Leonardo
By JASON STEIN
- DEFIANCE CRESCENT-NEWS
ARCHBOLD — Wauseon came out with a perfect game-plan when facing the high-powered Archbold offense: Keep Archbold’s offense off the field and for the first half, it worked tremendously as the Indians (4-5, 3-4 NWOAL) had the ball for just over 20 minutes and held the home team to seven points.
However, once Archbold (9-0, 7-0 NWOAL) grabbed the lead midway in the third, the coaching staff made a call to ensure the Streaks would keep the offense on the field a little longer and solidify their seventh NWOAL win, guaranteeing them of no worse than a share of their first league title since 1990 with a 21-7 triumph.
“It’s the greatest feeling,” began Archbold’s Bryan Miller, whose team needs to beat Liberty Center (4-5, 3-4 NWOAL) in week 10 to win the title outright, regardless of what Patrick Henry does. “We’ve clinched a share and that feels great because nobody is ever going to be able to take that away from these guys. I told them that hopefully their parents didn’t teach them to share too well when they were kids because we certainly don’t want to share it. We want to go to Liberty (Center) next week and play a good football game. They’re going to be just like Wauseon, they’re going to be big, strong, run the football and they play great defense, but it’s great for these kids. It’s been 19 years. I’m just real happy for the kids, I’m happy for all the guys that played in the 19 years that didn’t get a chance to do this. I really wanted this for (former head) coach (John) Downey. I know he won eight of them and it had been a long time since he won the last one and I’m glad for him to because he’s got a lot to do with this still.”
Despite the lopsided time of possession, the game was tied at halftime, 7-7.
The first Indians’ possession couldn’t have been scripted any better as they held the ball for the first 9:35. Starting at their own 20-yard line they took it 80 yards on 18 run plays, one pass, five first downs, three third-down conversions, two fourth down conversions, before finally making their way into the endzone with Troy Lind scoring on a 3-yard rush.
Archbold’s offense started out slow but got on the board midway in the second quarter when Morton, on Archbold’s 12th play from scrimmage in three possessions, capped off a drive that lasted a mere 1:43 with a 9-yard scamper.
The Red-and-White came back with another run-dominated drive, starting at their own 32 with 3:46 left in the second quarter and no timeouts. As time ticked away, Wauseon pounded its way down the field, getting down to the home team’s 26-yard line with 15 seconds, but Chandler Tuckerman picked off Landon Schaffner with two ticks left on the clock as the defense kept the game tied.
While Mark Emans and his squad did a tremendous job of keeping the ball out of the hands of Archbold’s offense, they were forced to kick to them in the second half, and in doing so, the atmosphere of the game took a turn.
Starting at their own 37, Morton connected on three straight passes. The first was an 11-yard pass to Noah Keefer and following a sack by Marcus Oldham, threw a two 25-yard passes, one to Tyson Dietrich and the other to Danny Young to set up a first-and-goal at the 5-yard line.
Following two plays which netted -1 yards, Morton threw a jump ball to the right side of the endzone where the 6-3 Dietrich snagged it for a touchdown as he faded out of bounds. Aaron Bontrager blasted the extra point through the uprights and with 8:32 left in the third, Archbold took its first lead of the night.
“We were over on the sideline, we were anxious, we wanted to get out there on offense and then when we did get out there on offense, I missed some throws that I should’ve hit,” began Morton on the effects of waiting for so long on the sidelines as Wauseon ran time off the clock. “We couldn’t move the ball consistently down the field first half, so that first half is on me. We came out in the second half and improved things.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Bontrager bounced one to his left, where a streaking Young ran right in front of the Wauseon sideline untouched, and snared the ball after a long hop, to put the offense right back on the field.
“That was just a heck of a call by there coach,” Emans said of the onside kick. “I thought (Archbold) did a great job of executing that onside kick. We had just told our kids, watch that, they’ve got some momentum, watch the onside kick and we just didn’t execute the way we were supposed to.”
Archbold wasted little time in finding the endzone, starting at the Indians’ 41-yard line and needing four plays to make the onside kick really hurt.
“We actually had talked about doing it earlier in the game and I screwed it up because I gave them the wrong direction, that’s the time we had to call timeout there,” admitted MIller. “Our special teams coordinator, Cam (Cameron Thompson), did a great job of getting guys moved over. We switched a couple guys, put more speed on the side there which paid off because it was a long kick, it took a big bounce, Danny Young did a great job.”
Keefer was thrown for a 5-yard loss and then caught a one-yard pass on the next play. Morton then hooked up with Dietrich for a 23-yard toss and with a 5-yard face-mask penalty tacked on, that gave Archbold a first-and-10 at the 17.
With a pump fake to the right side, Desmond Sleigh came flying across the field from right to left, only a few yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and took a short pass 17 yards to the left side of the endzone for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead with 6:33 left in the third quarter.
Wauseon stuck with its gameplan throughout, but after managing 155 yards rushing and 23 passing yards in the first half, they were limited to two second half possessions, one a 6 1/2 minute drive to end the third and the other a three-and-out in the fourth, adding just 36 more yards on the ground against the Archbold defense.
“The key is, forget,” Keefer said of the defense being on the field for long stretches. “Forget the last play, move on to the next one and play physical. We kind of have a bend but don’t break thing going on and to be honest, we don’t even want to bend. We want to stay physical. In the second half we came out and we did a great job of gang-tackling and being physical.”
Dietrich, who recovered a fumble on defense, led all receivers wit five catches for 83 yards.
“I thought our offensive gameplan was really good, they only ran three plays I think in the first quarter and that old adage, ‘if you can keep their quarterback on the sideline, he can’t score, he can’t beat you’ and I thought our kids did a good job in the first half,” said Emans. “We just about went up 14-7, we about come down with that ball with a couple seconds left in the first half. I’m proud of the kids, proud of the way they hung in there, Archbold just has a lot of speed, they do a lot of nice things.”
Jesse Finney led all rushers with 114 yards on 28 carries for the Indians, who wrap up the season at home against Patrick Henry (8-1, 6-1 NWOAL).