Leonardo
By DAVE HANNEMAN
- THE COURIER
GENOA — Ottawa-Glandorf and Genoa played some throw back football Friday night. The final result was a throw back to an earlier time as well.
“Man, that was some old school football,” Genoa’s Mike Vicars said after his Comets edged O-G 7-6 in a Division IV Region 14 quarterfinal at Genoa’s Comet Field.
Ottawa-Glandorf’s Ken Schriner agreed.
“It was two teams smacking each other around, the way high school football is supposed to be,” Schriner said. “Both teams came out and just left everything on the field.”
The final outcome was the same as three years ago, when Genoa topped O-G 40-21 in the regional finals. This win by Genoa sends the unbeaten Comets (11-0) to next weeks regional semifinals against Clear Fork at a site to be determined. Ottawa-Glandorf, which sandwiched two four-game winning streaks around a pair of midseason losses, ends its season at 8-3.
Genoa generated 291 yards total offense. O-G had 248.
The game would be determined, though, by two long drives. And it would be defense, not offense that crowned the winner.
“I doubt anyone here thought it would end up a 7-6 ball game,” Schriner said.
O-G struck first, capping an 80-yard drive in the closing minutes of the first half with a 1-yard TD plunge by 241-pound fullback Craig Rieman. Sophomore running back Tristan Parker, filling for Brandon Kuhlman, a 1,000yard rusher who was lost with a knee injury in the Titans final game of the regular season, started the drive with a 20-yard gain and added a 15-yard burst later on.
With starting quarterback Nathan Kahle also on the sidelines after being shaken up on a second-quarter sack, sophomore Caleb Siefker kept O-G’s drive alive with a key 16-yard pass to Matt Peck.
A pass interference call on Genoa moved the ball to the 6 and, with Kahle back at the controls, O-G punched it in with 1:29 left in the half.
On a frigid, frosty evening however, Kahle could not get a good handle on the snap for the PAT and Jason Fischer never got a chance to get off a kick.
After playing ping-pong between the 20s, Genoa opened the third quarter with its best drive of the night. Kyle Nutter,a 170-pound sophomore who carried the ball on Genoa’s first 10 plays from scrimmage, carried nine times for 61 yards on the scoring drive, blasting into the end zone from the one four minutes into the third quarter.
“He’s one of those 15-, 16-year old kids we count on a lot,” said Vicars, who chalked up his 100th win in the past 10 seasons. “He told me at the half there was no way we were going to lose this game. We’d find a way.”
Genoa drove from its four to O-G’s 13 but ran out of downs early in the fourth quarter, The Comets also were pinned at their 3 and got out of trouble as well before O-G’s defense, spearheaded by linebacker Jeff Siefker, made yet another stop.
O-G had a solid drive going midway through the fourth quarter, but sacks by Matt Murphy and Ricky Bierbaum snuffed that threat.
The Titans were marching again late in the game, with Kahle firing three straight passes to Peck, one on fourth-and-5, for a key first down. Peck, who finished with nine catches for 75 yards, hauled in two more receptions to get the ball to the 30, but three straight incompletions and another sack ended the drive.
Genoa needed one first down to run out the clock and Nutter took care of that, gaining 8 yards on his 34th carry of the night. He finished with 181 yards rushing
“We had guys dinged up in the middle of the game, but our kids rose (to the occasion),” Schriner said. “I told them no one could question that they gave everything thy had, and that’s the way it should be.”