Monroeville's rock-solid defense showed up for the team's third consecutive shutout on Friday. Their defense stepped up to hand the Western Reserve Roughriders a 48-0 shutout. Given the Eagles' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 173rd, while the Roughriders are ranked 395th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Evan Benfer was his usual excellent self, rushing for 151 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 8.9 yards per carry, and also throwing for 55 yards and a touchdown. Monroeville also got a significant boost from Landen Roeder, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 121 yards.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Monroeville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 297 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 197 rushing yards in seven consecutive games.
Monroeville didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Derek Ackerman, Landin Hershiser, and Aj Bores picked up one apiece.
Monroeville's win was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 7-0. As for Western Reserve, the loss snapped their winning streak at three games and leaves them with a 5-2 record.
Monroeville is taking a road trip to challenge Mapleton at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Monroeville knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 31 points or more in their past five matchups -- so hopefully Mapleton likes a good challenge. As for Western Reserve, they will look to defend their home field on Friday against South Central at 7:00 p.m. Western Reserve is facing South Central at the right time seeing as South Central is stuck on a three-game losing streak.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
