Riverheads 29 Stuarts Draft 28 Final

[gladiatorgrad10]

NM

 

[longtimerhsfan]

Well folks I will try to do this one justice but trust me it won't be easy. I have been attending Riverheads games for (never you mind how many) years and I would be hard pressed to remember one wilder than this one. In case you haven't already heard, the Gladiators scored with 8 seconds left in the game and decided to go for two. As you can tell from the score, they succeeded and will now travel to Strasburg next Friday for the regional semi-finals. The winner of that one will get to host the regional championship the following week because they are the two and three seeds whereas the other two semi-finalists are seeded fourth and eighth.

Needless to say I will have plenty of praise for the Gladiators for pulling out such a gutsy win, so I will definitely get around to that. But to be completely fair, Stuarts Draft deserves major praise as well. For the second time this season, they faced Riverheads and committed no turnovers and no penalties. Well they did have a holding call but Riverheads committed a face mask on the play so the penalties offset.

Also it bears mentioning that Landon Graber played an incredible game for the Cougars and how he failed to earn first-team all-district quarterback I have no idea. He was at the top of his game tonight and Riverheads, despite the win, had a hellacious time trying to stop him. Little Brother Baylor also played a nice game, but if I had to single out a difference between this game and SD's early runaway victory, it was that SD lacked the explosiveness of the first match-up. Now maybe RHS had something to do with that on defense, but it looked like the Cougars were happy tonight with the running game and I only remember one pass play of more than 20 yards.

Earlier in the week, I had expressed the hope that the officials would not factor too much into this game and that it would be decided on the field. Well that did not exactly work out too well because there was plenty of howling from both fan bases, especially in the final few minutes. I will get to that later.

The game had plenty of plot twists and momentum swings and the lead changed hands about four times. Neither team ever led by more than a touchdown.

RHS took the opening kickoff and needed just over three minutes to score. Quarterback Levi Dunlap (who had the game of his career as well tonight) ran a routine QB sneak from around midfield and all of a sudden he broke out of the pack and lumbered toward the goal line. He was stopped at the two, but a pair of sneaks later the Gladiators were on the scoreboard. Zac Brooks added the PAT and to keep from mentioning those again, he and Graber were each perfect on the night.

Following that score, the Big Red stuffed the Draft on a three and out and thanks to a sky-high punt, found themselves back in business near midfield. They drove down to about the Cougar 30 and fans were starting to sense a quick 14-0 lead coming. But the Cougars forced a fumble on their own sideline for the only turnover of the game by either team.

The Cougars then drove effortlessly down the field for a tying touchdown. At that point, it appeared that Big Mo might be on the visitor's side of the field.

To their credit the Big Red did not let that TD faze them as they calmly drove 80 yards to retake the lead. Jackson Fitzgerald swept right end from 12 yards out to make it 14-7, midway through the second quarter. The Cougars answered that score also to tie things at 14-14 at the break.

To that point, the officiating had been decent but the half ended on a bit of controversy. The Gladiators were making a sincere effort to score once more and found themselves around the Cougar 45 with nine seconds left. They had one timeout and time for two plays.

Dunlap took off around right end and was knocked hard out of bounds around the 35. Gladiator fans howled for a late hit but it was on the Cougar sideline and therefore hard to judge from the home side. To make matters worse, the clock was showing all zeroes even though it seemed hard to believe the play had taken the whole nine seconds.

There was a conference along the Riverheads bench that was either about the lack of a flag or the time. Whatever the case, the Gladiator brain trust did not give up without a fight and as they finally headed for the locker room, it honestly looked like the stripes were staring them down waiting for them to say one more thing and get flagged themselves.

(I am going to hit the send button here, because I don't trust this computer after what happened a few weeks ago. )

To be continued.....

 

[longtimerhsfan]

The second half opened with a long, time-consuming drive by each team. The Cougars received the second half kickoff, and since they didn't seem interested tonight in going for the jugular, they ate about eight minutes off the clock before scoring. That gave them their first lead at 21-14 and once again it looked like they might be ready to seize control of the game.

But once again, the Gladiators didn't panic and drove down the field for the equalizer. We were into the fourth quarter before they scored and I think it was Brady Boehm this time. Along the path to that touchdown, Riverheads was hit with another penalty, this time for an illegal lineman downfield. Dunlap had just hit Boehm for about a 30 yard catch into Cougar territory but it was disallowed. That led to another Gladiator protest and this time I think the conference was about which down it was going to be as much as the penalty.

I believe that third Gladiator TD was scored by Jonathan Talbott but don't quote me on that. He and the previously-mentioned Boehm and Fitzgerald were the main cogs in the Gladiator rushing game along with what seemed like a dozen sneaks by Dunlap.

That score came around the five minute mark to make it 21-21 and gave the Cougars plenty of time to re-take the lead. They did exactly that, converting several third and fourth downs along the way and I believe the clock read 2:21 when they scored.

Once again (third time now) it looked as if the game was going to go the way of the visiting Cougars, especially since Riverheads is not exactly known for its two-minute offense. But they kept their cool and drove 69 yards for the game winner.

Unfortunately the officials were not pleasing anybody for those last two minutes as each side had major issues to complain about. First of all, there were two occasions when the play was over and the ball had been set, only to have an official brazenly pick it up and move it back. The first time was maybe a one-yard difference but the second one was an eye-popping 2 to 2 1/2 yard setback and the Gladiator faithful let them have it.

However the Cougar fans had a complaint of their own to air when there were two separate occasions in which the clock read one number, only to have them motion up to the press box to add more time. Considering how the game ended, SD fans would probably claim those adjustments gave Riverheads the time it needed to win the game.

Despite all the chaos, the Big Red kept driving and it momentarily appeared that they had scored on a third down play with around 20 seconds left. But they were ruled short, which led to a wild scramble to make sure everyone was set for a make or break fourth down play.

I have no idea who scored but it came with 8 seconds left from inside the one. Our exuberant PA announcer, who bless his soul does get caught up in the moment sometimes, was yelling into the mic "go for two!" and sure enough it soon became obvious that they were going to do exactly that.

Due to Riverheads style of play and the fact that Dunlap had been sneaking all game long, the Cougars were no doubt expecting a running play but on the best coaching move of the night, the Gladiators caught them off guard. Dunlap rolled to his right and had his choice of two receivers in the right corner of the end zone. I believe it was Trevor Lima, who had caught a touchdown pass in the game at Stuarts Draft, who hauled it in for the game winner.

The game then ended with the Cougars doing the only thing they could do......running the lateral drill and hoping for a miracle. But the last guy was nailed around midfield and the celebration began.

So hats off to both teams........to the Cougars for showing once again what a well-oiled machine they are.........but more importantly to the Big Red for fighting back from the humbling loss at the Draft and for not panicking tonight on the three occasions where it looked like SD was in a position to take charge of the game.

If you do the math, this was a 29-point turnaround from the first game, since the Draft won that one 42-14. But from what we have heard, the region's eighth-seed, Madison County, did even better, as they lost to number one Clarke County by 14 at home just last Friday, but traveled to Clarke tonight and shut out the Eagles 21-0 in front of what I am sure must have been some pretty shocked home fans.

Moral of both stories........don't ever give up when you are playing a team for the second time and keep fighting till the final whistle, which ironically was exactly the message tonight on the RHS cheerleaders' banner before the team ripped through it.

Congrats to the Big Red and let's see what you can do next week up at Strasburg, where the Rams destroyed Fort Defiance tonight 44-6.