Wolverines improve to 3-0 in 55-22 win over Griswold

For most football teams, 21 yards rushing on 20 carries is a recipe for disaster.

Then again, most teams don’t have East Mills’ passing game.

The Wolverines – who have averaged 280 yards passing with nine total touchdown passes in their first two games – were once again in rhythm throwing the ball Friday against Griswold even if their running game sputtered. Quarterback Michael Schafer tossed four touchdown passes and finished with 385 yards throwing as East Mills cruised to a 51-22 victory to improve to 3-0 on the season.

As pleased as he was with his team’s offensive execution on a wet and sloppy field that made running and cutting difficult, East Mills co-head coach Kevin Schafer gave a lot of credit for the victory to his defense.

“I thought our defense played much better this week than last week; we tackled much better,” Schafer said. “It took us a little while to find a defense that worked for us to slow up their run game. It’s hard to emulate the type of offense they run with a scout team with the way they pull and trap and the misdirection. It took us almost a half before we started playing some really good defense.”

The Wolverines got out to a 16-0 lead before the Tigers clawed their way back, knotting up the score at 16-16 midway through the second frame. But East Mills would respond with a Riley Story 65-yard kick-off return on the ensuing possession and a stop on defense to get the ball back. They punched in one more score just before halftime to take a 30-16 lead into intermission.

The Tigers would never get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

Michael Schafer completed 23-of-42 passes for 385 yards and a pair of touchdown passes each to Story and Nic Duysen. Story hauled in three passes for 136 yards and Duysen grabbed 11 balls for 151 yards.

“I felt like we threw the ball better the first two games, and that may have been a footing issue,” Schafer said. “Griswold also brought four (pass rushers) every play. They really wanted the ball out of our hands quick so it was kind of feast or famine and it affected our percentage a bit. But they were aggressive defensively. We have three receivers who can make plays for us and we can rely on.”

Schafer said his team “struggled like heck running it” against the Tigers. It’s been an on-going issue for the Wolverines this season who have averaged 68 yards rushing in their first three games.

“We have to get better at it than that,” Schafer said. “We had good enough traction with the wet field to pass but if we had had any more rain on Friday night, we would have been in trouble because we could not run the ball on them.

“A couple times we got inside the five-yard-line and tried to power it in on them and we’d shoot ourselves in the foot with a poor block or penalty and we’d have to spread it and throw the ball instead. We’d like to be able to get to the point we can pound it in in those situation.”

The Wolverines head to Bedford in a District 7 showdown. Kick off is set for 7 p.m.