By Jake Dowling
Sun Sports Reporter
First-year West Clermont head football coach Jeremy Pflug took to social media following an 0-3 start to Eastern Cincinnati Conference play to say that his team’s play was on him.
Then he came up with a new rally cry.
(Expletive.) Next play.
That mentality served the Wolves well Friday night.
In what turned out to be a seesaw battle against in-county rival Milford, West Clermont overcame a late fourth-quarter touchdown run by quarterback Aiden Wehrum with a last-second touchdown pass from Colton Abner to Ethan Davidson to cap off a thrilling 43-41 win at a hopping Sharefax Field.
“We just said, ‘We are going to change the identity of our program by playing as hard as we freakin’ can. We made it more simple. If we can control three things, we can compete every single day,” Pflug said. “We had the best week of practice, we stopped worrying about wins and loses and we made a new acronym, FMP.
“We are going to force them into things that they’re not comfortable with, we are going to blitz all freakin’ night and we are going to put ourselves in situations to hopefully force some turnovers and limit explosive plays. I think we made it a little difficult on them. They scored with 1:30 left and we didn’t bat an eye.”
The teams combined for 48 second-half points, seven lead changes in the final 17:57 and scored on the final four possessions of the fourth quarter.
The Eagles took the lead when Wehrum scored on a 5-yard touchdown run — his sixth touchdown overall on the night — and ran it in to convert on the two-point try to give Milford a 41-37 advantage with 1:51 remaining in regulation.
“We’ve been absolutely horrendous at it,” Pflug said about responding when the other team scores. “That’s kind of what my post was about. We were pressing too much. We played the three best teams in the ECC right off the bat and it was a welcome gift. Here you go coach Pflug. Here it is.
“But what can we control? We can control our attitude. We can control our effort. We can control that and we can love each other more. So we took those three things and said, ‘How do we wrap this up in a ball?’ We got each other. We love each other. Next play.”
Abner did most of the damage with his legs, including a 14-yard on second and 15 on the Wolves’ ensuing possession. Running back Caleb Abshire converted on third and 1 with a 4-yard run with a 1:00 left.
Abner connected with Davidson for a 13-yard reception to get into Milford territory, and Abshire converted again on third and 2 with a 2-yard run. Milford burned its final timeout, but Abner cut through the Eagles defense down to the 3-yard line as part of a 35-yard run with 14 seconds to play. However, Davidson was called for a hold when Abner cut to the outside, sitting the ball back to the 26.
Abner used his legs again for a 13-yard down to the 13 with seven seconds left. One final play for the heroics.
From the shotgun, Abner scrambled to his right, stopped and heaved the ball to the end zone before being tackled. Davidson and Wehrum went up for the ball simultaneously, but Davidson came down with possession.
“We ran a four verticals concept. Play broke down, and I ran out of the pocket; I was hoping to see a hole to run through,” Abner said. “Everything was covered up, but I ended up pulling a safety across the field, and Ethan throttled down; he read my mind.
“He throttled down and drifted and made a heck of a catch.”
Davidson hadn’t gotten a reception all night until the fifth-to-last play and the final play of the game. Both were huge plays in West Clermont’s game-winning drive.
“When I see him out of the pocket, I just think of it as a normal scramble drill; wherever he is moving, I am going to move with him,” Davidson said. “I saw the safety in front of me move with Colton, and I saw the gap get bigger and bigger. I knew Colton would find me in the end zone.”
The victory marked the third consecutive win over Milford, but more importantly, it vanquished nearly a month-long period of frustration after getting beaten up by the top three teams in the ECC in Anderson, Lebanon and Kings.
After early mistakes, Abner — a transfer to West Clermont last season — settled in and threw four touchdown passes. He also accounted for 52 yards on 10 carries.
“He’s got it, and he’s capable of that (running the ball),” Pflug said. “That is something we have preached all summer; we just haven’t shown a lot of it, and tonight it came up big. He had an opportunity to use his legs when they were dropping back into seven- , eight-man coverages.
“I’m really proud of him.”
The Wolves have slung the ball through the air through the first four games of the season, and while Abner threw for 172 yards, West Clermont also relied on its senior back, Caleb Abshire, who finished with a career-high 204 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown.
“What a dude,” Pflug said. “Coming off hip surgery last year. I couldn’t be more proud. We needed him tonight to step up, be a dog and carry the load because, quite frankly, we didn’t do very well passing the ball in the first half.
“We had to lean on him, and he just kept trucking. I can’t say enough about how proud I am of him.”