MIAMI — The bottom line in Miami’s 35-14 Rotary Bowl loss to Grove here Friday, Sept. 21 was “they played a lot better than we did.” “We never converted offensively, then defensively we were on our heels all night,” Miami head coach Zach Gardner said. “We didn’t stop anything they threw at us.” The Ridgerunners, who took the Rotary Bowl trophy home for the fourth time in five years, feasted on Miami turnovers and mistakes. This was the Ridgerunners’ 12th in the last 13 meetings with Miami. Grove turned two Wardog fumbles into touchdowns and scored another time after MHS had turned the ball over on downs. The backbreaker came late in the first half with Grove leading 14-7, but with Miami driving. A fourth-down snap exchange was botched and Grove’s Josh Wright picked the ball up near midfield and was on his way to the end zone — only to have the ball squirt loose at the 15. Kai Sarwinski scooped it up and continued on into the end zone. That was the first of two fumbles the Dogs had. They also had an interception. “We were negative-3 in the turnover ratio. It hurts you,” Gardner said. “This was a big momentum game as far as football in general and they had all the swings going their way.” Miami’s touchdowns came on a 12-yard run by Gavin Payton that came 11 plays after the Ridgerunners scored the game’s first touchdown. The other came with 1:36 remaining when Jordon Freeman took a handoff and popped loose about midfield to complete a 73-yard touchdown run, one of the longest in MHS history. Miami didn’t punt the entire game. That matches the fewest in a game done three previous times: vs. Pryor, Sept. 28, 2007; Claremore, Oct. 10, 1955, and Pittsburg, Kansas, Oct. 3, 1941. Quarterback Greg McCurdy did a good job of pinch-hitting for Jordan Cash – who is out two games after being tossed from the Runners’ game last week. “He ran the offense,” Grove head coach Ron Culwell said. “He’s kinda elusive. We were trying to get him loose a couple times, but Miami did a good job.” Grove threw only four passes all night. McCurdy was 1 for 4 for 16 yards. They didn’t need to. The Ridgerunners ran the ball 45 times and netted 344 yards. “We only saw the quarterback go for a half,” Gardner said. “He did a good job managing their offense, but we didn’t do a very good job of tackling in space. “We almost reverted back to our scrimmage days, back when we weren’t doing a very good job of tackling in space.” Sophomore running back Kadian Forbis had 158 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries for Grove. Running back Nick Estrada added 83 yards and a TD while McCurdy chipped in with 51 rushing yards and a score. The Wardogs finished with 307 yards total, 266 rushing and 41 passing. Freeman accounted for the bulk of the rushing yardage, netting 163 yards and a TD on 20 carries. Payton had 61 yards and Folk contributed 29 yards. Payton was 4 of 14 passing for 41 yards with an interception. Damion Burris had three receptions for 31 yards and Josh Thronebury caught the other pass. Shelby Hubbard and Folks were named homecoming queen and king during pregame ceremonies. Miami hosts Catoosa (3-1) Friday, Sept. 29. The Indians suffered a 31-14 loss to Wagoner, which shares the top spot in The Associated Press’ Oklahoma high school football poll with Blanchard. “We will see how our kids respond win or loss not necessarily, but to how we compete after a game we stubbed our toe big time.”