BROOKFIELD AVENGES LAST YEARS DEFEAT

NEW MIDDLETOWN OH-

Week 2 of the high school football season saw the home opener for the Springfield Tigers as they played host to the Brookfield Warriors. Last year this matchup ended in a one score game with a 4th quarter comeback and that left a lot of people hoping for a repeat this season.

That was not to be as a young rebuilding Tigers team struggled early in the game to keep up with an experienced and very athletic Warriors squad. Brookfield was able to score on the game’s first drive after Donovan Pawlowski slipped a sack and delivered a 48-yard dime to his running back Christian Davis on a wheel route. Springfield would then get the ball and go for -10 yards on their first drive and then a partially blocked punt by Brookfield’s Aiden Jones set the Warriors up around the 50-yard line and they would make a quick drive and score once more.Jones would then take the ball off a speed option pitch from Donovan Pawlowski for a 4-yard touchdown to extend the Brookfield lead to 12-0 in the first quarter.

Both teams’ defenses made some good stands as the games next points would come late in the second quarter as Christian Davis returned a punt from the 50 all the way down to the 9-yard line. However, penalties would then back the Warriors up to a 1st and 34 where Donovan Pawlowski would find Isaiah Jones in 1-on-1 with Seandelle Gardner in the back corner of the endzone and Jones would come down with a catch that would have impressed the likes of Randy Moss. Brookfield would convert on the 2-point conversion to make the score 20-0 before the half.

Yet again the defenses played strong in the third quarter as both teams would pitch the shutout until the 4th. That fourth quarter started with another Brookfield touchdown, and they went up 27-0. It seemed at this point in the game Brookfield’s defense let off as they would give up back-to-back Touchdowns to Roark and his Tiger teammates after pitching a shutout for 3 and a half quarters. A two-touchdown 4th quarter run helped the Tigers to a win last year but the deficit this time was too much to overcome as the Warriors would come out on top 27-14.

Springfield’s special teams were very good as Gardner had a lot of big returns and the Tigers blocked two of Cole Saloom’s kicks on the night and got better with every snap they took last night and will look to find their first win of the season after falling to (0-2) against Geneva next week at home. Brookfield had a strong defensive performance being led yet again by the player of the game A.J. Bartolin to pick up their first win of the season moving to (1-1) and they will play their home opener next week against newly hired John Armeni and his Blue Devils from Western Reserve.

*Contributed By YSN’s Alek Koberna.