ONTARIO — The workhorse has a fellow stallion in the Ontario High School football backfield in 2022.
And the Warriors rode both Thursday night down the stretch in a 21-17 season-opening victory over rival Lexington before a packed house at Copeland Field at Niss Stadium.
Every Ontario foe knows about junior Chase Studer, who rushed 176 times for 1,065 yards as a sophomore to lead the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference.
The Minutemen and first-year head coach Andrew Saris were certainly aware of the 5-foot-9, 190-pound running back.
But no one can afford to overlook senior running mate Drew Yetter (5-11, 190).
With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, trailing 17-14, first-year Ontario head coach Aaron Eckert unleased both his horses during a 10-play, 72-yard TD drive that gave the Warriors the lead and the win.
Eckert carried the ball four times for 40 yards on the drive, including a 14-yard run when Ontario faced a third-and-11 at the its own 49-yard line.
Once the Warriors reached the red zone, Studer busted an 18-yard run on a first down from the Lexington 20.
Two plays later, sophomore QB Bodpegn Miller finished off the driver, starting to his right and then busting back to his left on a 2-yard TD dash with 5:38 remaining.
Afterward, Eckert explained the change to more of a two-back offensive look in the second half, adding Yetter, who rushed for 407 yards on 63 carries in 2021.
“I tell you what, when you return Chase Studer, everyone looks at him. And we started to put two backs in there. We have a package and … Drew Yetter, what a job,” Eckert said.
“He came in the fourth quarter and just lowered the boom on some people. We knew we had two good backs. It’s one of those things. We wanted to get him more involved early, but it worked in the fourth quarter,” said Eckert, the offensive coordinator last season when a young Ontario team took its lumps in a 3-7 season.
Lexington knocked off Ontario 45-0 to open last season. Eckert spread the credit to his team, his assistants and the entire community for the turnaround.
“We knew it was a a process going forward. You know, it has nothing to do with me being here. It has to do with those kids. It has to do with this community, rallying behind a group of young men who really wanted to get better and put it in a great off season of work.
Eckert also praised the plow horses up front.
“We had to get first downs to close the game out and that’s a credit to the ‘O’ line,” he said. “That’s one of the things that doesn’t get talked about enough is how good our ‘O” and ‘D’ lines are.
“That’s kind of the heart of our team. Tonight, at the end of the game, they showed out.
“I couldn’t be happier for these guys,” said Eckert, whose team also got a 1-yard TD run from Miller and a 35-yard TD pass from Miller to junior tight end Dylan Floyd.
Saris is Lexington’s third head coach in three seasons, coming to the community after years as the track coach and assistant football coach at Madison.
He knows his team is a work in progress.
‘We fought tonight. Adversity has struck us a little bit this summer with some injuries, but man, we battled tonight. We’re gonna have more football games like this this year. Hopefully, tonight helps get us prepared for that,” Saris said.
Lexington took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a school-record 97-yard sprint by 6-1, 195-pound junior running back Carter Newman. The Minutemen then took a 10-7 lead in the third quarter on a 43-yard field goal by senior A.J. Young.
Young gave the Minutemen a 17-14 lead with 9:38 left in the fourth quarter when he lofted a perfect 23-yard pass down the left sideline to freshman wide receiver Brayden Fogle (6-4, 200).
“It’s two great athletes, one-on-one, on a match-up. Braden Fogel does some nice things for us … still very young,” Saris said.
“For us to be able to throw the ball, we just gotta get into a little bit better of emotion … and just feeling it and letting our run game and our pass game complement themselves,” Saris said.
The new head coach didn’t like the outcome, but enjoyed his first game as the head football coach.
“It’s still coaching kids and it’s still ultimately a big thing. It was fun. But it’s just tough because as the coach you want to win. As a coach, these are the things you wanna do, so it’s tough. I just gotta be there for the guys right now and work on Week Two,” Saris said.
UP NEXT: Ontario hosts Norwalk St. Paul next Friday in another non-league game. Lexington hosts Shelby in a second non-league contest.
