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Creek starts fast, pulls away from Weir

Mazar scores on first play to propel Creek to 42-7 homecoming victory

By ANDREW GRIMM 6 min read

WINTERSVILLE -- Coming into Friday night's showdown between Indian Creek and Weir High, both coaches emphasized the start would be key.

That turned out to be correct.

Indian Creek's start could not have been any better, a touchdown on the first snap from scrimmage, and the Redskins used it to spring board to a 42-7 victory over the Red Riders on homecoming night at Kettlewell Stadium.

"It just brought the energy right away, that's what we wanted to do," Indian Creek head coach Andrew Connor said of the quick start. "We practice all week getting off to a quick start and I think that was an important part of kind of putting the last couple weeks behind us and getting our confidence back.

"Our kids worked very hard this week, we moved some guys around and the kids just did a great job.

"You could see the belief come back and see a difference in the way we played. I'm really happy with the pride and passion our kids played with this week."

Creek standout tailback Bruce Mazar took a handoff on the first Creek snap, bounced it outside and sprinted 67 yards past Red Riders defenders and the Redskins (2-2) never looked back in snapping a two-game slide and getting back into the win column.

The scoring run was the first of two for Mazar, who finished with 133 yards on just 10 carries, all by the time Alexis See was crowned homecoming queen at halftime.

"You give it to your guy and ask him to make big plays for you and Bruce made some big plays for us throughout the night to really help us going, and a bunch of guys in a bunch of different places really stepped up and chipped in," Connor said. "Our defense played light out, we ran the ball well and we hit some nice pass plays. That's the way you want to play and I'm proud of the kids and very happy for our coaches, they did a great job of having the kids prepared."

For Weir High (0-3), the start was hard to overcome and, while there were some positives to keep building on, a couple mistakes, penalties and negative plays that slowed promising drives, kept the Red Riders from putting the pieces together enough to stay with Creek.

"I feel like I keep saying the same thing every week -- it's the little things holding us back," Weir head coach Chris Hill said. "We did some things better this week, but it's stacking all of those little things together that we need to do .... I think we're heading in the right direction, we're seeing improvement week to week and the kids are working hard and staying positive.

"It's part of our process of getting this turned around that we have to start doing all the little things right, spring a big run, get some confidence, we can turn it around and catch fire. Its just a matter of stacking it together."

Creek scored on every possession but the one they had when the clock hit zeroes. The Redskins racked up 404 yards of offense, 286 of which and five touchdowns came on the ground. Ethan Starr, Jorden Hines and Dylan Romanyak also found the end zone.

While the run game led the way, the passing game made some big plays, too. Starr completed passes to seven different targets in going 7 of 8 for 118 yards and a score, an 8-yard connection with Adam Gaschler. Nizair Vick had a 38-yard reception and Kade Haines had a 23-yarder. Tanner Goodwin and Jordan Delp each had a 15-yard reception.

"We had not been throwing the ball very well the last couple weeks so that was something we wanted to work on this week," Connor said. "You can't always just be in that ground-and-pound mentality, I wanted our kids to really develop our passing game this week and I thought our kids did a great job of that and mixing our plays up between the pass and run.

"We moved Mason Salazar and Bo Paulman to offensive line this week and they did a great job. Our line did a great job and that's what you need if you want to be a good football team, kids willing to do what we ask of them to help the team."

After the big first play, Mazar capped Creek's second scoring drive with a 2-yard run to make it 14-0 after one quarter. Romanyak capped another scoring march midway through the third with a 3-yard plunge, and Starr, who finished with 79 rushing yards for 197 total yards on the night, scored on a 17-yard run to make it 28-0 before firing a late TD pass for a 35-0 lead at halftime.

Hines' scoring run on Creek's first drive of the second half capped their scoring with the running clock rolling.

Defensively, Hines and Mason Salazar had two tackles for loss each.

Weir High got on the board in the fourth quarter, Zack Howland capping a scoring drive in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard plunge. The bulk of the yardage on that drive was covered by Gavin McAllister, a freshman who rushed for 62 yards on nine carries, all in the second half.

"Our kids play hard, they played hard the whole game," Hill said. "They keep their heads up. We rotated in some young guys that came in and gave us a little bit of a spark. We're going to keep working and keep getting better."

UP NEXT

Weir High: Will host Edison (1-3) in its home opener next Friday at Jimmy Carey Stadium.

Indian Creek: Heads across the river to battle Brooke (2-0) next Friday night.

Indian Creek 42, Weir High 7

WH 0-0-0-7 -- 7

IC 14-21-7-0 -- 42

SCORING

FIRST QUARTER

IC: Mazar 67 run (Barcalow kick) 11:38

IC: Mazar 2 run (Barcalow kick) 2:13

SECOND QUARTER

IC: Romanyak 3 run (Barcalow kick) 7:39

IC: Starr 17 run (Barcalow kick) 3:28

IC: Gaschler 8 pass from Starr (Barcalow kick) 1:47

THIRD QUARTER

IC: Hines 3 run (Barcalow kick) :23

FOURTH QUARTER

WH: Howland 1 run (Stevens kick) 3:45

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING: Weir High 28-106-TD (George 12-42; McAllister 9-62; Lyons 2-(-3); DiMatteis 1-0; Howland 3-5-TD); Indian Creek 28-286-5TD (Mazar 10-133-2TD; Starr 6-79-TD; Hines 6-6-TD; Vick 2-54; Romanyak 1-3-TD; Donahue 2-7; Patton 1-4)

PASSING: Weir High 5-12-34 (Lyons 0-4; DiMatteis 5-8-34); Indian Creek 7-8-118-TD (all by Starr)

RECEIVING: Weir High 5-34 (George 1-8; Haught 1-5; Taylor 1-2; Williams 1-7; Howland 1-12); Indian Creek 7-118-TD (Vick 1-38; Pietro 1-(-2); Goodwin 1-15; Delp 1-15; Gaschler 1-8-TD; Haines 1-23; Mazar 1-21)

TEAM STATS

TOTAL YARDS: Weir High 140; Indian Creek 404

FIRST DOWNS: Weir High 8; Indian Creek 13

PENALTIES-YARDS: Weir High 3-20; Indian Creek 5-40

FUMBLES-LOST: Weir High 0-0; Indian Creek 0-0

PUNTS-AVG: Weir High 3-34; Indian Creek 0-0

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