Garaway powers past Malvern, stays undefeated

(Photo: Gene Simmons ~ Ohsfbmedia.com)

By Gene Simmons

SUGARCREEK, OH- In a game that started out slow, Garaway would gain momentum in the third quarter to defeat Malvern 41-8 in a game where both teams were undefeated coming into a week 5 matchup.

Final from Garaway Football Field @GarawayAthletic 41
Malvern Hornets 8

Dillon Soehnlen (unofficial 148 yards) 3 TD's.

Garaway has a big 3rd quarter to down a good Malvern team. pic.twitter.com/ncARRciw8a

— Ohio High School Football/Basketball Media (@OHSFBMedia) September 21, 2024

In a scoreless first quarter where both teams would have a lot of empty series to start out the game would soon heat up as the game continued, Garaway found the end zone first off the legs of senior running back Dillon Soehnlen, a 4 yard touchdown with 11:55 left in the second quarter (Colon kick blocked) to go up 6-0.

Malvern got on the board with a leaking Rodney Smith getting past the secondary and up the boundary to catch a 39 yard touchdown pass from Jared Witherow and a good 2-point conversion, Malvern would go up 8-6 with just a little over ten minutes left in the half.

That two point lead would be the last lead for the Hornets the rest of the game as Garaway would score a touchdown late in the quarter as Soehnlen gaining his second touchdown on the night with 2:54 left to end the first half leading 13-6.

The second half of the game would be all Garaway as they would put up 24 points in the 3rd quarter to put the icing on the cake off the arm of Brady Geibel and solid run game from Soehnlen who would finish the game at press time with 148 yards with 3 Td's to cap off the night.

"Halftime we got our stuff together and played Garaway football the second half, O-line really did a good job tonight," Soehnlen said.

Garaway long time Head Coach Jason Wallick after the dominating win still felt like they made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes early in the game, still needing to play four good quarters. 

"In the first quarter the turnovers killed us, if you don't take care of the football you can't score," said Wallick. "Well we just got to continue to worry about ourselves, continue to get better, continue to eliminate mistakes."

Continuing on to week six, Garaway will play a winless Claymont team in an attempt to stay undefeated, Malvern will regroup to play a two win Strasburg team after suffering their first loss of season.