By Stephen Ham

Special to the Leader

   Make no mistake about it. This was a signature win for Scarborough’s football program. The final score was 18-6, in a game played in a monsoon like rain, but there was much more to this game than the final score. 

  Scarborough’s football program really came of age tonight. Faced with a Noble team that is always dangerous whatever their record; playing in Berwick in a torrential rain, this was a game that in past seasons the Red Storm would come up short in.

   But on this night, the Red Storm offensive and defensive lines were up to the challenge. 

  Offensively, they got a push on nearly every play, creating a crucial pocket of space to run behind and through. Center Luke Bogdanovich, guards Tyler Millett and Billy Wahrer, along with tackles Billy Gorman and Brian Woodbury were immense all evening. With poor footing on the rain soaked field, they were up to the task in a game that featured minimal passing.    

  The defensive line was just as stout, and with the exception of a 78-yard scoring run by Noble’s Cody Sorrell, they simply shut the Knights down. Ends Kris Gergler and Peter Tuma were in the backfield as much as Noble’s running backs, and created multiple sacks and fumbles. This is a defense that began the year as good, but is establishing itself as something much more than that.

  “Our lines have been playing with anyone this year,” Head coach David Sterling said after the game. “We play every game to its fullest, and if we continue to do that we can beat anyone.”

  What made this a breakout game was the ability of the Red Storm to adjust and persevere, despite the woeful field conditions that led to more than 13 dropped snaps and outright fumbles by Scarborough, and many more than that on the Noble side. 

   When asked if his game plan took into account the weather, Sterling said, “Last Saturday, I saw a forecast for rain, so we purposely put in an unbalanced line and we worked on our jumbo formation, which is our three man backfield, and we practiced it all week.”

    Any lead in a game like this is huge, and when Noble took the lead early in the second quarter some teams might have just folded. Scarborough would have last year, but Friday they reached deep and found a way to win. 

Sterling made a critical adjustment in the second quarter, when he realized that his sophomore quarterback, Kyle Kelley, was just unable to hold onto the ball in the rain. He took the gamble of replacing Kelley with sophomore fullback Zack Bean. Bean, at 6’1”  and 185 pounds, gave the Storm another big weapon to use.

   “We had been working with Zack,” Sterling said. “He gives us a different dimension, especially on a wet, soggy night like this, to run the football. He’s a fullback for us and didn’t throw the ball as great as some others, but he’s a good kid and helped us move the football tonight.”

   Bean threw one pass all evening, but made it a good one, connecting with tight end Kris Gergler on the one-yard line at the end of the first half. Bean then called his own number and scored on a plunge to tie the game at the half, 6-6.

   Scarborough used a mix of fullback Peter Tuma and occasional keepers by Bean, along with a healthy dose of tailback from Brendan Ham, to move the ball in the second half as the Storm took control of the game. It became apparent that Scarborough was bigger, stronger and faster, and if not for the miscues and fumbles, the score would have been much more lopsided. 

   Will Wohltjen, Nick Neugebauer, and Zack Bean  had hard hits to stop Noble drives by causing multiple fumbles, and Garrett Alofs and Sean Northgraves each had an interception as Noble was simply unable to generate any offense. 

   The Storm offense put together two long drives in the second half, both consisting of power running behind the big offensive line. Bean scored his second touchdown of the day on a keeper from the one. After being stopped just shy of the goal line tight end Kris Gergler slammed into Bean from behind and literally shoved him over the goal line for the score. The final score of the night was a 16-yard run by Ham right up the middle with 10 minutes left in the game, and typified the evening for Scarborough. 

The Red Storm move to 3-1 with the victory, and next face Portland on Friday, Oct.  3 at 7 p.m. at Scarborough.