Perrysburg’s dominant wins over Clay and Anthony Wayne set the stage for a perfect NLL championship run

Carter Montague
eSomethin Staff

The football matchup between Perrysburg (7-0) and Clay (7-0) on October 9 was an NLL battle between giants.

On paper, Perrysburg varsity football was a 27-point favorite over Clay, yet this was still one of the biggest games of the year so far, as it was a huge deciding factor in who would win the Northern Lakes League title.

It was no surprise to fans who have watched this Perrysburg Football Team – the Yellow Jackets did nothing short of dominate with 35 unanswered points against a Clay team who has scored no less than 40 points a game all year.

(Senior quarterback Brady Maxwell led Perrysburg onto the field against clay before suffering an ACL tear. His absence leaves the Jackets searching for answers at quarterback.)

It wasn’t a total win for the Jackets, however. Perrysburg’s quarterback Brady Maxwell went down with a torn ACL, which was seen as a devastating loss to the Yellow Jackets who has had a Mr. Football season and a QB rating of 130.0, just shy of a perfect rating.

Before the injury, Maxwell and Clay’s Landon Echelberry put on a show within the first two quarters. Unfortunately, this dream matchup was cut short by Maxwell’s injury.

“When the quarterback can break tackles and escape in the run game, it’s difficult to predict a run or a throw. We knew all 11 defenders had to swarm him,” Connor Badik, a defensive lineman for the Jackets said.

As a replacement was needed, junior quarterback Matthew Hellman went in and immediately made an impact with an eight-yard passing touchdown to Braylon Foster to give the Yellow Jackets a strong 27-13 lead early in the second half.

While Hellman shined on the offensive side, Perrysburg’s defense was the unsung heroes of the game as they held this dominant Clay team, who averaged 40 points a game, to under 300 all purpose offensive yards as Ben Patterson would recover a fumble in the third that would set up Liam Nowakowski for a one-yard touchdown.

Clay would go on to be shut out during the second half entirely resulting in a 41-13 loss, followed by a loss to Whitmer keeping them out of contention for a NLL title.

Dakota Jackson stole the show versus Anthony Wayne in what football fans would call a mud bowl having 33 carries 236 rushing yards with all three of Perrysburg’s touchdowns versus Anthony Wayne

(Mathew Hellman entered the game after Maxwell suffered a season ending injury. He currently leads the yellow jackets offense.)

With Clay’s loss to Whitmer, Perrysburg has to capitalize on this big win with another big win against Whitmer both teams have had extreme offensive success specifically the run game with Whitmer’s starting running back Holmes having 1,104 rushing yards through 9 games against Perrysburg’s one-two punch with Sophomore running back Jackson having 936 rushing yards and Senior Liam Nowakowski having 715 rushing yards.

Can one of these offenses’ running games get stopped and if so how well Mikey Duvall the star linebacker for Perrysburg speaks on this big game “This game means everything. It’s the sum of all that we have worked towards. To stop the run game we need to load the box and play true to perrysburg football”

Within the NLL, Perrysburg remains undefeated after two big wins over Clay and Anthony Wayne, improving their record to a perfect 9-0 with a projected NLL championship and perfect record in sight, Perrysburg’s first since 2015.

Perrysburg has never won a division one state championship. This campaign is looking strong for the jackets. Could this be the year the jackets capitalize on their success?