Shotts runs for 3 TDs, Beck adds 105 yards, key sack on defense

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Kale Shotts ran for 159 yards and three touchdowns, and Brant Beck ran for 105 yards and a score as the Rochester football team set itself up for a Three Rivers Conference title showdown against Maconaquah next week with a 29-0 win over Southwood on senior night at Barnhart Field Friday.

Tyler Walley added 40 yards on nine carries, and Trenton Meadows had 34 yards on eight carries as the Zebra ground attack gobbled up 343 yards.

Rochester won despite not completing a pass. In fact, they did not attempt a pass in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Rochester defense notched its third shutout of the season. They held Southwood to no first downs and eight yards of offense in the first half.

Rochester won their sixth straight game and improved to 7-1 overall and 7-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. They also lowered their defensive scoring average to 8.9 ppg. If that number holds, it would be Rochester’s best defensive scoring average since the 2002 team allowed 7.3 ppg.

Southwood fell to 0-8, 0-7. Rochester beat them for the third straight year and shut them out for the second straight year.

Rochester sacked Southwood quarterback Griffin Chambers five times with Beck, Grant Clark, Mason Hisey and Xavier Vance getting at least one.

“I thought we did a really good job,” Rochester coach Ron Shaffer said when asked about keeping the mobile Chambers in the pocket. “I thought pressure was good from inside and from the edge. We were able to get a blitz on him and get him down. He’s an elusive guy, and you just can’t let him extend plays, and I thought the kids did a nice job on him.”

In other TRC action, Maconaquah whitewashed Wabash 77-0 to also improve to 7-0 in league play. Rochester will travel to Maconaquah at 7 p.m. next Friday for the conference crown.

“I’m excited,” Vance, a senior defensive tackle, said. “It’s just a great feeling to have a senior season and be undefeated in the conference. Playing the last game for the conference and going into sectionals just feels amazing.”

Southwood committed one turnover, an interception by Clarence Garrett on the last play of the game. Southwood drove down to the Rochester 4 in the final minute, but a snap over backup quarterback Eli Shellhamer’s head in the shotgun formation led to a 17-yard loss, and Garrett followed with his interception.

Offensively, Rochester had only two plays of 20 yards or longer, and Shotts had them both. He had a 24-yard run in the second quarter and later added a 58-yard run for a touchdown on a trap play with 8:23 left in the third quarter that made it 22-0 in the third quarter.

“I thought he ran with purpose in the second half,” Shaffer said. “We had a little bit of a motivational talk at halftime for him, and he came out, and I thought he played a lot better in the second half.”

Three of the four scoring drives consisted of 10 plays or more.

Shotts had a 14-yard run on fourth-and-2, and senior reserve Tyler Walley later added a 12-yard run on the game’s opening possession. Beck later scored from the 12 on a sweep, following seal blocks from Callen Ferverda and Grant Clark. Carson Paulik scrambled for a two-point conversion to make it 8-0.

Rochester followed a 10-play touchdown drive with a 15-play touchdown drive.

Walley had a 4-yard run on fourth-and-3 from the 33 to keep the drive alive, and Shotts later had a 3-yard run on fourth-and-1 from the 7 to get another first down.

Two plays later, Shotts scored from the 1. Southwood defenders thought that they had recovered a Shotts fumble in the end zone, but the officials ruled that Shotts crossed the goal line before he lost possession.

Meadows added the two-point conversion to make it 16-0.

Rochester stopped Southwood on a four-and-out and took over on the Southwood 46 for their third possession, but Maddox Marshall intercepted Paulik on the first play of the ensuing drive.

But Southwood had to punt again.

The Knights would get their initial first down when Chambers found freshman receiver Poncho Lopez for 5-yards on fourth-and-4 at the Rochester 35 with 6:22 left in the third quarter.

They would get two more first downs on the drive, but on fourth-and-goal from the Zebra 5, Beck rushed in, evaded a block from Marshall and sacked Chambers for an 11-yard loss.

“We said we were going to bring pressure if we got a certain situation,” Shaffer said. “We brought him, he ripped through and made a nice tackle on the quarterback.”

Rochester had a 12-play, 60-yard drive in the fourth quarter that completed the scoring. A 23-yard run from Meadows highlighted the drive, and another 1-yard run from Shotts punctuated it.

Davis Renie added the extra point to complete the scoring.

Rochester had survived a week in which pneumonia tore through the locker room.

“The kids were tired, wore out,” Shaffer said. “I thought the gutsy performances by Mason Hisey, Carson Paulik and Grant Clark, who was ailing earlier in the week. I thought the kids just gutted it out tonight.”

Vance praised Hisey and Clark, the bookend defensive ends.

“They were really good,” Vance said. “Both of them had pneumonia. They got diagnosed with pneumonia earlier this week. They were looking terrible at practice, but today, it seemed like they recovered and did amazing.”

Rochester 29, Southwood 0

Southwood 0 0 0 0 – 0

Rochester 8 8 6 7 – 29

First quarter

RHS – Brant Beck 12 run (Carson Paulik run)

Second quarter

RHS – Kale Shotts 1 run (Trenton Meadows run)

Third quarter

RHS – Shotts 58 run (run failed)

Fourth quarter

RHS – Shotts 1 run (Davis Renie kick)