Wolverines suffer tough loss to Fruitland

Weiser travelled to Fruitland this past Friday night for a controversial game following the recent playbook scandal. Fans packed the stands to see who would come out on top.  
 Weiser was the first to receive the ball and although they moved the ball well down the field, penalties added too many yards for the Wolverines to overcome and the ball was turned over to Fruitland on downs.  
 Fruitland marched down the field with short gains, running the ball and utilizing the remaining time in the first quarter, despite some nice tackling by Rylee Willet, Michael Youngberg, and Ray Calley.  Fruitland would score in the beginning of the second quarter, but the snap for the extra point got away from Fruitland and Kooper von Brethorst made the tackle to ensure no extra point was made.  
 With 10:57 left in the second quarter, Weiser got the ball back and had a nice return by Youngberg to set up a couple of runs by the Wolverines and a long 63 yard reception to Bryce Crimin for a Wolverine touchdown.  Shirts kicked the extra point for a score of 7-6 Wolverines, with 9:16 left in the second quarter.  
 Fruitland took the running game down the field again despite nice stops by Willet and Eric Torres.  They ran the clock down to 2:35 when Fruitland fumbled the ball close to the goal line, but one official said that the ball was down even though the ball bounced up off of the ground.  
 Fruitland would use this momentum, scoring a touchdown.  They tried for a 2-point conversion but failed.  
 Weiser got the ball back with 22 seconds left in the first half and Nick Swank brought the ball out to the 32 yard line.  Brett Spencer would try to throw the ball a couple of times with time running out, but a defensive pass interference call would force a final play for the Wolverines with no time left.  Unfortunately the Wolverines couldn’t convert on the pass and the score going into halftime was 12-7, Fruitland.
 Fruitland would receive the ball and Weiser’s defense including Shirts, von Brethorst, Torres, and Zander McElroy, along with other Wolverines would force Fruitland to turn the ball over on downs.  
 Weiser took over and couldn’t get the ball going, turning the ball back over to Fruitland.  With 6:52 left in the third quarter, Fruitland would again move the ball running down the field and scoring another touchdown, but left the extra points off of the score board, failing on the 2-point conversion, 18-7 Fruitland.  
 The Wolverines took their time on the next possession.  With 4:49 left in the third quarter, Weiser marched the ball down the field utilizing some pressure plays and designed run plays by Brett Spencer.  Spencer also passed the ball a couple of times to Torres and Brock Spencer to help move the ball along.  
 Passing to Torres, Weiser had enough yards to get the first down at the 1-yard line.  Spencer would rush the 1 yard for a Wolverine touchdown and then he would find von Brethorst in the end zone for a completed 2-point conversion.
 With 7:47 left in the fourth quarter and the score 18-15 in Fruitland’s favor, the ball would go back to the Grizzlies.  
 Fruitland was unable to get anything going with Weiser’s defense going to work.  Willet again had a nice stop, pressure was put on the quarterback by Shirts and friends, and Sam Kerner also had a nice stop.  
 Weiser took the ball back over with 5:32 left in the fourth quarter on the Fruitland 40 yard line.  Spencer tried a nice pass to Shirts that was tipped by the defense and fell incomplete.  Spencer ran the ball off and on mixing it up and gaining yardage.  
 On a third down another controversial call was against the Wolverines.  The back official would call Spencer down on a scramble and the clock kept running down from 1:33 to just 54 seconds. The officials did not put any time back onto the clock and Weiser was unable to score in the remaining time. Fruitland won 18-15.  
 Brett Spencer had 18 runs for 88 yards of Weiser’s 108 rushing yards.  Weiser had 209 yards offensively vs. Fruitland’s 228.  
 “Our kids played hard, but we did have some missed opportunities,” Coach Tom Harrison said.  “Unfortunately, we had a couple of bad breaks and just a heart-breaker at the end, but on a positive note, our defense adjusted and played much better in the second half,” Harrison added.   
 Weiser will face the Payette Pirates on Friday, Oct. 2. This will be Homecoming for Weiser and Senior Night, so come on out and support your Weiser Wolverines!