Defense helps Jackets knock off Napoleon 27-14

9/27/2013
BY MATT THOMPSON
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Perrysburg's Mark Delas scores one of his two touchdowns Friday night against Napoleon.
Perrysburg's Mark Delas scores one of his two touchdowns Friday night against Napoleon.

Perrysburg beat Napoleon for the first time in Northern Lakes League play as its defense stifled the Wildcats in a 27-14 win Friday at Steinecker Stadium.

The defensive line for Perrysburg recorded more than 10 tackles for loss. Napoleon only had one first down and 27 yards in the first half. The Wildcats had only punted eight times in four games, but had to punt 10 times.

“That was the story tonight, their defensive interior was really good,” Napoleon coach Tory Strock said. “You have to give credit to Perrysburg, they were really good up front.”

The Yellow Jackets (3-2, 2-0 NLL) were 0-2 against Napoleon in NLL play — including an overtime loss last year that decided the championship.

PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to see more photos from the game

“It was a huge thrill,” Perrysburg head coach Matt Kregel said. “Our defense played so hard. Our defensive line did a great job of beating blocks and adjusting their runners course to our linebackers.”

Perrysburg jumped out to a 27-0 halftime score.

The final score of the half came through the Gus Dimmerling-Quinn Thomas connection. With 1:17 left in the half Perrysburg took over on its own 32. Two screen passes from Dimmerling to Thomas went for 29 and 7 yards. Then Dimmerling threw to Thomas for a TD for a 27-0 with 20 seconds left before half.

Earlier, a bad snap on fourth down led to Perrysburg’s second score as Napoleon’s Layne Schnitz-Paxton was taken down for a loss of 17 at the Napoleon 14-yard line by Kadin Llewellyn. On the next play Llewellyn ran to the two-yard line where Mark Delas punched it for a 13-0 lead.

Delas had the first scoring play on a two-yard TD run with 7:16 left in the first quarter capping off an 80-yard drive.

Napoleon scored on two two-yard runds in the fourth quarter, the first by Devon Armour and the next by quarterback Blake Dunbar.

Dimmerling completed 6 of 22 passes for 116 yards. He also had 17 rushes for 59 yards. Delas had 14 carries for 36 yards and 2 TDs. Napoleon's Dunbar threw for 10 for 22 with 110 yards .

Napoleon didn’t earned its second first down of the game until 6:21 left in the third quarter. Two plays later Perrysburg defensive lineman Zach Warner sacked Dunbar for a loss of 15 yards ending the drive.

“The offense left gaps for us and we hit them hard,” Warner said. “Our defensive line is the quickest I know of.”

Contact Matt Thompson at: mthompson@theblade.com, 419-356-8786, or on Twitter at @mthompson25.