HANNIBAL – River High’s defensive unit stopped two second half drives deep in its own territory Friday night at Martin Flannery Field, but Pilot junior Wyatt Stalder sealed the deal on a 21-12 win over Buckeye Local with a ‘Pick-6’ return in the final minute.

Buckeye Local threatened to punch in a go-ahead TD for most of the second half, but Stalder’s late heroics saw him jump the route at his 37 and find paydirt 63 yards later with 42 seconds to play.

“Congrats to the defensive players and coaches,” said veteran coach Mike Flannery, who tossed the game ball to his ‘D’ coordinator Mark Romick afterwards. “We scored on our first drive, but things started to crumble offensively from there.”

“We’re more comfortable running the ball because it opens up the pass, but we’ll look at film and see what needs fixed,” he added of his 2-0 crew’s start. “It wasn’t our best game offensively and that’s on me.”

Coach Chris Kiedaisch’s Panthers opened the contest with a squib kick, but it sailed out-of-bounds and a penalty advanced the ball to the visitors’ 44. Stalder toted it 32 yards to the Buckeye five-yard line where Pilot senior Trey Larrick earned the TD run.

Junior Carson Jones’ extra point was perfect at 10:42 for a 7-0 lead.

River forced a punt and on its ensuing series reached the 22 where a Trail Thompson 4th-and-3 pass to frosh Cam Abbott came up a yard shy of moving the chains.

From there, Kiedaisch’s club ground out 78 yards in six plays behind junior backs Daniel Divjak and Xavier Eastham. Divjak’s 27-yard scamper took it to the hosts’ 25 and Eastham ran it in on the next play at :16 of the first. The PAT failed to leave it 7-6.

Another short kickoff set River up at the BL 47 and the short field allowed Thompson to throw completions to Stalder for six and 13 yards, and 13 more to Abbott.

Stalder weaved his way for 20 to the four-yards line before Larrick crashed in on the next play behind blocks from Carter Piatt, Cooper Roberts and Michael Schultheis. Jones’ PAT boot at 9:54 of the second made it 14-6.

Buckeye’s special teams came up big on River’s next series as senior Jusante Wright blocked a punt to set up the visitors at the 11.

Three plays later Dombroski found Easthamin the end zone with 6:35 remaining in the half. A big effort by senior Hunter Strawn stopped the bonus pass to leave it 14-12.

The Pilots threatened again before halftime on a pass to its 34, but a hard tackle resulted in a Divjak fumble cover at his 16.

Flannery’s club reached the 21 on its opening third quarter drive, but a Ryder Tibbs sack for the Panthers and an incomplete pass, turned it over at the 28.

Buckeye kept almost exclusively on the ground and a 17-play march came up empty on a 4th down incompletion at the 10.

River had its back to the wall late when Dombroski completed four passes to reach midfield. However, Stalder’s pick wrapped up a hard-earned win for the hosts and sent Buckeye to a tough 0-2 start.

The Pilots received solid ‘D’ play from Peyton Weese, Braden Johnson, Jayden Jones , Ayson McBridge and Connor Miller, along with d-backs Bentley Lucas, Holden Dietrich and Aiden Milhoan.

GAME NOTES

Before the game the Pilots honored the 1972 team which went 10-0 and became the first OVAC team to win a Regional Championship.