PARMA, Ohio -- The Rocky River Pirates closed out their 2020 season in fine fashion, coming up with a sharp performance in a 33-20 victory over the Valley Forge Patriots on Thursday.

The Pirates came through with big plays on offense and big stops on defense in the Great Lakes Conference battle at Byers Field. Rocky River (7-2, 5-1 GLC) and Valley Forge traded scores through a first half that saw 40 points split right down the middle. The Maroon & White then broke free from the Patriots in the second half. Their eventual victory marked River's first against Valley Forge since 2017.

Thursday's game opened with a 35-yard Patriot touchdown, one answered by the Pirates with a 17-yard Tommy Bebie score at 6:43 of the opening quarter. Both teams would score again over the next 10 minutes of clock time, and the game was knotted at 13-13 with 8:43 to play in the second quarter.

Valley Forge (5-3, 5-2) vaulted to a 20-13 lead with a touchdown at 3:15 of the second. The Pirates again countered, and when Braedon Spies connected with Charlie Hudson on a 31-yard TD pass at 0:58, the game was tied at 20-20. The Patriots nearly scored again before halftime: a 40-yard pass play got them to the shadow of the Pirate end zone as time expired.

Rocky River took its first lead of the game on a tremendous four-minute-and-43-second drive to open the third quarter. Spies' second TD toss of the night -- a 5-yarder to Tommy Bebie -- capped off the drive, and with a Mack Massad extra point, River had itself a 27-20 lead. 

An ensuing stop by the Rocky River defense fed into gathering momentum for the Sons of Blackbeard. That momentum would fill the Pirates sails all the way to shore.

On its next possession, River marched 65 yards downfield and posted a dagger score when Spies ran one over the goal line from 1 yard out. The Pirate lead was pushed to 33-20. Spies' rushing score -- his second of the game and 10th of the season -- came at 2:20 of the third quarter. The remaining 14 minutes-and-change would be a scoreless exchange that saw the River defense force a turnover on downs and come up with a takeaway -- Valley Forge's second fumble of the night -- on the Pirate 5-yard line.

The big plays by the Rocky River defense were measured in key stops at key moments in the game. Over the final 27 minutes of play, the truest measure of the Maroon & White Pirate blockade was in the unit's points allowed. After the 3:15-mark of the second, the Pirate defense would hold the rest of the way, not allowing the Patriots to mobilize digits on the Byers Field scoreboard. And that's nothing new for a stalwart River defense led by Head Coach Josh Wells: Rocky River went into Thursday's game allowing just 11.8 points per contest, the program's best single-season mark in more than 20 years.

The big plays turned in by the Pirate offense were many, varied, and registered by players both with and without the football. The Detroit Road Buccaneers had five touchdown drives in the game. The first -- a 17-yard rushing score by Tommy Bebie -- was jolted to life by a 37-yard Braedon Spies run. The second was buoyed by a 38-yard Spies-to-Bebie pass. The Pirates' third TD was scored on a 31-yard Spies-to-Charlie Hudson pass. The fourth score was put in place by a 41-yard Spies-to-Patrick Lang pass. Touchdown drive No. 5 was put on the doorstep by a 22-yard Tommy Bebie run. And that drive also included a 28-yard run by Spies.

A stack of River-wide discarded election campaign signs couldn't fill all those yards. 

For the game, Braedon Spies went 6-of-7 for 105 yards in directing the Pirate aerial assault. The steady signal caller finished his season with nine TD tosses against just one interception. On the ground, Spies rambled for 74 yards on 11 carries. Tommy Bebie rushed for a career-high 158 yards on 18 carries; John Bebie ran for 49 yards on five totes. As a team, Rocky River garnered 289 yards on 36 carries (8.0 yards per attempt).

On defense, Tommy Bebie had three tackles for losses on the way to a 14-tackle night. Matthew George logged 12 stops. Stan Heuler registered seven tackles and a fumble recovery. John Bebie chipped in with six tackles and a forced fumble.

In a game played by 11 men-a-side for which only a sliver of accomplishments are statistically recorded, what can't be quantified for the 2020 Rocky River gridiron squad are things like camaraderie, coaching, steadfastness, and tenacity. The wins are quantified, and this team piled them up in all the right ways. The Pirates won in neighborhood rivalries (Fairview, Lakewood), in a playoff game (Lexington), in shutout fashion (Normandy, Lakewood), against foes that had beaten them last year (Buckeye, Valley Forge), and on senior night (Buckeye) and Thursday nights (Normandy, Valley Forge). In a season delayed and then extended, a marvelous victory was earned by just getting on the field. And staying on it.

In a fall with so many daunting questions and so much uncertainly in every facet of life, the Pirates taking to a measured, marked-off, and line-painted turf once a week was something solid on which to hold. For them as players. And for us as fans and members of a community where high school football has been played for 104 years.

We all wanted a representative season. What we got was that and more. We got a collection of athletes that represented themselves, their coaches, and our school community with swashbuckling Pirate enthusiasm and determination. They were well intentioned and well coached. A roster diverse in talents -- strong in the trenches and dangerous in space. Stacked with veterans and underclassmen alike, playing smart football in every phase of the game, and, as was evident Thursday night at Byers Field -- giving that on-and-off-the-field effort from the opening August practice to the final whistle in the final game.

In the end, the 2020 Pirates were a team unmasked as winners. After nine games -- and an aggregate 322 points scored -- the final tally tells the story:

Rocky River 322, COVID 19.


by Skip Snow