MORAVIA — The Tri-County Trojans took advantage of seven short field situations and downed Moravia 46-6 in Eight-Player, District 5 football action Friday night in Moravia.

The win allows the Trojans to take a 2-0 district record into their homecoming match-up with HLV.

Nick Watts threw the first of his three touchdown passes in the first half to get the visitors on the board on their opening drive. The opening score was a seven yard pass to Jake Brumbaugh. Brumbaugh had five carries for 26 yards in the drive.

Moravia’s first drive started in good field position after a 26 yard kick-off return by Sam Clouse. Two plays later, the Mohawks committed the first of their seven first half fumbles. The fumble was returned 40 yards to the Moravia 24.

“The fumbles are just an example of the mistakes we’ve made that keep us from sustaining drives,” said Moravia coach Denny Whitlow.

Two plays later Watts scored on a seven yard run for a 14-0 Trojan lead.The Mohawks then had a 12 play drive that ended with a two yard touchdown run by Cody Butz.

Tri-County started their third possession at midfield. The short drive lasted four plays and Watts hooked up with Spencer Steinke on a 29 yard scoring pass. The first quarter ended with the visitors leading 20-6.

Tri-County opened the second quarter on the Moravia 31 after a short Mohawk punt. The Trojans turned the ball back to Moravia with a fumble. The Mohawks ran off an 11 play drive but couldn’t get into the endzone.

The punting game then set up the next Trojan touchdown. A 42 yard Trojan punt pinned the Mohawks deep and then a 17 yard punt by the Mohawks gave Tri-County good field position.

Tri-County went up 26-6 as Watts hit Steinke again for an 11 yard touchdown.

“Nick (Watts) and I have been working on the connection for awhile” said Steinke. “He puts it where I just have to go up and get it.”

“We try and run first but our line was giving me time and I could just stand in and hit an open receiver,” said Watts.

Watts was eight of nine for 91 yards in the opening half.

“We did a good job of taking advantage of a couple of match-ups,” said Trojan coach Scott Edmundson.

The final score of the half came on a 66 yard interception return by Trenton Steinke. The half ended with Tri-County up 34-6.

Moravia had a good first half rushing the ball. They picked up 115 yards on the ground.

“Their backs did a good job of running hard and fighting for yards,” added Edmundson.

After Moravia was forced to punt on their first drive of the final half, the Trojans used a 23 yard punt return to start at the Mohawks 23. It took nine plays but the Trojans went up 40-6 as Spencer Steinke scored on a six yard wide receiver reverse.

The Mohawk defensive line stepped up and pressured Watts in to five consecutive misfires at one point but he finished with two completions, the final one being a six yard scoring pass to Justin Dekleine to make the score 46-6.

“We made a couple of changes in our defensive backfield and challenged our defensive front” added Whitlow.

Brumbaugh added 16 second half yards to lead the Trojans in rushing with a game high 55. He also was the middle of the Tri-County defensive line that shut down the Moravia running game in the second half and disrupted the Mohawk passing game.

“I’ve been carrying the ball more this year but I’m a returner on the defensive line” said Brumbaugh. “It’s not really a hard combination to play”.

The running clock and Trenton Steinke’s second interception ended the night’s action.

Moravia faces a tough Melcher-Dallas team next week still looking for their first win.

Tri-County 46, Moravia 6

TriCo         20    14    12    00    —    46

Mor         6    00    00    00    —     6

Scoring By Quarters

First Quarter

TC — Watts 7 yard pass to Brumbaugh (Brumbaugh kick)

TC — Watts 7 yard run (Brumbaugh kick)

M — Butz 2 yard run (pass incomplete)

TC - Watts 29 yard pass to S. Steinke (kick no good)

Second Quarter

TC — Watts 11 yard pass to S. Steinke (kick blocked)

TC — T. Steinke 66 yard interception return (Watts pass to S. Steinke)

Third Quarter

TC — S. Steinke 6 yard run (kick blocked)

TC — Watts 6 yard pass to Dekleine (kick blocked)

Fourth Quarter

TEAM STATISTICS

                Tri        Mor

First downs    15        10

Rushes-yards    32-127    44-131

Passing yards    117        32

Total Yards    244        163

Comp-Att-Int    10-17-0    3-12-2

Return Yards    7-173    6-108

Fumbles-Lost    3-1        8-1

Penalties-Yds    2-20    4-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Tri-County

RUSHING — Brumbaugh 11-55 yards, Watts 8-32 yards, Mason Garber 1-(-1) yards, Tyler Lally 3-9 yards, Lucas Ewing 7-23 yards, S. Steinke 1-6 yards, Benjamin Edmundson 1-3 yards.

PASSING — Watts 10-16, 117 yards, Austin Blythe 0-1, 0 yards.

RECEIVING — S. Steinke 6-90 yards, Brumbaugh 2-18 yards, Ewing 1-3 yards, Dekleine 1-6 yards.

INTERCEPTIONS — T. Steinke 2.

TACKLES — Dekleine 9, Josh Edmundson 7.

Moravia

RUSHING — Spenser Stufflebeam 8-43 yards, Butz 13-41 yards, Tyler Knapp 11-19 yards, Gunnar Miller 12-28 yards.

PASSING — Knapp 3-12, 32 yards.

RECEIVING — Stufflebeam 3-32 yards.

INTERCEPTIONS — none.

TACKLES — Stufflebeam 8, Dylan Conley 8.