Shawnee claims share of WBL crown

SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP - Shawnee might not be playoff bound, but the Indians are indeed champions.

Shawnee won its final three games, including a 28-10 victory over Ottawa-Glandorf on Friday at Shawnee Stadium. That gave the Indians a share of the Western Buckeye League football championship.

Shawnee (7-3, 7-2 WBL) shared the WBL title with Kenton, St. Marys and Defiance. Ottawa-Glandorf is 6-4, 6-3 in the WBL.

Ottawa-Glandorf led 10-7 at the half before Shawnee began to control both lines of scrimmage.

Shawnee took the lead to stay 14-10 on an 18-yard TD pass from Josh Miller to Chad Gillis with 6:39 left in the third quarter.

From there, the formula was a simple one. The Indians pounded away on the ground and slowed the O-G running game.

"Coach told us (at halftime) we have to get fired up because this could be our last game," Shawnee's Sheldon Hall said. "We definitely wanted to come out in the second half and put it away. The line blocked great and made holes for everyone."

Shawnee's Brandon Stephenson finished with 103 yards on 26 carries. He had TD runs of 3, 4 yards. Stephenson rolled up 89 of his yards in the second half.

"As an offense, we started to jell more (in the second half)," Stephenson said. "We started to be more physical, we started making our blocks and making our reads, running harder and catching the ball."

Isaiah Irons ran for 101 yards on five carries for Shawnee, with an 87-yard TD run. He left the game in the third quarter with a high ankle sprain.

O-G's 6-foot-4, 211-pound fullback Cory Greve ran for 76 yards on 15 carries. Jacob Lugo, who was coming off back-to-back 300-yard rushing games, was held to 60 yards on 17 carries.

Hall led the Shawnee defense with 14 tackles. Freshmen linebackers Trey Runneals and Seth Rosenbauer both had eight tackles.

"We knew (Lugo) was quick and a good back and we had to string him out (to the sideline) so he couldn't have any cut-back lanes," Hall said.

Of Greve's 76 yards, only 13 came in the second half.

"We knew the way we were going to have to play the game was grind it out," O-G coach Ken Schriner said. "We were doing that in the first half. But in the second half, they made an adjustment and stuffed us. ... Offensively, we made some mistakes and defensively we had to stop them all night, but we knew he (Stephenson) was a big-play guy and he did some great things."

 "Our kids were really depressed after that Wapak game," Shawnee coach Dick West said. "For our kids it's a real tribute to them how they could pull themselves up and beat St Marys, then come back and beat Van Wert and Ottawa. ... I was really proud of the way they handled the situation."

With Lugo bottled up early, the Titans turned to the batting-ram running of Greve. Greve's 6-yard touchdown off left tackle gave O-G a 7-0 early in the second quarter.

Iron's broke loose on a dive play and went 87 yards for a score to tie the game at 7 with 3:11 in the first half.

Nolan Croy's 38-yard field goal with five seconds left in the first half gave O-G a 10-7 lead.

In the second half, the Indians' offensive line powered a surge and Stephenson began grinding out chunks of yards.

With Shawnee leading 14-7, the O-G defense stopped Stephenson on a fourth-and-goal at the 1 with 3:56 to play.

But on O-G's second play on its next drive, O-G's Taylor Kuhlman was picked off in the right flat by a diving Dillon Risser at the O-G 12.

Two plays later, Stephenson ran it in from the 3 to make it 21-10 with 3:56 to play.

In the air, Shawnee's Josh Miller completed 4-of-7 for 65 yards with a TD. Hall caught two passed for 40 yards.

"We're 7-3, which we really didn't want to be, but it's a good 7-3 this year because we got the WBL," Hall said.