'Berg's D carries Princes to 31-0 win in season opener

There were a lot of unknowns for Heidelberg entering Saturday's game against Adrian.Whatever the Student Princes weren't sure of was not evident on defense.Heidelberg twice forced missed field goals and Easton St. Clair returned an interception for a touchdown as the Student Princes topped Adrian 31-0 in a non-league season opener."The defense did an amazing job, especially adjusting to some things that we obviously didn't know (Adrian) was going to do," Heidelberg coach Scott Donaldson said. "They played with a lot of great intensity and we got stops when we needed to get stops."Already ahead 7-0, Heidelberg (1-0) thwarted the Bulldogs' nearly eight-minute drive when Tramon Wiley got a finger on an attempt to keep Adrian (0-1) off the scoreboard. After a turnover by the Student Princes, the Bulldogs missed an other field goal early in the second quarter.Heidelberg got on the board quickly. Electing to receive the ball after winning the coin toss proved wise as Drew Sims hit Brandon Reed in stride for a 63-yard touchdown to jolt Hoernemann Stadium early. Reed got a step on his defender and Sims perfectly lobbed the ball in where only Reed could catch it. Branden Steckel added the extra point and the Student Princes led 7-0 just over a minute in.Later, Adrian took over with 10:03 left and slowly moved the offense down the field before Justin Ostrander's 32-yard field goal was blocked by Wiley to end a 13-play drive that chewed 7:47 off the clock.Sims was intercepted on the first play of the second quarter, but Heidelberg held again as Alexander Ouellette missed a 44-yard field goal that would've gotten Adrian on the board.The Student Princes cashed in on a short field after a Bulldogs punt, but not without issues. First, Sims connected with Dimitri Penick for a 30-yard pass, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty sliced the gain in half. A few plays later, Montavious Yearby surely seemed to fumble after being hit from behind, but officials ruled forward progress was stopped before the penalty and Heidelberg maintained possession. The Student Princes settled for a 30-yard field goal from Steckel to lead 10-0 at halftime."The offense didn't execute as well as they needed to in the first half," Donaldson said. "I will give Adrian a lot of credit. That defense did a great job. They were big. They were physical and they played extremely hard. They gave us some fits up front."Heidelberg expanded the margin early in the third quarter. Adrian went three-and-out and were whistled for fair-catch interference on the punt. That gave the Student Princes a short field and Heidelberg cashed in. It took just three plays with the last being a 21-yard TD pass from Sims to Reed for the score.Adrian was whistled for a penalty on the extra point and that was added to the kickoff. With the opportunity, the Student Princes recovered an onside kick, but Sims fumbled on the drive to cancel that chance.The 17-0 lead for Heidelberg remained into the fourth quarter. The Student Princes took over at their own 8 with 12:22 to go and milked the clock as Yearby had 10 carries on the drive. Heidelberg went the 92 yards in 15 plays, capped on a seven-yard score by Yearby. It guzzled 7:57 off the clock and gave 'Berg a 24-0 lead."We needed it tonight," said Donaldson of the lengthy drive. "Our defense needed some time off. We needed some confidence offensively. That drive was huge. The offensive line did a great job again converting when we needed it to convert."St. Clair put a stamp on the win for the Student Princes. Facing a shutout, Adrian went from its own 34 to the Heidelberg 12 before St. Clair snatched a pass from Noah Heide and weaved his way all the way back to the end zone for a pick-6. Steckel's PAT made it 31-0 with 2:09 to go."We needed to fight our butts off," Donaldson said. "We needed every single person. We had 143 guys dressed tonight and we needed every single one of them to pull that win today. That's a good football team that will really do some damage in that conference this year."Yearby finished with 29 carries for 114 yards. Finding holes at times was tough, but Yearby grinded out yards behind a big, experienced offensive line."They gave him a good amount (of room) to run," Donaldson said. "(Adrian) did a good job in the second half of tackling him. He showed he's a workhorse today. It wasn't 10 yards a carry. He had to grind out yardage and he did that. I'm really proud to see that."Sims completed 13 of 22 passes for 267 yards. Reed hauled in three passes for 104 yards while Penick tallied six catches for 82 yards.