|
On a crisp cool November night in London Ohio two teams battle to the end , for the right to advance in the Ohio High School football playoffs. Beechcroft a city league team from Columbus would give the Arrows from New Carlisle a scare, but in the end a foot would be the difference. The game would start for Beechcroft the way it ended with heartbreak .SR running back Derrick Provo would cough the ball up on the 2nd play from scrimmage, and the Arrows would fall on it at the Cougars 5 WITH 11.49 to play in the opening quarter. Things would not go well for the Arrows on their 1st drive as super running back Tristian Murray would give the ball right back to Beechcroft, when he put the ball on the ground and Justin Scales a Sr who played a great game pounced on it giving the cougars another chance on offense starting at their own 10. The Cougars who seem to come out a little nervous turned the ball right back over to the Arrows when Provo fumbled it away for the 2nd time. The Arrows David Coberly a 5-6-174 linebacker fell on it giving his team great field position again, this time at the Cougars 10. The arrows would put a drive together moving it all the way to the Cougars 7, but a field goal would go wide right keeping the score at 0, with 9.29 left in a error plagued opening Quarter. Provo would fumble the ball again with 7.04 left in the 1st quarter, but this time he would recover it himself. The cougars would not be able to take advantage of their good luck as they would punt the ball away. The next big play for the Arrows would come on a punt when a Cougar player for some unknown reason threw a unnecessary block on a punt causing the ball to hit him and the Arrows Heath Holmes would fall on it giving his team another chance to score. The Cougar defense who time after time would bail the offense out would once again do so.Murray would again fumble but he was able to get it back. Then Deacon Minna a 6-4 215 running back/ wide receiver for the Arrows would take his turn at fumbling ,but he was not as fortunate because little 5-8-148 John Kendall of Beechcroft would come up with the ball. The Cougars would take advantage this time scoring a touchdown when speedy running back Michael Alston would get the corner and go 51 yards not stopping until he hit pay dirt .JR. Nate Kish 5-8 130 would add the extra point making the score 7-0. The Arrows would still be in a giving mood on their next drive as a trick play turned ugly. Runningback John Kendall would try a pass afer getting the ball from quarterback Donnie Stroup, but SR defensiveback Matt Zimmerman would pick it off giving the Cougars another chance to put the game away early. The Cougars would face a 4th down on the next drive and they decided to run a fake punt catching everyone off guard .Chris Holman would throw a beautiful pass to a wide open Zimmerman, but he would drop it giving the Arrows yet another break with 10.53 left in the half. The Arrows though would again give the ball back to the Cougars with 8.24 left in the half when Minna would again put the ball on the ground, and James Moore a 6-3- 168 linebacker would come up with it, giving the Cougars another chance to put the game away. The offense for the Cougars would come up with it’s 2nd big play when Claude Nicol 6-0 223 runningback would plow in from 9 yards out , with 4.28 left the Cougars lead 13-0.The extra point would be blocked. The Arrows would get on the board with 3.49 left in the 3rd when SR quarterback Donnie Stroup would sneak it from a yard out, after the extra point the score board read 13-7 Cougars. The 4th quarter would start great for Beechcroft when Antiono Smith a 5-11-163 defensiveback would pick off a pass thrown by Arrow quarterback Stroup. The offense as has been the case most of the night was not able to take advantage of the turnover as the Arrows defense would shut down the cougars the rest of the game. The Arrows would tie the score on a touchdown when Stroup would again go in from a yard out, but the extra point was blocked leaving everything even with 7.32 reamining in the game. The Arrows showing why they have won 8 in a row heading into this game came up with a sack on 3rd and 11 forcing the Cougars to punt. The Cougar defense would dig in deep but Murray would make a few good plays from his runningback position setting up a game winning fieldgoal attempt by Seth Clark who had already missed one earlier in the game.The Cougars would try to ice the sr kicker calling a timeout, but with 17.3 seconds left in the game the kick would split the uprights giving the Arrows a hard earned victory, and breaking the Hearts of the Cougars and all their fans. The final score would be 16-13. newarkcatholicfan |