BY JOEY BAUGHMAN

The Wadsworth Grizzly varsity football took home a huge win in league play against the Stow Bulldogs last Friday night.

It was a very hot evening and home stands were packed from side to side. Wadsworth won the coin toss and chose to defer to the 2nd half and Stow elected to receive the opening. The Grizzly defense set the tone with a huge three-and-out stop on the first series of the game. The Grizzlies high octane offense then took over and let it loose scoring 28 points in the first half.

Wide receivers Christian Szalay and Mitchell Blackburn had a combined 13 catches for 153 yards and a touchdown in the first half. There was no shortage in the running game either as the offensive line propelled Brock Snowball and Joey Baughman to a combined  250+ rush yards and 5 touchdowns.

The most pivotal point in the game came around the beginning of the 4th quarter. Wadsworth was ahead 35-21 and Stow had just hit a big play down the field and was just inches away from the goal line. The Stow offense had four plays to gain six inches but the Grizzly defense did not give and stopped the offense four straight times. Safety Brett Randolph was actively involved in two of the four downs.

“We just stayed strong and didn’t break. On paper they should have been able to walk in easily. Not in our house,” said Randolph.

The Grizzlies bent but didn’t break and held on to defeat Stow 41-28 in a Suburban League showdown.  Next week, the Grizzlies square of against the 0-5 Cuyahoga Falls Tigers.