The Delaware Hayes High School football team’s 42-7 loss at Dublin Scioto Friday was marked by who was on the Pacers’ sidelines almost as much as who wasn’t. Hayes, playing without head coach Mike Golden, fell to 3-2 overall and 0-1 in the OCC-Capital while the Irish improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in league play.
Defensive coordinator Justin Malivuk said Golden, who is in his third year with the program, was admitted into a hospital early Friday morning to have an infection examined. Ed Golden took over as the interim coach for the game.
“Obviously we miss Coach. He’s a great leader,” Malivuk said. “All of the coaches pitched in and helped to get it done. They did a great job.
“I don’t know what kind of effect it had on the kids. That was the first time we ever had to deal with something like that. I would hope it would make them play even harder and I think they did play really hard tonight.”
After the first half, the Pacers were without two of their quarterbacks with seniors Cullen Moore and Anthony Rodgers sustaining injuries. Malivuk didn’t know the extent of Moore and Rodgers’ injuries, but praised the performance of sophomore Kael Gannon, who took over in the final series of the first half and played most of the second half. Gannon led the Pacers on two of their most successful drives of the game.
“With Cullen and Anthony both getting hurt, I thought Kael stepped up and did well,” Malivuk said.
Running back Deven Ward rushed for 130 yards on 17 carries including a 39-yard touchdown run that prevented the Pacers from being shut out for the fourth time in three years.
“He has always run tough. We worked so hard and he’s one of the strongest kids on the team and one of the fastest,” Malivuk said. “He runs with passion; it’s exciting to watch him run with the football.”
From the moment they took the field, things went poorly for the Pacers. On Delaware’s first play of the game, Ward fumbled after a 5-yard gain and Scioto recovered. It set the tone for most of the first half. Through its first six possessions, Delaware had a total of -11 yards of total offense.
While they couldn’t find solutions offensively, the Pacers also were looking in the back of the book for answers defensively. Scioto quarterback Noah Densel threw for three touchdowns and ran for one more in the blowout. He hit Evan Hutras for a 57-yard touchdown with 6:09 left in the first quarter and hit Weston Talentino for a 30-yard pick up to set up Dimetri Brandon’s dive from 1-yard out with 1:15 left in the first quarter to make it 14-0. A play after a blocked Pacer punt, Densel broke free on a 22-yard touchdown scamper to make it 21-0 at the half.
Delaware’s only signs of life in the first half came in the final 108 seconds. Ward broke out on a 55-yard run to the Irish 25 and Gannon hooked up with Aaron Adair for a 19 yard pick up to the Irish 16. However, Gannon’s pass on a fourth and 1 at the 16 with 5.6 seconds left in the first half fluttered harmlessly into the end zone.
Densel continued to pick apart the Pacers in the second half, hitting Brandon for a 28-yard touchdown and Talentino for a 21-yard touchdown in the third quarter to build up a five-touchdown lead. Densel’s backup, Kyron Rogers, rushed for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 42-0 with 7:57 left in the game.
“I think when we look back at the film we’re going to see a lot of good things that we did and some little things we did that ended up hurting us,” Malivuk said. “They’re a good team, but I think we’re a good team too. We just had a bad night tonight.”
Olentangy 49, Marysville 17
The Braves bounced back from last week’s lopsided loss to Coffman in a big way, cruising past visiting Marysville in non-league action Friday in Lewis Center.
Olentangy (4-1) turned a goal-line stand into a 97 yard touchdown drive, opening the scoring when Connor Haag found Colin Wakefield in the end zone early in the first quarter. The two hooked up later in the first half to make it 14-0 before Marysville got on the board with a field goal at the 9:25 mark of the second quarter.
It was all Braves from there.
Haag threw his third TD of the night to Luke Riedel, making it a 21-3 game with eight minutes left in the half.
Sam Durst padded the lead with a 14-yard touchdown run and, after the defense forced a fumble at the four-yard line, the offense cashed in two plays later with a TD run by Konadu just before the half.
Haag found Durst early in the second half to make it a 42-3 game.
