New Bremen doomed by sloppy play

NEW BREMEN - The Olentangy Orange Pioneers took advantage of sloppy play by the New Bremen Cardinals to post a 38-20 win Saturday night at Cardinal Stadium,

Orange, in their first year of varsity, moves to 2-0 while New Bremen falls to 1-1.

This was indeed an ugly game for the Cardinal football team as they were called for 11 penalties for 125 yards, lost three fumbles and they also had a pass intercepted.

New Bremen struggled on both sides of the ball as the Cardinals rushed for just 45 yards on 22 carries while the Pioneers defense recorded 10 tackles for losses and held running back Corey Jutte to minus one yard on the ground after Jutte gained over 100 yards last week.

On the defensive side, the New Bremen defense gave up 414 yards of total offense, including 268 on the ground, while also totaling 10 plays of over 10 yards with three scoring plays of over 60 yards.

"Take nothing away from them, they ran the ball very effectively," said New Bremen coach Rob Messick. "We did not play very inspiring defense and that made a huge difference. The other thing was that we could not run the football and that killed us. If you cannot run the football that will kill you, that is where we got hurt really bad."

The home faithful had an inkling of what the night was going to be like from the opening series of the game, as the Pioneers went 88 yards in just five plays as quarterback Blake Joe broke an option play 64 yards for the score to make it 7-0 just 2:34 into the game.

Things got even worse for the Cardinals on their first offensive series as Spencer Rohr coughed up the football at the Orange 20 after a 29-yard reception.

New Bremen righted the ship briefly as the defense stopped the Pioneers on three plays and the offense was set up in great field position at the Orange 38. Six plays later Jutte was in the end zone to tie the score.

The New Bremen defense then made a big play as Kyle Craft recovered a fumble at the Orange 39. It took the Cardinal offense just one play, a 39-yard pass from Caleb Williams to Rohr to take their first lead of the night 13-7.

Orange came right back and moved the ball 75 yards before settling for a 25-yard field goal by Luke Rice.

The Pioneers took the lead for good midway through the second period as they went 74 yards in 11 plays covering 6:18 with Jake Vacheresse covering the final five yards for the score. Orange was helped greatly by New Bremen penalties on the drive as they were flagged five times, including once for pass interference on a third-and-18, which kept the drive alive.

"We are not good enough to have to play ourselves too," said Messick in regard to the penalties and mistakes by his squad. "We can not beat ourselves, it is very hard to overcome those kinds of mistakes."

Orange came out in the second half and quickly put two scores on the board to put the game away. Another New Bremen mistake gave the Pioneers golden field position as a backward pass was recovered by Blake Joe at the New Bremen 30. Five plays later Vacheresse was in the end zone from 13 yards out to make the score 24-13.

After a three-and-out by the New Bremen offense, the Pioneers went 76 yards in just two plays, with Vacheresse motoring 72 yards for the score.

New Bremen opens Midwest Athletic Conference play Friday against St. Henry.