By: Joe Shouse, Sports Writer
The 2021 high school football season kicked-off this past weekend across the Buckeye state. Like many area teams the Wayne Trace Raiders opened their campaign last Friday at home hosting the Fort Recovery Indians. The Indians scored first but found themselves down by a touchdown late in the second quarter before they came to life – blitzing the Raiders 32-7 the rest of the way to secure a 39-21 nonconference win.
In the opening quarter Fort Recovery’s Caden Grisez scored the first of his five touchdowns on the night, a 32-yard run with 6:05 showing on the clock. The Raiders needed less than two minutes to light up the score board with Kyle Slade finding the end-zone on a 29-yard scamper to knot the score at seven a piece.
The Raiders would answer again early in the second quarter with Slade scoring his second touchdown of the night on a 20-yard run. Following an extra point by Cooper Wenzlick the Raiders were on top 14-7. At that point of the contest the Indians would secure the momentum and score three unanswered touchdowns to close out the second period scoring. Grisez scored back-to-back touchdowns on runs of four yards and one yard to push Fort Recovery back on top 20-14. The Indians delivered a back-breaking score with just 33 seconds remaining until halftime when Cale Rammel spotted Troy Homan on a 15-yard touchdown connection.
The third frame had the Raiders scoring the only points when Jared Pierce snuck in from the one-yard line with 7:35 remaining and the Raiders hanging on trailing 26-21. Unfortunately, Caden Grisez was not finished scoring for the Indians. The running back who finished the night with 289 total yards on the ground on 35 carries managed to find the end zone on a 53-yard run and then followed it up with a 2-yard run with 5:26 remaining to end the scoring on the night.
While Grisez was doing the damage on the ground, Cale Rammel was solid in the passing department. The Indian’s signal caller totaled 156 yards on 13-19 and one touchdown.
For the Raiders and the coaching debut for Head Coach Matt Holden, the red. white, and blue was led by a couple of juniors with Slade totaling 102 rushing yards on six totes and two touchdowns. Jared Pierce added a touchdown on 81 yards on 20 carries. Sophomore Cooper Wenzlick threw for 77 yards on 5-17 with Race Price collecting three tosses for 34 yards and Dylan Hildebrand adding 43-yards on two grabs.
The Raiders will be on the road this Friday when they travel to Patrick Henry.
