St. Marys still hasn’t defeated Bradford High in football since
the days of $1.29 gasoline as the Owls registered a wild 28-21
District 9 League victory at Parkway Field on Friday.
The Dutchmen were seeking their first win in the series since
1995 and did have a 7-0 lead following a grind-it-out first half,
but the final 24 minutes then kicked into a high-octane finish as
the teams traded long touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.
“The first half wasn’t much to watch,” said Steve Ackerman, BHS
head coach. “I didn’t expect the second half to be up and down the
field like that.”
Bradford only had the ball twice in the first half as the Dutch
owned a 16:44 to 7:16 advantage in the time of possession
department. St. Marys began the contest with an 18-play drive that
chewed up 10:10, but the sojourn stalled at the Owls’ 22.
“Unfortunately we didn’t capitalize on that first drive,” said
Joe Schlimm, St. Marys head coach. “We were up 7-0 at the half, but
I thought we should’ve had another one in there.”
The Owls moved the chains on their first possession with a
12-yard pass from Ben Walter to Ben Lanich and then were forced to
punt.
St. Marys took over at its own 36 and used a 19-yard pass from
Lucas Wendel to Brad Steinbach and a 24-yard scamper around left
end by Wendel for a first down at the Bradford 19.
Three plays later from the 13, Adam Cornelio broke a tackle at
the 10 and high-stepped it across the end line. Josh Renwick booted
the extra point as the visitors went up by seven with 4:40 showing
in the half.
Nick Johnson then carried the ensuing kickoff from the 17 out to
the 41. The Owls earned three first downs on a 1-yard plunge by
Garrett McEwen, a 3-yard run by Johnson and a 5-yard jaunt by the
5-8, 165-pound sophomore.
The drive bogged down and a 5-yard penalty on fourth down forced
Steve Butler to attempt a much longer 43-yard field goal, which
sailed wide to the left.
“We took a stupid penalty,” Ackerman confessed. “We’ve talked
about this for how many weeks in a row?”
St. Marys then ran out the remaining 47 seconds of the half.
“We only had the ball for 16 plays in the first half,” Ackerman
noted. “They (Dutchmen) did a great job of keeping our offense off
the field. We got pushed around in the first half.”
Following the Homecoming ceremony at the intermission, the Owls
charged out of the locker room with more of a swagger and drove 74
yards with McEwen diving over from the two for the score. Butler’s
PAT was tipped at the line and snuck over the crossbar for the
equalizer with 4:27 remaining in the third. The key moment of the
13-play drive was a 23-yard aerial from Walter to Nick Foster, who
snaked around his defender to make the grab.
Butler then saved six points on the following kickoff when
Steinbach raced from his own 14 to the Bradford 39, but the Owls’
junior placekicker hurled himself at Steinbach to avert the TD.
After relinquishing a pair of first downs, the Owls defense
stiffened and Renwick came on to try a 32-yard field goal. McEwen
blasted through the line and blocked the kick. Then amidst some
confusion, McEwen seemed to be the only one in on the secret as he
picked up the pigskin and raced 75 yards to paydirt. Butler smoked
the extra point halfway to Gates Hollow and it was 14-7 Bradford
with 1:06 left in the third period.
“It was 7-7 and they (Dutchmen) were inside our 20,” Ackerman
recollected. “Garrett (McEwen) blocked it, picked it up and took
off with it. Everybody else, including one of our guys, was
standing around looking at the football. We were jumping up and
down because we blocked the kick.”
The Dutch then utilized an 18-yarder and a 19-yarder from Wendel
to Scott Schatz for a first-and-10 at the Owls’ 16. Two plays later
Tamburlin motored in from 11 yards away and Renwick tacked on the
PAT to knot it again at 14-all with 8:52 left in the game.
It took the Owls just 75 seconds to forge back in front when a
12-yard fake punt run by Taylor O’Brien set up Walter’s 54-yard
scoring strike to Foster. Although Walter was leveled just after
the throw, the sophomore QB hit his receiver in stride at the 25
and Foster did the rest. Butler’s kick was good and it was 21-14
with 7:37 left.
After the combatants traded punts, Wendel went back to pass from
his own 26, located a wide-open Steinbach at the Bradford 41 and
the senior split end outran a regiment of Owls to the end zone.
Renwick’s kick was true and there was parity once again on the
scoreboard at 21-21.
“It (touchdown) was a big play,” Schlimm declared. “That’s
something we hadn’t been able to do in the past. We were down and
we came back, and we hadn’t shown we could do that so far this
year.”
Anyone looking for another double overtime game was disappointed
on the very next Bradford snap.
From his own 31 Walter hit E.J. Moore at midfield, and despite
carrying the football on his hip for the next five yards, Moore got
a firm grasp of the situation and completed the 69-yard touchdown
play. Butler nailed the extra point for a 28-21 margin with 2:30
remaining.
“Ben threw the ball well,” Ackerman said of Walter, who was
6-of-10 for 183 yards and two TDs. “We got three big plays tonight
from Nick Foster, E.J. Moore and the block by Garrett McEwen. There
were some things we saw upstairs (in the coaches’ booth) that we
knew we could take advantage of.”
With a sense of urgency, the Dutch moved out to their 46 where
Foster intercepted a screen pass on a fourth-and-5 with 1:17
remaining.
The Owls burned all but six seconds of the game clock and left
Wendel to heave a desperation pass from 62 yards away, but the ball
was knocked harmlessly to the ground by Walter as the horn
sounded.
“In the second half they (Owls) made some big plays and we had
some breakdowns,” Schlimm admitted. “You just can’t give up the
easy scores like we did tonight.”
The Owls (2-3, 1-1) travel to Brookville and St. Marys (2-3,
1-1) visits DuBois on Friday.
