DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
The South Adams Starfires have historically had plenty of difficulties making the trip to Woodburn to take on a proud football program at Woodlan. While they entered Friday’s Week 8 matchup with a three-game winning streak against the Warriors on their home turf, they had lost the three games before that at Woodlan – meaning anything could happen in 2025.
Exacerbating the uncertainty in the South Adams camp, coach Grant Moser was without his star quarterback in Tytus Lehman for the contest, which has long served as an early tune-up for the sectional. For Moser’s career, the Stars have taken on Woodlan on Friday night, worked through the film on Saturday and then learned the opening sectional opponent on the Sunday night draw, allowing Week 9 to be the week to prepare for a known opponent.
As it turned out Friday, coach Moser did just fine with his backup quarterback. Zeke Baumer launched a passing attack that ended with a 316-yard night and three touchdowns. Baumer was rather dynamic throughout the night, with eleven carries himself. The Starfires gave him protection with the offensive line, allowing just one sack.
Baumer was 21 for 38, completing passes to four different targets, but favoring Wes Summersett and Derek McKean, who each had nine receptions.
The Stars had seven third-down conversions and got the yards they needed on fourth down on two different occasions.
Will Patterson had likely his best game of the season, taking advantage of a concerted effort by the Starfires to be more balanced with Lehman out of the lineup. Scoring three times, Patterson finished with 159 yards rushing and one catch for 15 yards.
The Starfires did not punt a single time in the game.
The SA defense did what they needed to do to keep Woodlan’s offense in check, holding the Warriors to just 61 yards rushing. Much like they did against Heritage earlier in the year, Woodlan only found success on the random long pass plays. Griffin Clear completed just three passes, but two of them accounted for all of the Woodlan scoring in the contest.
Liam Hertig had both touchdown catches, scoring from 37 and 26 yards out.
Manny Juarez was 6 of 7 on PATs and also hit a short field goal on the final play of the first half.
The Stars were led on defense by solo tackle specialists Kaleb Minger and Nathan Plattner. Minger was an absolute menace, picking up two sacks and three tackles for loss.
Plattner had six solo tackles.
Titus Loshe had an interception and solo tackles in the secondary for the visitors.
The Starfires will celebrate the end of the regular season with a home game against Southern Wells. A 6-3 season would be a fantastic record for the team considering where they felt they were after dropping the heartbreaker to Bluffton in Week 3 in a 44-41 shootout. Since then, the Stars have just
SCORING SUMMARY
Quarter 1
6:54 – SA – Will Patterson 12-yd run, Manny Juarez PAT Good, 7-0
3:31 – W – Liam Herfig 37-yd catch from Griffin Clear, Evan Koch PAT good, 7-7
:24 – SA – Wes Summersett 20-yd catch from Zaden Baumer, 14-7
Quarter 2
4:35 – SA – Derek McKean 10-yd catch from Zaden Baumer, Juarez PAT good, 21-7
2:10 – SA – Will Patterson 2-yd run, Juarez PAT good, 28-7
:00 – SA – Manny Juarez 28-yd Field Goal, 31-7
Quarter 3
8:37 – SA – Derek McKean 24-yd catch from Zaden Baumer, Juarez PAT good, 38-7
4:04 – W – Liam Hertig 26-yd catch from Griffin Clear, Koch PAT good, 38-14
Quarter 4
11:54 – SA – Will Patterson 1-yd run, Juarez PAT blocked, 44-14
6:34 – SA – Sty Pyle 3-yd run, Juarez PAT Good, 51-14
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