East Washingtonian - Your Hometown News Source

Pomeroy Pirate JH Football team started off the season with a loss to DeSales 26-32 on September 13. The game was played with no special teams as DeSales does not play special teams at the Junior High level. It was a close game through its entirety with both the Pirates and DeSales airing the ball out quite often in the passing game. Pomeroy Quarterback Vinny Vecchio found both Braxton McKeirnan and Robbie Van Vogt on a couple of long touchdown passes. In the end, Pomeroy fell a touchdown short against DeSales.

The Pirates had to wait until October 6 before playing their second game of the season due to a cancellation and a bye. The second game was in Lacrosse against Endicott-St. John-Lacrosse where both the Pirate offense and defense came out ready to play after weeks of practice and prep. Again, the Pirates went to the air often with Vinny Vecchio finding multiple receivers including Braxton McKeirnan, Tyler Dixon, Cayle Mullins and Caleb Miller on multiple occasions. The passing game softened up the middle of the Wildcats defense and Pomeroy was able to find some success between the tackles before Vecchio caught the ESJL defense by surprise with an option pitch to Rory McKiernan for a long Pirate Touchdown. The offensive line provided Vecchio with substantial time in the pocket with Conrad Nelson, Robbie Van Vought and Lucian Setzer leading the guard. Defensively the Pirates were stingy, only giving up 12 points during the game, the defense shut down the edges with Nolan Newberg and Rory McKeirnan not allowing the Eagles running game to get outside. The Pirates also saw Caleb Miller, Christian Ramirez and Conrad Nelson in the ESJL backfield making tackles for losses regularly.

The third game of the season occurred on October 12 in Richland against Liberty Christian. This game was also played with no special teams due to Liberty Christian's rules. The Pirates jumped out quick with a touchdown drive that started on their own 25-yard line due to an error by the officials who happened to mistake the 25-yard line for the 35-yard line (a mistake they did not make when spotting Liberty Christian on their 35 on the ensuing drive...).

The error was quickly overcome when Braxton McKeirnan intercepted a Liberty Christian pass and returned it for a touchdown, putting Pomeroy up by two scores to nothing in the first quarter.

The Pirates struggled late in the first half and Liberty Christian was able to take advantage, using their three timeouts (plus one extra mistakenly given to them by the officials) to take the lead going into halftime.

The second half was hard fought by the Pirates. Robbie Van Vogt and Michael DeBord created havoc on the Liberty Christian passing game by keeping continued pressure on the quarterback. Ashton Tucker was also able to see the field for the first time this season and provided some relief to the taxed defense at defensive back. The Pirates were able to take the lead late in the game, but Liberty Christian rallied back with two minutes left to make the game 26-25.

Without goal posts, point-after attempts were conversions worth one point. With Liberty Christian's score at the two-minute mark, they had an opportunity to tie the game on the conversion. The Pomeroy defense stopped Liberty Christian in their backfield and hold the lead 26-25. Pomeroy set up the offense and was able to run the clock out to pick up the win.

-Kyler Lovgren