NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio – Rocky River dropped a Great Lakes Conference battle against Holy Name on Saturday night.
The Green Wave (3-1, 2-0 GLC) defeated the Pirates, 43-21, after breaking loose from a mid-third-quarter 21-21- tie. Rocky River (2-2, 1-2) couldn’t corral the Holy Name run game – the Green Wave punched in five touchdowns via their ground game. Running back Robert Sherrod led that Holy Name rushing attack -- he rambled for 228 yards and two TDs on 25 carries.
River led, 7-0, after one quarter. The Pirates would go into
halftime trailing, 14-13.
The
Green Wave extended their lead to 21-13 in the first possession of the third. Rocky
River tied the game at 21-21 with a TD and a two-point conversion at the
6:05-mark of the third. The rest of the contest was controlled by the home
team. And two late-thrd-quarter scores were the back-breaker.
Holy Name
scored with 1:34 left in the third on a Nick Mercuri-to-David Boll touchdown
pass. Mercuri ran in the two-point conversion to lift Holy Name to a 29-21
lead. At 0:28 of the third, Mercuri ran one in for six. That TD would give the
Green Wave a commanding 36-21 lead and all the momentum in the contest.
Holy
Name would ride that momentum to a 7-0 shutout over the final 12 minutes of
action. Robert Sherrod scored the final touchdown of the game when he found
painted turf at the 1:44-mark of the fourth.
Holy Name’s 43 points mark the most by a River opponent this season. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak (2016-18) over the Green Wave.
After playing two straight on the road, the Pirates will now return home for back-to-back games. River will host Normandy on Friday (7 p.m.) and Tallmadge on Oct. 4. Friday’s contest against the Invaders will mark Rocky River’s 2019 Homecoming Game.
by Skip Snow
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