Two teams with lofty aspirations this fall found themselves locked in a drama-filled matchup Friday night in Severna Park.
In the end, South River’s early scores proved to be just enough, as the Seahawks held off a Westminster late push for a 14-13 season-opening victory at George Roberts Field.
After trailing 14-0 late in the third quarter, Westminster junior running back Mason Fisher scored on a long run and a long pass to draw Westminster within one. On the second touchdown, the ensuing extra-point sailed wide and the Owls ended up falling one point short.
“We have a lot of seniors on the team, so for the seniors winning their last first home game [was important],” said South River senior running back Lala Titow, who finished with over 90 yards on the ground. “It was nice to get out here with all my boys and get that win.”
Titow helped the Seahawks take control of the game early, gashing the Owls’ defense for runs of 13 and 12 yards on the opening drive to set up South River’s first score. His final run of the long drive, a 5-yard carry on third down, set the Seahawks up with a first-and-goal.
Junior quarterback Cam Catterton finished the drive with a one-yard plunge for a 6-0 lead. Catterton added a second touchdown early in the third quarter to help South River build the 14-point advantage.
Early in the game, the Westminster offense struggled to get going in the passing game. Senior quarterback Jack Gruenzinger completed a couple of passes, but also threw two interceptions against a suffocating Seahawks secondary.
Senior defensive back Austin Johnson had both picks for South River in his first game playing the safety position. He credited his coach and his team’s preparation for his individual success.
“It all traces back to practice, everyday we are out there pushing, everyone is driving each other,” Johnson said. “That goes back to [head coach Steve Erxleben]. He instills that work ethic in us.”
It took a big play from Fisher to get Westminster going in the second half. On a second-and-long, the junior took a handoff from Gruenzinger and avoided a tackle in the backfield. After breaking through the line of scrimmage, Fisher found some open space on the outside and was off to the races. The junior ran 35 yards to the end zone and cut the Owls deficit in half, 14-7.
With just over two minutes to go in the game, Fisher struck again for Westminster by hauling in a pass from Gruenzinger along the sideline and dashing 85 yards to bring the Owls within a point, 14-13.
It was a banner day for Fisher as he has been tasked with filling the shoes of reigning Carroll County Times Football Player of the Year Erick Stranko, who graduated after last season. The junior racked up well over 200 yards of total offense to go along with his two touchdowns on opening night.
“I thought I stepped up pretty well,” Fisher said. “I think I filled the running position from Erick last year pretty well. I tried to make some big plays for us. [We] didn’t end up with the win, but overall our team played really good.”
For Westminster head coach Chris Bassler, he said it was a learning experience for a team full of young players and he expressed a sense of pride in their ability to bounce back from an early deficit and not quit.
“We are a very young football team and I think we are learning what it takes to beat good teams,” Bassler said. “I’m very proud of how hard we fought. We could have easily laid down and let them roll and we didn’t. One more play and we could have won it.”
The game was technically a home game for South River, despite being played at Severna Park High School. The location change for the game was made necessary following a tornado touching down in Edgewater earlier this week and heavily damaging the football stadium at South River High School.
The fans of the team made the 20-minute journey to the stadium and made the atmosphere feel like a home contest for the Seahawks. The community hopes the victory will be the start of better days ahead for a town that was impacted so much by the storm. Coach Erxleben says his team feels blessed to be able to do what they do for the community.
“There are people in our community very much affected,” he said. “People lost their homes. I don’t know what it’s like to lose a home, but I feel for the those people. We talk about it as a program, we are very blessed to be here.”
South River 14, Westminster 13
SR – 1 run by Cam Catterton run for 1 yard (kick no good)
SR – 5 run by Catterton (Conversion good Catterton pass to Jeremy Berger)
W – 45 run by Mason Fisher (Justin Condon kick good)
W – 85 pass Jack Gruenzinger pass to Fisher (Kick no good)
