ADRIAN — The Pinckney football team’s offense was somewhat stymied by Adrian’s defense on Friday night.
But Caleb Wardlow took care of that with punt returns for touchdowns the first two times he touched the ball, and the Pirates never looked back in a 31-0 blanking of the Maples at Maple Stadium.
Wardlow also scored Pinckney’s only touchdown on offense, catching a 20-yard pass for a score, and Russell Clay returned a pass for a touchdown to put an exclamation point on things in the fourth quarter.
On defense, especially, ends Charlie Lovell and Alex Olenik were in the Adrian backfield almost as much as Adrian’s backs were, holding the Maples to just 67 yards of offense.
Click here for a link to Friday’s broadcast.
“Obviously, we wanted to do other things on offense, so hats off to Adrian,” coach Rod Beaton said. “They crowded the box, and i give the a lot of credit for taking away our basic run play and making us do some other things.”
But the Pirates effectively put the game out of reach after Wardlow returned the first punt 77 yards for a touchdown, then added a 55-yard score on Adrian’s second punt.
“It was perfect,” Lovell said. “It was a great job on defense, and a punt return just deflates them. Then we get another stop and do it again. Tons of confidence gets injected into our sideline.”
Beaton was even more enthusiastic.
“Caleb is a dynamo,” he said. “He has game-breaking ability. Any time he touches the ball, he can go get it.”
Wardlow’s third touchdown came in the second quarter, when he snared a bullet from quarterback Jimmy Bona for a 20-yard touchdown.
“He put it in my breadbasket,” Wardlow said. After the score, he went to his linemen.
“Every time I score, I go up to them and say, great job, great work, because the reason i score is because of them,” he said.
The Pirates’ first drive of the third quarter was time-consuming, eating more than seven minutes off the clock, before Collin Beaver’s 29-yard field goal.
Russell Clay picked off a pass deep in Adrian territory in the fourth quarter and returned it 15 yards for a touchdown.
“It was amazing, honesty,” Clay said of his first career touchdown. “I just went in and made a play.”
The Pirates did that throughout the game, especially on defense, where linebacker Vinny Patierno joined Lovell and Olenik in shutting down Adrian’s offense.
“Alex and I have been waiting for this for a long time,” Lovell said. “It feels like the apex of what we’ve been working for fora long time, and to be able to reap the benefits of it and know that we’re going out there and helping our team is a huge confidence boost.”
The Pirates play host to Ypsilanti next week in the first of three home games to end the regular season.
“We’ve had three long road trips this year,” Beaton said, referring to road games at Jackson, Tecumseh and Adrian, all of which the Pirates won. “We’re going to celebrate tonight, then get ready for homecoming next week.”
Pinckney improved to 4-2 overall, 3-1 in the Southeastern Conference White Division. Adrian fell to 2-4, 1-3.
