Wolverines not caught looking ahead in 68-14 victory

    ESSEX - There was no looking ahead for these Wolverines.
    A week ahead of a showdown with unbeaten No. 2 ranked Fremont-Mills looming on Friday, the No. 4 ranked East Mills football team took no chances to overlook Essex on Friday night with a 68-14 victory.
    The Wolverines (8-0 overall, 6-0 in District 8) racked up a season-high 568 yards in the win over the Trojans.
    “We started a little slow and had to sort of dink and dunk our way down the field,” said East Mills coach Kevin Schafer. “But we seemed to get it going in the second quarter.”
    The Wolverines forced a Trojan three-and-out on the opening drive and used a good punt return by Luke Schafer to set up their first score. Schafer ran in the first touchdown of the game from 17 yards out with 9:57 to go in the opening frame.
    Following another Trojan punt, Schafer would be picked off in the end zone for the game’s first turnover. But the miscue would go for naught when East Mills’ Kaleb Richter intercepted Zach Dailey’s pass three plays later, returning to the Trojan 10 yard line. Schafer darted into the end zone two plays later.
    The Wolverines forced punts on the next two drives with both possessions ending up in East Mills scores.  Schafer found Charlie Ruff for his first of five touchdown passes on the night and then connected with Kyle Steiner on a 76-yard scoring strike on the second play of the second quarter.
    After the Trojans’ fifth punt of the first half, Schafer hooked up with favorite target Daniel Duysen for a six-yard touchdown dart and called his own number with a 76 yard touchdown scamper, weaving through traffic to  put East Mills ahead 40-0.
    “They came out in a little different defense than we were expecting,” Schafer said. “They wanted to give up the little dinks and dunks and try and give up the deep balls by playing 10 and 15 yards off our receivers. So we took the short pass and fortunately our kids were able to turn some of those into big plays.”
    The Wolverines finished with 568 total yards, 258 coming on the ground and another 320 through the air on 16-of-22 passing by Schafer. The senior quarterback connected with four different receivers for touchdown passes and added 117 yards rushing and three more scores.
    Nick Pittmon hauled in four passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns. Kyle Steiner, Charlie Ruff and Duysen each caught a Schafer touchdown strike.
    The Wolverines host Fremont-Mills (8-0) on Friday. Kick off is scheduled for 7 p.m.