on Posen's biggest play of the game in the second quarter and Brunet was held to 21 yards on the ground.
George Kroll completed just 4-of-14 passes for 54 yards and nothing seemed to work for the Vikings on either side of the ball.
The Trojans had no problem moving the ball and picked up large chunks of yardage on seemingly every play.
Cedarville racked up over 400 yards of total offense and 365 came on the ground as the duo of Jarron Masuga and Chase Fisher ran over the Posen defense.
Masuga carried the ball 15 times for 173 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Fisher had 103 yards on 12 carries and two scores.
Cedarville scored on all four of its possessions in the first half. Fisher put the Trojans on the board with a two yard plunge up the middle to put the visitors up 8-0 less than a 90 seconds into the game.
The Trojans took a two-score lead late in the quarter when quarterback Tristan Masuga scrambled to the outside on a broken play for a five-yard touchdown.
Jarron Masuga scampered in from 14 yards out early in the second quarter and the Trojans capped off a dominant first half when Tristan Masuga connected with receiver Sean Bale for a 37-yard touchdown with 38 seconds left as Cedarville took a commanding 28-0 lead into the break.
"There were some matchup problems for sure. Cedarville's defensive line, linebackers, secondary and entire defense is very impressive and I wish them the best of luck. They have a good team and they showed a lot of class," Pietsch said. "We tried to mix it up on offense with our spread, they had that covered and our I-formation was covered. It was just really tough to run plays offensively and defensively we missed some tackles. We had guys in position, but weren't able to finish. We got overpowered and they blew us off the ball and won the line of scrimmage and it was really tough to make adjustments."
Despite fumbling on the opening possession of the second half, Cedarville continued to shut down Posen offensively as the Trojans forced the Vikings to punt four times and turned them over on downs three times.
Cedarville ripped off two big plays for its final two scores of the night as Jarron Masuga sprinted in for a 34 yard touchdown in the third quarter to force a running clock and Fisher scored a 40-yard touchdown to put the finishing touches on a dominant performance.
The Trojans will hit the road again for state semifinal matchup with Rapid River next week.
For the the third time in school history, Posen reached the regional championship game. The Vikings finished the year 8-3, rebounding well after a 2-7 finish the year before.
Posen loses six key seniors, but will likely return 14 players from this year's team, including nine juniors, which has Pietsch hopeful that the future remains bright for the Posen football program.
"I knew at the beginning of the season what this group was capable of and we got better every single day. We were able to turn it around this year and credit to the kids. We played a tough schedule and that's what we enjoy doing. We were able to flip the script and now with our players coming back, they have playoff experience. I always tell the kids, no matter how good you are, there's always somebody better and we saw that tonight," Pietsch said. "The future is bright. There's a lot of interest and kids are excited and I'm going to continue pushing these kids and working with them. We're going to go after that regional and get it some day."