Maumee dominates rival Perrysburg

Maumee High School player Brandon Phenix, 17, finds a hole in the Perrysburg High School defense in the second quarter in Maumee.

The celebrating started early last night on Maumee's side of the football field.

With a little more than four minutes remaining against rival Perrysburg, a couple of Panthers caught Maumee coach John Boles by surprise with a water-jug dousing.

Moments later, Maumee fans began surrounding the "ding-dong" bell near the Panthers bench and began to shout and cheer.

PHOTO GALLERY: Maumee defeats Perrysburg 46-20.

A few Maumee players even posed for a photographer with over two minutes left in the Northern Lakes League contest.

Yet, the celebrating could have begun much earlier as Maumee dominated Perrysburg en route to a 46-20 triumph before a festive Panthers home crowd.

The Panthers (7-3, 5-2 NLL) capitalized on four turnovers by the Yellow Jackets (6-4, 4-3) in the first half — leading to a 36-7 halftime lead — and never looked back.

"That was huge," Boles said of coming away with three interceptions and a fumble recovery before halftime. "We got field position, and we got turnovers. It was nice that we didn't make the turnovers, and they did."

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Perrysburg ended up committing six turnovers (four interceptions, two fumbles) while Maumee was guilty of losing a fumble.

"It's a big rivalry game and they beat us that bad, it's a huge letdown and something we'll have to use to get better for next year," Perrysburg coach Matt Kregel said.

Maumee quarterback Jake Schneider accounted for 466 total yards to lead the Panthers' offensive ­outburst.

He completed 13 of 20 passes for 276 yards, including four touchdown passes and also gained 190 yards on 18 carries, scoring on a nine-yard touchdown run to make it 21-0 early in the second quarter.

"All week our energy at practice was on high, and we knew we could beat them," Schneider said. "Our offensive line did a great job. We could run the ball, and we could pass the ball.

"Our offense did a great job and our defense came up real big, and they stuck it to them. It was a great overall effort."

Dakota Windnagle played a huge role in the Panthers' passing game, hauling in four receptions for 177 yards, including touchdown catches of 18 and 74 yards.

Brandon Phenix rushed for 95 yards on 18 carries, including touchdown runs of three and 67 yards.

Maumee finished with 610 total yards of offense while Perrysburg, which scored a pair of TDs after halftime to make the final outcome seem closer than it actually was, totaled 394 yards.

"We made some plays," Boles said. "We've been making plays all year long. We've got some perimeter kids that did, and we run the ball real well too.

"From an offensive standpoint, there were a number of things that had to be defended [by Perrysburg] and defensively, I thought we made them a little more one-dimensional. They did get some passing yards and did some nice things, but we did a great job against the run.

Perrysburg's Steve Slocum completed 16 of 43 passes for 231 yards and rushed for another 132 yards on 16 carries. He scored on runs of two, 38, and five yards.

However, Slocum was picked off three times and fumbled once against an aggressive Panthers defense that never quit applying pressure.

Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade.com, 419-724-6302 or on Twitter @demmonsblade.