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Defiance defeated Napoleon 28-7 before a full crowd at Fred J. Brown
stadium in Defiance. Defiance controlled the first half, with the
second half played about even. Defiance was able to drive the ball but
Napoleon's defense was able to come up with stops to prevent scores.
Napoleon, on the other hand, couldn't drive at all basically the whole
game, and gained most of their first downs on long pass plays. In the second half Napoleon picked up more yards and Defiance's offensive line seemed to tire. Napoleon got the game to 21-7 but Defiance's defense held Napoleon once inside the 10. Napoleon's only score came on a long pass near the beginning of the 4th quarter. Defiance (Kevin Suffel) added a late meaningless TD run with less than a minute left after sacking Napoleon on Napoleon's 20 yard line. Various observations: Defiance had 4 runners with over 50 yards, very balanced. Will Clay had an 83 yard run and finshed with about 130 yards on 8 carries. Eric Steyer, who is Defiance's best running back, was slightly injured just before halftime, and seemed to be limping harder after the first play of the second half, and didn't play any further. Defiance held Napoleon's Lamar Green to under 50 yards, with about 30 of them coming on one run. Defiance stuffed the rush very well the whole game, while Napoleon eventually gained yards through the air. Defiance didn't get much pass rush at first but did much better in the second half as they piled up a few sacks. Napoleon's sophomore QB Ryan Funchion got battered a bit but played well for a sophomore, throwing no INTS until the last play of the game. Napoleon did have trouble in the first half with the center-QB exchange though, dropping 3 of them but not losing any. Defiance's sophomore QB Austin Keel played a good, solid game as well, but didn't pass much (no passes in the second half), only going 3-10. The game took 2 hours, 45 minutes because of several banged up players (many of them possibly cramps) and the officials, after calling no penalties at all in the first quarter, got a workout blowing their whistles in the second half. Approximate final stats: Rush Yds - Defiance 335, Napoleon 53 Pass Yds - Defiance 13, Napoleon 169 Turnovers - many fumbles but Napoleon lost only one or two, Defiance none. Only interception came on last play of game as Defiance picked off an up-for-grabs throw. scoring by quarters: Defiance - 7 7 7 7 - 28 Napoleon - 0 0 0 7 - 07 Steyer, Clay, and Suffel all scored rushing TDs for Defiance. Nash |