Dover's ground game wallops West York
In a rivalry game that came down to the wire, Dover was more effective on the ground Friday night, rallying past West York, 14-7.
The Eagles' run game was steady. They carried the ball 43 times for 195 yards, and their ability to run consistently helped them maintain a big margin in time of possession. That proved crucial in a seven-point game.
“We’ve been preaching this all season: We take care of the ball, and things are better,” Dover head coach Wayne Snelbaker said. “We’ve had a good ground game all season. We just had to man up and put it on the offensive line.”
West York head coach Jeremy Jones also pointed to the lines as the spot where the game was decided.
“It starts up front, every game starts with the offensive and defensive lines,” he said. “We didn’t stop the run when it was critical and we couldn’t run when we needed to.”
It looked as if Dover would be in for a long night after starting quarterback Dawson Jesmer went down with what looked like a knee injury early in the first quarter. The Eagles weren’t going to use that as an excuse, however.
“It’s just a ‘next man up’ mentality,” Snelbaker said. “We’re a family here, and we just try and keep each other together.”
Sophomore Brayton West filled in admirably for Jesmer, doing his best to try and keep the Bulldog defense honest while sprinkling in 89 passing yards on 9 completions.
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10-yard touchdown pass from freshman Corey Wise to senior Joe King, but it would prove to be the only points they would put up all night.
The Eagles were paced by electric sophomore running back Derek Arevalo, who carried the ball 26 times for 127 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown run with time expired in the second quarter.
Dover now moves to 3-6 on the season, including 2-3 in Division II play. They’ll look to close out the season on a high note next week with a home game against Susquehannock.
West York, meanwhile, now falls to 2-7 for the season, with a 2-3 mark against Division II foes. They’ll be on the road next Friday facing a tough Gettysburg team.
Dover 14, West York 7
Dover_ 0_ 6_ 8_ 0_ — _ 14
West York_ 7_ 0_ 0_ 0_ — _ 7
First Quarter
WY — Joe King 10-pass from Corey Wise (Evan Keim kick), 4:21.
Second Quarter
Do — Derek Arevalo 1-rush (2-point failed), 0:00.
Third Quarter
Do — William Tomes 41-rush (2-point good), 11:00.
Team Statistics
_ Do_ WY
First downs _ 12_ 7
Rushes-yards _ 43-195_ 27-25
Passing _ 9-18-0_ 9-26-2
Passing yards _ 89_ 167
Total yards _ 284_ 192
Punts _ 9-25.3_ 6-35.0
Fumbles-lost _ 3-2_ 3-1
Penalties-yards _ 2-25_ 6-48
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Dover- D. Arevalo 26-127, Brandon Lawyer 12-22, W. Tomes 1-41, Ethan Leib 2-11, Dawson Jesmer 1-11, Cole Jesmer 1- (-17). WY- Anton Johnson 12-35, Ay’Juan Marshall 4-12, Nick Spadafora 1-1, Cadence Thomas 9- (-16), C. Wise 1- (-7).
Passing — Dover- Brayton West 9-18-0 89 yards. WY- C. Wise 6-19-2 124 yards. A. Johnson 3-7-0 43 yards.
Receiving — Dover- C. Jesmer 4-39, Amari Peterson 3-34, D. Arevalo 1-9, Andrew Hoffman 1-7. WY- J. King 5-73, Andrew LaManna 2-60, Justin Wetzel 1-36, C. Thomas 1- (-2).