By Ryan Atkinson
ratkinson@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — The Grove Ridgerunners, the No. 2 team in Oklahoma Class 4A, scored 10 points in the first two minutes and were never seriously threatened in a 27-7 win over the Miami Wardogs on Friday at Robertson Field.
“Miami’s a great team and they always come with their best game against us,” Grove quarterback Cory Davenport said. “But we stepped up to the challenge.”
The Ridgerunners stepped up big early.
After a shotgun snap went over Miami quarterback Trent Turner’s head for a 17-yard loss on the first play from scrimmage, a muffed hand off resulted in a safety to give Grove a 2-0 lead just 51 seconds into the game.
Grove’s Buck Maples then returned the ensuing free kick all the way to the Miami 2-yard line and — two plays later — Davenport scored the first of his three rushing touchdowns. He also ran in the conversion for a 10-0 advantage with 10:11 remaining in the first quarter.
“They create a lot of their own opportunities with their speed and they’ve definitely got four or five pretty special athletes over there,” Miami coach Chris Risenhoover said. “You can’t spot them nothing. You have to make them earn everything.”
The Wardogs (1-2) didn’t let Grove (3-0) run wild after the early 10-point burst. The Ridgerunners finished with a modest 269 yards of offense, but the Grove defense never allowed Miami to pose a serious threat.
Miami’s lone score came in the second quarter, when Nathan Hazley capped a 6-play, 55-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run.
Grove, however, answered with a nine-play drive that was capped by Davenport’s 14-yard scoring run on 4th-and-1 that made it 17-7.
That scoring drive saw rushes from Davenport, Dusty Gehrke, Casey Bartley and Michael Hudgens and a 12-yard pass from Davenport to Braeden Downes.
“That’s the good thing about us,” Davenport said. “We have so many weapons. You go to one guy and they key on him and then we have another guy. Our line is doing great up front and you can’t ask for anything better.”
Davenport rushed 23 times for 89 yards and three scores while completing eight of his 14 passes for 112 yards.
“Corey Davenport just kept his legs going,” Grove coach Dennis Millican said. “He’d get an eight-yard gain out of something that looked like it was a three-yard gain. We’re playing with a lot of heart and desire and that’s what it takes to carry the ball.”
The Ridgerunner defense — lead by senior safety Dusty Gehrke — held Miami to 197 yards of offense, including just 59 through the air.
“Our defense kind of bent a little bit, but they didn’t give up the big play,” Millican said. “A lot of that is Dusty Gehrke and if there is a better player around than him, I would like to see him. He does the little things defensively that makes us go. He can come up and make the tackles and then drop back and intercept a pass.”
Risenhoover voiced his displeasure with a pair of calls that went against his Wardogs. The first was on an incomplete pass in the end zone during Miami’s drive that stalled at the Grove 9. The second was a 4th-and-1 run by Davenport during Grove’s ensuing 16-play drive that ended with T.J. Griffith’s 16-yard field goal.
“There were some obvious calls that never went our way in key situations,” he said. “They’re 4th-and-1 and they assist the runner ... and they had done it twice before ... and there is an interference call in the end zone that’s obvious and doesn’t get called.
“But we also had some kids not step up and not play as well as they need to play in these big games and that’s what I’m most disappointed in right now.”
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Ridgerunners take charge early at Miami
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