TOLEDO — Adna, with the help of a couple of Toledo miscues, kept things close for a time Friday night at Ted Hippi Field. But there was just too much Ethen Carver for the Pirates to deal with, as the senior tailback led the Riverhawks to a 35-7 win with a monstrous night on the ground.
“He just has the ability to be a special player, when our guys open the holes up front and he hits the hole,” Toledo coach Mike Christensen said.
Carver might have missed a couple, but he hit more often than not Friday night, amassing 314 rushing yards on 24 carries and finding the end zone four times.
Not a bad effort for a senior dubbed — rather oxymoronically — “young” by his head coach.
“He has not played very much football in his career. His first year ever was eighth grade, and he hardly played,” Christensen said. “And then his freshman and sophomore years he was hurt. He played some last year, but this is his first real action where he’s getting lots of carries.
“You’ll see sometimes where he just misses the hole. Early on, he missed the hole two or three times, but when he hit the hole, there were big plays for him.”
For the second straight week, the Riverhawks (6-1, 1-1 C2B South) jumped on their opponent early. After forcing Adna to go three-and-out on the first possession of the game, Toledo marched down the field and came away with points on a scissors play to Jake Nef on fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line.
From there, it was all Carver, at least on the scoreboard. The senior scored a 36-yard touchdown on Toledo’s next drive, and on the one after he scored from 19 yards to make it 21-0 before the break.
“It was a really good start,” Christensen said. “We’ve been working hard to be in good condition and move the ball quickly, and that happened that first quarter.”
Come the second, though the Riverhawks had the same lull that nearly caught up with them last week against Pe Ell-Willapa Valley, with the same cause. Toledo fumbled the ball away twice on offense, keeping them from extending the lead any further before halftime, and Adna clawed back a touchdown on a 31-yard pass from Lane Johnson to Beau Miller.
That gave the Pirates (2-4, 0-1 C2B South) some wind in their sails going into halftime, but when Toledo needed a spark coming out of the break, they went back to their bellcow.
After taking the kick to start the third quarter, Carver broke off his longest touchdown run yet, getting in from 43 yards to push the lead to three possessions.
“We needed that,” Christensen said. “We’d been shut out all second half last week, and we had talked about just finishing drives, holding onto the football and seeing what happens. That was big.”
In the fourth quarter, Carver did even better, capping his night with a 65-yard sprint to the house.
Behind Carver, Nef finished with 76 yards. Eli Weeks had 56 yards on the ground and completed four passes to four different receivers for 41 yards.
For Adna, Johnson went 9 for 21 for 103 yards. Elijah Jimenez led the way on the ground with 35 rushing yards, and Luke Mohney had five catches for 44 receiving yards to lead the receivers.
On defense, Johnson had 12.5 tackles, Mohney had 10, Miller had nine to go along with a forced fumble and a recovery and Cash Smith had eight and a forced fumble.
The loss starts Adna’s run at the C2B South Division on a sour note, with the Pirates finishing their regular season with back-to-back league contests against Onalaska and Kalama, which will be crucial for their postseason hopes.
“We need to continue to develop toughness, and I think we need to continue to develop mental focus,” first-year Adna coach Aaron Cochran said. “But I am excited, because guys aren’t getting punched in the mouth and not punching back. I think they gave a good effort, but we have to be able to execute and do the things we need to do on a down-to-down basis.”
Toledo, meanwhile, will wrap up league play next week against Kalama in another huge matchup.
