I was mostly watching the Wapak and St Marys streams, and a bit of the Shawnee stream. It was nice to see blowouts and mostly shutouts from the 4 WBL teams in action tonight. Some thoughts:
I was thoroughly impressed by St Marys, mostly unimpressed by Wapak, happy to see Shawnee get a playoff W, and unsurprised by the VW win.
St Marys rolled Franklin. This Roughrider team is HOT right now. You could just see a difference in the players' body language. Roughriders scored on an 80-yard run on their first play of the game. And there was big play after big play. At one point, there was a 20-yard play action touchdown fade with the perfect touch. St Marys finished with 406 yards of total offense. I'm glad that C-J scored the upset over Ross and that St Marys gets to host again next week.
Wapak scored on their opening drive with a long, methodical drive, but then it was 7-0 for a while as teams traded punts. The Wapak defense was the star of the show again. They struggled a bit at the beginning of the game with open field plays and handling Dunbar's speed, but they had a HUGE moment where Dunbar had the ball at the 1 or 2 yard line, Dunbar burned 2 time outs, and got stood up each and every time. It was an impressive defensive stand. I understand the praise Goulet has received for his athleticism as he's a threat with his legs, but frankly he was a terribly ineffective passer. He really didn't seem to have any accuracy or touch to his throws. On a few 10-yard pass plays he rocketed the ball in there and it was too hot for the receivers to handle. Even worse, Goulet missed a wide open receiver on maybe a 30-yard pass downfield. Overthrew an easy touchdown. Wapak didn't even complete their first pass until under 2 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter. I get weather was a factor, but Dunbar was passing the ball somewhat effectively and they played in the same weather. The final total offensive stats for Wapak were 197 yards (20 passing) and Dunbar ended with 172 yards. Wapak won 30-0 and only out-gained Dunbar by 25 yards? Not all that impressive. They're going to need to show something different on offense against Bellbrook. There weren't even that many explosive plays for Wapak in the same way that St Marys had them tonight. The Dunbar mistakes (penalties and turnovers) seemed to do more to help Wapak move the ball than their own offense did sometimes. Nice to see Wapak get the W and it doesn't really matter how impressive the win is they get to advance regardless, but unsure how far they'll be able to go.
