IMA SPORTS

It wasn’t more than 10 minutes after Maumee wrapped up a 42-6 win over visiting Waite on Friday night before coach Evan Karchner had already turned his attention to next week and the start of Northern Buckeye Conference play.

Such is the life of a high school football team. The highs never last too long, and neither do the lows.

“It’s good to get in the win column and get our guys a little bit of confidence,” Karchner said. “Going into the NBC is going to be hard every week. We’re not going to take Lake lightly. We took Waite a little lightly in the first quarter and it took us a while to get going. We can’t have any more slow starts or we’ll be looking down the barrel.”

After a scoreless first quarter, the Panthers struck on the opening play of the second when quarterback Ben Kubicz found Eli Dodson for a 73-yard touchdown. The defense had kept Waite off the scoreboard to that point, despite the playmaking of speedy and elusive receiver Daveyon Holman. Holman finished with 97 total yards on 23 touches and scored the Indians’ lone points on a 20-yard run that cut the deficit to 7-6.

Maumee took control from there. Kubicz threw a pair of touchdown passes to his twin brother Will — a 19-yarder and a 72-yarder — and running back Cohen Jones added a 1-yard scoring run to give the Panthers a 21-point halftime lead.

Karchner said his young team is still learning how to start fast.

“When you have young and new starters — even seniors who are new starters — you’ve got to learn, whether you win or lose,” he said. “If you asked our guys, they were disappointed with the first quarter. They understand what I’m saying. If every week has to be a Super Bowl, then screw it, let’s make every week a Super Bowl. We have seven more games. We can’t leave anything out on the table.”

Maumee opened the second half with an eight-play, 47-yard drive capped by another Kubicz-to-Kubicz touchdown, this one from 28 yards. Jones later added a 3-yard scoring run, starting the running clock.

The Panthers outgained Waite 420 yards to 121. Kubicz completed 14 of 21 passes for 290 yards and four touchdowns. Will Kubicz had five catches for 142 yards and three scores, while Dodson caught eight passes for 131 yards and a touchdown. Jones rushed six times for 27 yards and two scores, and Travis Garrett Jr. led the team with 55 rushing yards on 10 carries.

Defensively, Maumee’s front line controlled the game, though Karchner said he wants to see improvement in the secondary’s tackling. Waite quarterback Carl Foard ran for 81 yards, and Holman frequently forced missed tackles.

“Fast guys like that, they want you to wait on them so they can make moves and run all across the field,” Karchner said. “Take your shot, make him stop his feet, we’ll swarm to the football. We really bought into that in the second half.”

Maumee (1-2) now turns its focus to Lake (0-3), which has allowed 50 points per game and lost by an average of 15 points this season.

Photo courtesy of Pride of the Panthers
Reach IMA at insidemaumeeathletics@gmail.com