South Range stifles rival Poland to stay undefeated
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BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- One year ago, South Range's nearly six-year, 40-game win streak against Northeast 8 Conference (NE8) opponents ended in emphatic fashion at the hands of Poland. On Friday, on a night in which they honored their seniors, the Raiders exacted their revenge in an even more lopsided fashion.
In its final scheduled home game of the season, South Range dominated Poland, passing and running the ball at will and consistently neutralizing the Bulldogs' offense en route to a 47-7 win at Raiders Stadium.
"It was an electric atmosphere. Shout out to our fans, our support system for showing up in a big way," South Range head coach Dave Rach said. "Senior night's obviously a special night for our guys, and they were hyped up and ready to play. I told them afterwards, it's like a lesson here. We ran away, tuck and tail last year, got beat up by those guys. And 365 days later, because of the work that our kids have put in and the accountability they've shown throughout the offseason, they were able to turn the tide tonight."
The Raiders' first drive of the game proved to be among their longest.
After his first-down run was called back due to a blindside block, quarterback Nick Toy completed a 17-yard pass to Gavin Hiscox. From there, aside from a 13-yard completion to Jason Vorshak, Toy, Vorshak and Ridge Ewert took turns running the ball, averaging nearly 6 yards per carry in the process.
Then, on the 10th play of the drive, Toy went back to the air, this time finding Tommy Valentine for a 12-yard touchdown. With Cason Butcher's extra point, the Raiders took a 7-0 lead with 7:41 remaining in the first quarter.
Poland's offense, despite a 14-yard completion by David Xipolitas to Maddox Purins on third-and-long, could not respond in kind, and was forced to punt soon thereafter.
South Range's next drive similarly stalled, with Toy connecting with Tommy Titus for a 42-yard completion before the Bulldogs shut down Toy and Vorshak to bring up fourth down. On fouth-and-2 from the Poland 29-yard line, Toy tossed the ball to Vorshak, who was stuffed at the line of scrimmage by Purins and a group of defenders to force a turnover on downs.
Despite the momentum, the Bulldogs only went backwards once they got the ball back. Chase Jones was brought down for successive 3-yard losses, and on third down, Vorshak and Carson Crouse sacked Xipolitas to bring up fourth-and-29.
Starting their next drive and the second quarter at midfield, the Raiders wasted no time adding to their lead, as Ewert took a handoff, bounced off a few Bulldogs and sprinted into the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown.
Although the point-after failed, keeping the game at 13-0, South Range almost immediately got the ball back. On the third play of Poland's next drive, Crouse jumped on the ball after a high snap, and the Raiders took over at the Bulldogs' 35.
Then, on the first play of the ensuing possession, South Range ran a reverse sweep flea flicker, which resulted in Toy finding Valentine for a 35-yard touchdown.
The Raiders defense then came up big again, stuffing Jones on fourth-and-1 to force a turnover on downs at the Poland 22.
After taking back over, Toy and Vorshak continued to punish the Poland defense even in spite of another blindside block penalty, which negated a Toy rushing touchdown. Fortunately for the Raiders, after being set back to the 20, Toy found Titus for a 19-yard completion before Toy officially ran it in for a 1-yard touchdown run.
Getting one last chance to score before halftime, South Range again worked quickly, picking up 60 yards over six plays in just over 90 seconds to take a 33-0 lead into halftime. The final touchdown of the half came on a 24-yard completion by Toy to Hiscox.
"In the first half, they had a really good first drive. We had a turnover early, and they had a couple big plays, and before you even knew it, it was [26-0]," Poland head coach Tom Pavlansky said. "They're just really good. We got to get better."
After coming out of the locker room, Poland put together its first and only scoring drive of the night. The Bulldogs, aided by a pair of personal-foul penalties on South Range, drove more than 80 yards and finished with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Purins by Xipolitas with less than four minutes to go in the third quarter.
South Range responded in similar fashion, and, much like the Raiders, the Bulldogs' defense helped on the drive with costly penalties. Capping off the drive was Toy, who ran it in from 4 yards out to again put his team up by more than 30 early in the fourth quarter.
Ewert delivered the final blow late in the period, breaking several tackles en route to a 29-yard rushing touchdown.
"We've been thinking about it for a year straight, if I'm being honest with you," Rach said of the 34-0 loss to Poland last season. "Really discouraged with how we performed last year. Our guys were disappointed. We got outcoached, and all those things. So for us to be able to come back and make it right tonight was a good thing."
With the loss, Poland slipped to 3-3 on the season and 1-1 in NE8 play. The Bulldogs, who had won three in a row after two narrow losses to begin the year, host Niles next Friday.
"Credit to South Range; they're a really good football team," Pavlansky said. "We didn't have them ready to go. But that was more South range than us. It was more about them than us. Give them credit, Coach Rach and his staff. They've done a phenomenal job. You can tell they had a great offseason, and those kids play with energy, they play with passion. They enjoy the game of football, and it's obvious on tape and it's obvious tonight in person.
"So we gotta make sure we stay together and keep working our tail off to get better because there's still a lot of football left to play."
On the road the rest of the regular season, South Range, now 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the NE8, will next meet defending conference champion Girard, which is also undefeated and has not lost to a league opponent since the Raiders beat them in a playoff game on Nov. 8, 2024.
"They're a terrific team. I think probably as skilled as anybody we're going to see on our schedule," Rach said of Girard. "They're well-coached, a great program that we have a lot of respect for. So we're going to have to go back to work in the morning and get ready for them."