CIRCLEVILLE — It had all the signs of a Week 1 contest with a handful of big plays, a few turnovers, untimely penalties and players cramping up late in the contest. But when it came time to decide the game, Circleville dug in and stopped visiting Warren to open with a 16-15 victory,
“The No. 1 (takeaway) was when they needed to stick a cleat in the ground and give more effort – even though they were cramping and their size was wearing on us a little bit — but they just kept putting shoulder pad to shoulder pad to shoulder pad,” Circleville coach Jay Sharrett said, “It’s good to see our kids put in that effort and then get rewarded at the end.
“So now they know, they’ll probably even play, I hope, even harder next week. Hopefully, we can get another win and we’ll be 2-0.”
Friday’s contest started out on a positive note with the Tigers using the game’s first nine plays to cover 67 yards. Senior Kole Nungester took the ball the last 14 yards to put the Tigers up 6-0.
The team traded possessions before Warren scored with two seconds left in the quarter as QB Braylen Murray scrambled away from the pressure to score from five yards out and the Warriors led 7-6 after the PAT kick.
While Circleville’s next possession ended in a punt, Warren was put in a bad spot as Jacob Reichelderfer downed Jack Kline’s kick at the 1-yard line.
Warren picked up three first downs before electing to go for it on fourth-and-short on its own side of the 50. An incomplete pass gave the ball back to Circleville at the 44-yard line.
Circleville took the ball down as close as the 4 before finishing the drive with a 23-yard field goal from Kaden Paxton for a 9-7 lead that stood at halftime.
Both teams had fast starts in the second half.
Warren’s fifth play of the third quarter was a 45-yard scoring pass from Murray to Tanner Peppers. The PAT kick failed and Warren led 13-9.
After a 33-yard kickoff return from Ray Ezell, CHS started its drive with a 45-yard connection from Hudson Phalin to Uriah Woodworth. Two plays later, Ezell went in from six yards out. Paxton’s kick made it 16-13 in favor of the Tigers.
After stopping Warren on downs, Circleville picked up a couple of first downs and got creative with a reverse handoff to Nungester who threw to Blake Patterson for a 36-yard gain. But Pepper was able to hammer the ball out of Patterson’s hands and Warren recovered at the 6-yard line.
Warren kept its play calling pretty simple on the ensuing drive as senior workhorse running back Eric Carr carried nine straight times — picking up 91 yards. With second-and-goal from the 3, Carr got the ball for the 10th straight play. This time the Tigers were able to strip the ball away for a turnover.
Circleville netted only four yards before attempting a punt. Warren’s pressure led to the punt going straight up in the air. Fortunately for the Tigers, they were able to keep the loose ball away from Warren and knock it out of the endzone for a safety.
“We didn’t block real well down on that,” Sharrett said. “That was probably a bad decision on my part. I should’ve just taken the safety instead of worrying about it. Then we play defense and if they go down and score, they win the game. If they don’t, we win the game.
“I thought it was a bad decision on my part – put our kids in a bad situation. Thank goodness we recovered, and they fought for it and they knew – because we’ve worked with them, they knew to knock it out of the back of the endzone – they get two points and not six.”
After the free kick, Warren started on Circleville’s side of the field. A two-yard gain was followed by a 10-yard pass, but Circleville stripped the ball away and Kiser Cassidy fell on it for the Tigers.
After three running plays left the Tigers short of a first down, the punt team lined up again. This time, Kline sent the ball down the field covering 40 yards in the air before rolling to the 7-yard-line for a 52-yard punt.
“Our special teams tonight, I couldn’t be happier,” Sharrett said. “Brayden Brisker snapping spot on, Jack cracking the punt when we needed it, our cover guys getting down there and not letting them breathe and downing it inside the 10.
“We’ve talked to these guys and talked to them, and you can tell they’re starting to get that piece of it. There’s a bunch of different ways to win and you just might have to find different ones every time, and they did tonight. We’re 1-0 and we couldn’t be happier.”
Carr got the handoff on first down and went six yards to take him over 200 for the game, but he went down with a bad cramp and left the game for a couple of plays. Back-to-back penalties pushed Warren back to its own 4-yard-line and a short pass followed by two incompletions gave the ball to the Tigers with 1:31 on the clock.
Phalin took a knee twice from the victory formation to run out the clock and give Circleville the win.
From a statistical standpoint, Warren outperformed the Tigers by 103 yards (329-226) but recovering the two fourth-quarter fumbles was a big plus for CHS.
“At times, it was a little bit of a track meet and, other times, it was a little bit of a field position war,” Sharrett said. “But one thing our guys did, and they’ve really worked on it in our scrimmages, is flying to the ball. So, if that ball gets loose, we get that key recovery, and we had a couple that we really needed.”
The Tigers ran the ball 34 times for 118 yards with Phalin picking up 38, Nungester 36, Cassidy 23 and Ezell 21.
Circleville had 108 yards through the air on seven completions to seven different receivers.
Carr had a huge start to his senior year with 29 carries for 203 yards. He also had one catch for six.
While always important to win the opener, Friday’s win meant a little more for Sharrett – a 1984 Circleville graduate.
“I haven’t been here in 40 years. When I walked out on to this field for the first time a couple weeks ago – it was a different kind of rush,” Sharrett said.
The last time he had been on the field for a varsity contest was a 21-0 win over Greenfield in Week 8 of his senior year.
Since then, Sharrett had spent more than 30 years coaching – with the last 20 being head coach at Pickerington High School Central before retiring after the 2022 season.
Since then, he and his wife spent time traveling to see former players compete at the collegiate and pro level and even took a trip to England and Scotland. His next big trip, though, will be on a yellow school bus headed to Westfall in Week 3.
“When Circleville called, this would’ve been the only school I would’ve come out of retirement for,” Sharrett said.
The Tigers will be home again next week when Washington Court House (which fell 28-6 to Mechanicsburg) pays a visit.
Circleville 16, Warren 15
By Quarters 1 2 3 4 F
Warren 7 0 6 2 15
Circleville 6 3 7 0 16
First Quarter
CV — Kole Nungester 14 run (kick failed), 7:31
WA — Braylen Murray 5 run (Jackson Venham kick), 0:02.
Second Quarter
CV — Kaden Paxton 23 field goal, 0:44.
Third Quarter
WA — Tanner Pepper 45 pass from Braylen Murray (kick failed), 9:34.
CV — Raymond Ezell 6 run (Kaden Paxton kick), 8:26.
Fourth Quarter
WA — Safety, 5:52.
TEAM STATISTICS
WA CV
First downs 16 11
Rushing yards 39-239 34-118
Passing yards 90 108
Comp.-Att.-Int 9-19-0 7-9-0
Total yards 329 226
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 1-1
Penalties-Yards 9-89 9-80
Punts-Ave 1-21 4-29
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING –Warren — Eric Carr 29-203, Braylen Murray 9-33, Tanner Pepper 1-3. Circleville — Kiser Cassidy 7-23, Kole Nungester 7-36, Hudson Phalin 14-38, Raymond Ezell 6-21.
PASSING – Warren — Braylen Murray 9-19-0-90. Circleville — Hudson Phalin 6-8-0-72, Kole Nungester 1-1-0-36.
RECEIVING – Warren — Tanner Pepper 4-66, Davin Dickel 1-5, Jayce Hilyerding 1-3, Jude Daly 1-10, Eric Carr 1-6. Circleville — Raymond Ezell 1-2, Jacob Reichelderfer 1-10, Jack Kline 1-3, Jace Captain 1-7, Alec Spradlin 1-5, Uriah Woodworth 1-45, Blake Patterson 1-36.