Benfer, Eagles close door on Calvert's comeback

After a dominant first half as Monroeville led Calvert 10-0, the Senecas made things interesting late.Monroeville scored right out of the half to lead 16-0, but Calvert scored the next nine, getting within one score and putting pressure on the Eagles with about eight minutes left in the contest.When the Eagles absolutely needed a drive, they got it.They executed an 8-play drive – all on the ground – which ended in a Landen Roeder plunge into the end zone from a yard out to ice the game for the Eagles with a big 23-9 win."The chips were kind of against us there because we were shooting ourselves in the foot with those penalties, but that drive was a testament to their leadership, their belief and desire to take this program to the next level," Eagles coach Tylor Nester said. "This was smashmouth football and we were kind of able to dominate there getting chunk after chunk … and I was excited and happy for those five up front, well seven guys up front some times after we rotate some guys in there and all seven worked together."Whether it was turnovers, negative plays or just some mistakes, Calvert (1-1) didn't get anything easy Friday night. Calvert carried the ball 30 times for just 81 yards against a stout Eagles defense."We had mistakes this week that we didn't have last week and those are drive-killers … I probably put us in some bad positions too getting a bit too trigger happy, so I need to go fix some things too," Calvert coach Mike Lento said. "We all got things to fix. We're going to right the ship, but that's a good football team over there. "Nobody wants to lose. I told them that the monkey is off their back, lets just go play. I think we all wanna be perfect right off the rip and it is what it is, but we came out in the second half and we did exactly what we wanted to do … we should've probably done a bit more of that in the first half. We put our defense in some bad situations. We gave ourselves a shot. It's never fun to lose, but it's Week 2. There's eight weeks left."It was Monroeville's defense that got the momentum started as Ethan Pomerich picked off a pass on the third play of the game.Six plays later, quarterback Evan Benfer ran in an 11-yard TD to make it 7-0.To end the half, Monroeville (2-0) went on a 20-play drive that started at its own 1 yard line, which ended in a 33-yard field goal from Landon Stein to give the Eagles a 10-0 lead at the break.Benfer struck again out of the half – this time from 33 yards out on the ground – to give the Eagles a commanding 16-0 edge.But Calvert (1-1) made things interesting as Cal Warnement ran in a 1-yard score and then Cameron Lucius drilled a 25-yard field goal.But that was all Calvert could manage.Benfer finished with 21 carries for 132 yards on the ground, while Roeder added 18 carries for 63 yards."(Benfer) is an extremely gritty kid and that's even saying it lightly. His instincts and his leadership skills over the years and his drive to make his team better ... It's awesome what he does," Nester said.Warnement carried the ball 23 times for 100 yards and John Schumacher made five catches for 81 yards for the Senecas, who travel to rival Norwalk St. Paul next week."I don't think we did things terribly. We made some mistakes and I put ourselves in some bad situations early and it was tough to dig ourselves out of that hole early against a good football team like that," Lento said. "We'll learn from those things and we'll see how we respond for the next eight weeks, but we have a big one next week – there's no slouches. "It's St. Paul, a storied rival, so we gotta make sure we come in tomorrow, we ice, watch film and we get ready for Norwalk St. Paul. Monroeville 23, Calvert 9First quarterM – Evan Benfer 11 run (Landon Stein kick), 8:00Second quarterM – Stein 33 field goal, 0:43Third quarterM – Benfer 33 run (Stein kick), 8:14C – Cal Warnement 1 runFourth quarterC – Cameron Lucius 25 field goal, 7:58M – Landen Roeder 1 run (Stein kick), 3:37