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Shimensky passes Roosevelt to victory over Stow

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Eric Clutter
September 5, 2010

Editor’s Note: Due to an unforeseen technological error, the following story was not made available before press time on Friday night. Despite the Record-Courier publishing a similar story in the Saturday edition for coverage purposes, we chose to run this story in its entirety in fairness to the reporter and the schools involved.

By Eric Clutter | Correspondent

The Stow Bulldogs got their licks in against Evan Shimensky on Friday night, sacking the Kent Roosevelt quarterback three times and pressuring him numerous other instances.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs’ defense, it was the sacks they couldn’t finish that proved to be their demise as Shimensky and the Roosevelt receivers put together a highlight reel with a 41-14 non-league victory over the host Bulldogs.

“The quarterback is a hell of a player,” said Stow first-year coach Mark Nori of Shimensky. “He can beat you with his arm, he can beat you with his feet. Those guys are tough to stop. A normal player, we probably have (more) sacks. That’s just how he beat us.”

Playing perhaps the best game of his career, Shimensky threw for 331 yards and five touchdowns and ran for 70 yards as Roosevelt, for the second straight week, used a very efficient offense to improve their record to 2-0 on the young season.

Shimensky needed only 17 attempts to eclipse the 300-yard level, completing 13 of them, including six to junior wideout Rich Graves, who had TD grabs of 36 and 35 yards.

“It was a great team effort,” said Shimensky. “If our line does not block, if our receivers don’t make plays, there is no performance by the quarterback. They did great; our line really blocked their (butts) off and our wideouts made plays, they found spots. All we did was play pitch-and-catch.”

After starting the night 1-of-4 and absorbing a sack, Shimensky’s head-scratching ability to remain upright when many other signal-callers would be hauled down began to surface as did Roosevelt’s quick-strike offense.

Trailing 7-6 in the second quarter — Roosevelt’s points coming courtesy of Shakeel Howard’s 78-yard kickoff return — Shimensky was sacked at midfield, forcing a 3-and-17 from the Rough Riders’ 43.

On the next snap, the Stow defensive front again forced Shimensky out of the pocket, this time near his own bench. Sidestepping one would-be tackler, Shimensky heaved the ball in the area of the well-covered Graves, who came down on his back with the ball for a 22-yard gain. Two plays later, the same two hooked up for a 36-yard that gave Roosevelt the lead for good — 14-7 following a Shimensky-to-Howard 2-point conversion.

Then with less than a minute to go in the half, Shimensky directed a two-play, 72-yard scoring march. His 48-yard burst up the middle advanced the ball to the Stow 24. On the next snap, Shimensky eluded pressure from the interior of the Bulldogs’ line, kept moving to his left and hit Howard in stride inside the 2. The Roosevelt running back managed to keep his balance and fell into the end zone to give the Rough Riders a 20-7 edge at halftime.

“I thought the Stow defensive line was quick and they gave us some trouble early on,” said Roosevelt coach John Nemec. “We adjusted and maybe gave Evan another second or two. But his pocket presence and his ability to scramble — you never know what is going to happen. He creates plays.”

Stow (1-1), which scored on the game’s opening drive via Duane Mitchell’s 28-yard run, capitalized on a botched Roosevelt punt on the first series of the third quarter to go 30 yards in seven plays and slice the deficit to 20-14 on quarterback Mike Greenwell’s 7-yard TD run.

But on the next series, with momentum on Stow’s side and now backed up on his own 13, Shimensky had his number called three times and he responded with three rushes for 33 yards, getting his squad out of trouble. Three plays later, Shimensky and Graves collaborated on a 35-yard scoring play. Shimensky then found Nick Sacchini wide open in the left corner of the end zone for a 2-point conversion and a 28-14 Roosevelt lead.

“We really thought we wanted to run the football and try to take their will away,” said Shimensky. “They came down and put one on us. And we wanted to take it right back at them. Our line did a great job of creating holes.”

The Rough Riders put the game away in the final minute of the third quarter when Shimensky somehow extracted himself from a pair of Stow rushers and hit junior Tony Britt near the Stow sideline. Britt cut across the field, got a good block which allowed him to turn the corner and raced over the goal line to put Roosevelt up by three TDs.

Shimensky posted his fifth TD of the game and ninth in the last two weeks by hitting Colin Wymer with a 7-yard strike with 4:09 to play in the game.

Mitchell finished the game with 28 carries for 132 yards.




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