Leonardo
By JAMIE BAKER
- THE COURIER
CAREY — Mohawk got mad and then, the Warriors got even.
Trailing 9-0 at halftime, Mohawk dominated the second half on its way to a 28-9 win over Carey before a standing room crowd Friday night at C.D. Wentling Field.
The win, Mohawk’s eighth straight, gave it the outright Midland Athletic League title at 7-0 and assured the Warriors a spot in next week’s Division VI, Region 22 quarterfinals. Carey, meanwhile, had its five-game win streak snapped as the Blue Devils finished 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the MAL.
“Considering we were picked to win two games, it feels pretty darn nice,” said Mohawk head coach Erik Baker just moments before getting a Gatorade shower from his team. “(Carey) Coach (Todd) Worst does a great job preparing his kids and we knew in the first half they would be on fire. I thought our kids showed great resiliency and great character bouncing back.”
Everything appeared to be going Carey’s way in the first half. Tyler Cusac broke free for a 78-yard touchdown run with 6:32 left in the second quarter halftime to give the Blue Devils a 6-0 lead.
On Mohawk’s ensuing possession, the Warriors appeared headed to the end zone before Caleb Coil fumbled the ball away to Carey’s Justin Meek at the 2-yard line. Ten running plays, a 30-yard pass from quarterback Derek Sammons to Cusac and a key pass interference penalty helped get Carey into field goal range.
Sammons booted a 29-yard field goal with just 3.5 seconds left in the half to give the Blue Devils a 9-0 lead at the break.
“We got mad. They didn’t want to go out that way,” said Baker of the difference between his ballclub’s effort in the first and second halves. “There’s a lot of emotion between Mohawk and Carey, without any implications. The fact that they were taking it to us, that’s not the way we play. They knew they had 24 minutes to go out their way and they did.”
Mohawk’s Aric Shock took a pitch and rambled 41 yards on the Warriors’ first play from scrimmage in the second half to set the tone. Four plays later, Coil scored the first of his three touchdowns on the night on a 5-yard run just 2:06 into the third quarter.
Carey, which rushed for 177 yards in the first half and just 77 in the second half, went three-and-out on its possession. An interference penalty on the punt, the first of three key miscues by the Blue Devils’ special teams, set the Warriors up at Carey’s 38.
Nine plays later, Coil took the pitch around left end for a 3-yard score giving the Warriors the lead for good at 12-9 with 3:47 remaining in the third quarter,
“I thought we played pretty well in the first half. We did what we needed to and took advantage of a couple of their mistakes,” Worst said. “They came out and hit that first big play there in the second half and the momentum switched in a hurry. We had a few penalties and some bad mistakes on our part. They took advantage. They’re a good team.”
The Blue Devils were forced to punt again after three plays on their next possession. But the snap sailed over punter Ian Batton’s head and into the back of the end zone. Instead of batting the ball out of the end zone for a safety, he flung it forward into the waiting arms of Jonathan Morter for an interception.
Two plays later, Devin Cartwright swept into the end zone from 3 yards out to make it 19-9 at the 2:29 mark of the third quarter.
Another snap over Batton’s head resulted in a fourth-quarter safety. Coil put the game away with a 5-yard touchdown run with just 1:35 left in the contest.
The loss was a tough pill to swallow for the Blue Devils considering they were knocked to the canvas with consecutive losses to Bluffton, Willard and Fremont St. Joseph before recording five straight wins and gaining a chance to play for a share of the MAL title in Week 10.
“I said before the season if we didn’t have any injuries we could have a good year,” Worst said. “We had countless injuries. I was glad to see them come together and put together a nice string of wins. But it all boils down to we didn’t make enough plays here at the end to win.”