High school football: Wapakoneta stymies Shawnee
Sep. 18—SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — Shawnee was driving down the field in a tie game in the third quarter.
That's when Wapakoneta made a huge fourth-and-inches stop at its own 15-yard line.
Wapakoneta used that stop to grab the momentum and went on to post a 21-7 victory over Shawnee Friday at Shawnee.
Shawnee is 4-1, 3-1 in the Western Buckeye League. Wapak is 3-2, 2-2 in the WBL.
Wapak running back Jace Mullen led the Redskins with 201 yards on 14 carries. He had TD runs of 4, 71 and 95 yards.
Wapakoneta quarterback Braden Goulet, who entered the game with a WBL-leading 558 yards, was held to 27 yards on 10 carries.
In the air, Goulet completed 8 of 13 for 88 yards.
The game was scoreless at the end of the first quarter and 7-7 at the half.
With the game tied at 7 in the third quarter, Shawnee moved the ball from its own 42 to the Wapak 15.
But on a fourth-and-inches play, Myles Aldrich took a pitch out to the left side, fumbled. Aldrich recovered his own fumble, but he lost 4 yards and the ball went over to Wapak on downs.
That gave Wapak the ball on its own 19.
Three plays later, Mullen turned the right corner on a sweep and went 71 yards for a TD.
That gave Wapak a 14-7 lead with 3:59 left in the third quarter.
Wapakoneta finished the scoring with a 95-yard TD run up the middle by Mullen with 9:17 to go.
Mullen broke three tackles at the line of scrimmage, then shook one last tackle attempt at the Shawnee 30 before flying to the end zone for the TD.
That pushed the Wapak lead to 21-7.
Early in the second quarter, Shawnee put together an 11-play, 53-yard drive for a score.
Shawnee quarterback Tyler Windau scored on a 1-yard sneak to give the Indians a 7-0 lead. That came with 8:09 left in the first quarter.
Wapakoneta came right back with a score. The key play on the drive came on fourth-and-6 from the Shawnee 24.
Wapak's Goulet hit Kaleb Walther with a 16-yard pass to take the ball to the Shawnee 8.
Two plays later, Mullen scored on a 4-yard TD run. That wrapped up an eight-play, 63-yard drive to tie the game at 7 with 4:30 left in the first half.
So while Shawnee bottled up the Wapak quarterback's running game, it couldn't slow down Mullen.
Shawnee played without running back Tommy Spyker, who suffered a separated shoulder in Week 2 against Bath.
Shawnee wingback Jordan Banks had six carries for 53 yards.
Windau had 36 on 15 carries. Myles Aldrich, who injured his leg in the second quarter and didn't return, had 25 carries on six carries.
In the air, Windau completed 13 of 25 for 140 yards.
Keaton Cooper had five catches for 69 yards
Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
