H.S. Football: Defense leads way as Keystone stops Cloverleaf

WESTFIELD TWP. — On a night in which yards and points were excruciatingly hard to come by for both teams, Keystone relied on a fantastic defensive effort to upset Cloverleaf 12-10 in a non-league game Friday night. Senior defensive back Mehmet Ulupinar put an exclamation point on the effort when he jumped in front of Colts receiver Jimmy Tolley to intercept backup quarterback Zayne Trent with 35 seconds remaining. It was the third turnover forced by the Wildcats (2-0), who also forced Cloverleaf (1-1) to turn the ball over on downs twice and punt six times "I feel amazing," Ulupinar said. "We put in a lot of hard work. I'm proud of what we did, we played tough football. "They're a bigger school than us, but I'm proud of how we connected as a team. It didn't matter to us how big they are." Trent was forced into action for the final three quarters after starter Isaac Smith left the game with an undisclosed injury. Smith was 2-for-3 for 15 yards and rushed twice for 2 yards in the first quarter. Trent went 7-for-16 for 56 yards and the one interception that looked like there was miscommunication between him and Tolley. He also led the team with 55 yards on 14 runs. The Colts struggled to support the freshman, who appeared in his first varsity game, with too many mistakes on offense. Cloverleaf saw 11 of its 67 offensive plays go for negative yardage, including six poorly connected snaps that cost the Colts 83 yards. There was a seventh snap on a punt that was low, and Austin Sustersic caught it clean with his knee on the ground. Cloverleaf, which lost one of nine fumbles, finished with 161 yards on 67 plays. "We can't have so many negative plays on offense," coach Justin Vorhies said. "We've got to fix that. We got behind the sticks and when you're playing a quarterback who it's his first time on a varsity field, you can't put him in those situations." The Colts were ready to go to work on what went wrong for the offense shortly after the game. "Just clean it up," senior tight end Brayden Beier said. "That's all we've got to do. If we clean it up, we'll be putting 30, 40 points on the board." Beier was the Colts' leading receiver with 37 yards on three catches, including a 22-yard grab that moved Cloverleaf to the Keystone 35-yard line before Ulupinar intercepted Trent. Beier also forced a fumble and recovered another as part of five turnovers forced by the Colts. Kellen Price had two interceptions and Tolley added one. "It was great defense," Price said. "We knew this game we had to shut them down early. I think we did that for the most part, but we let it slip." As good as Cloverleaf's defense was, the Wildcats were just a little bit better on both sides of the ball. After the Colts stopped Keystone on downs twice inside the Cloverleaf 25 to start the game and forced a punt, tailback Wyatt McKee (16 carries, 114 yards) had back-to-back carries of 10 and 19 yards that got the Wildcats moving. Kaden Colon finished the drive with a 9-yard rushing touchdown. As would happen again on Keystone's second touchdown, Cloverleaf stopped a rushing 2-point conversion attempt. "It was a really great, team-played game," McKee said. "Our defense came out here and just fought to the end. Our defensive coordinator, Don Griswold, is an amazing defensive coordinator. He always knows what's happening and calls the right plays for us." The Colts, who had been pinned back all night, responded with a drive but stalled at the Keystone 15, where Austin Sustersic made a 32-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 6-3. Cloverleaf came out of halftime and grabbed its only lead on the first drive, when running back Chris Gilliland scored from 10 yards to put the Colts ahead 10-6. Midway through the third quarter, the Wildcats made Cloverleaf pay for a rare defensive miscue when receiver Brayden Stanley got free behind the defense for a 33-yard score from quarterback Colton Cowling (6-for-19, 78 yards, touchdown, three interceptions). Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Keystone 12, Cloverleaf 10 Keystone&emsp;0&emsp;6&emsp;6&emsp;0&emsp;—&emsp;12 Cloverleaf&emsp;0&emsp;3&emsp;7&emsp;0&emsp;—&emsp;10 Scoring Second K — Kaden Colon 9 run (run failed), 7:18. C — Austin Sustersic 32 field goal, 2:38. Third C — Chris Gilliand 10 run (Sustersic kick), 10:38. K — Brayden Stanley 33 pass from Colton Cowling (run failed), 5:39.