Indians finish season with win over Northmor

By ROB HAMILTON

A second-half surge allowed Mount Gilead to fin­ish their foot­ball cam­paign on a pos­i­tive note, as they topped North­mor 20–12 on a cold, rainy night.

The host Indi­ans scored two touch­downs in the third quar­ter to break a 6–6 tie and then held on for the win to fin­ish 2–8, 2–7 in league play. Northmor’s sea­son ends with a 2–8 record, 1–8 in league play.

After throw­ing an inter­cep­tion on their first drive of the third quar­ter, Mount Gilead got the ball back on the Knight 35 after North­mor failed on a fourth-and-one con­ver­sion attempt.

Four short runs moved the ball to the 24 and Pay­ton Van­derkooi then con­nected with Michael Bland for a 10-yard gain.

Tyler Bashaw would then come up with two big plays. On first down, he rushed for nine yards to get the ball to the Knight five. On the next play, Bland took the ball near the goal line, but fum­bled. How­ever, Bashaw fell on the loose ball in the end zone to give Mount Gilead a 12–6 advantage.

The Indi­ans then forced a three-and-out and recov­ered the ensu­ing punt on their 30. Bland ran for 11 yards and Bashaw then broke a carry for a 48-yard gain. On the next play, Bland scored from 11 yards out to make the score 18–6. Bland then ran the ball in for a two-point con­ver­sion that gave the Indi­ans a 14-point lead.

“We just did a bet­ter job of hold­ing on to the ball (in the sec­ond half),” said Mount Gilead coach Steve Ringer. “Play­ing in these con­di­tions is tough, but we were able to cap­i­tal­ize on turnovers and hit some big plays. At the end of the day, our kids left it on the field.”

Ringer added that his team made some adjust­ments at half­time to take advan­tage of what North­mor was doing on defense.

“We noticed that when run­ning one of our favorite plays, they stopped it pretty well,” he said. “So we made adjust­ments, the line blocked great, the backs hit the hole hard and we cap­i­tal­ized when we needed to.”

In the fourth quar­ter, the Knights tried to fight back, but a pair of turnovers helped the Indi­ans stay in front through­out the period.

A 26-yard pass from Zach Car­roll to Mitchell Whisler moved the ball into Indian ter­ri­tory at the 43 for the Knights, but after a few Tyler Beck runs moved the ball inside the 30, the drive ended with a turnover.

Bashaw picked off a Car­roll pass to give the ball back to the Indians.

North­mor would get the ball back after forc­ing a three-and-out and this time, they scored. A 41-yard run by Car­roll took the ball down to Mount Gilead’s 14. Three car­ries by Beck led to a four-yard scram­ble by Car­roll to make the score 20–12 with 6:13 to play.

Unfor­tu­nately for the Knights, they were unsuc­cess­ful on a two-point con­ver­sion attempt, keep­ing them eight points behind their hosts.

The Indi­ans ate three min­utes off the clock on their next pos­ses­sion before punt­ing and giv­ing the ball to North­mor on their own 19 with 3:19 to play.

The Knights made it near mid­field, but a fum­bled snap gave the ball back to Mount Gilead and allowed the Indi­ans to run the final moments off the clock to pre­serve the win.

Nei­ther team could take an advan­tage in the first half, as both squads scored once. Late in the first quar­ter, Mount Gilead took pos­ses­sion on a North­mor fum­ble and gained 15 yards down to the Knight 33 thanks to a penalty.

From there, they method­i­cally drove into the red zone on the legs of Bland, Bashaw, Van­derkooi and Kolby Fisher before Bashaw scored on a 14-yard run on the first place of the sec­ond period to give his team a 6–0 lead.

North­mor imme­di­ately bounced back, though. Jamie Baldridge returned the kick to the Knight 47 and Beck han­dled the rest of the duties. After runs of 12 and six yards, the Knight senior scored on a 35-yard run to tie things up at six points each.

Nei­ther team threat­ened for the remain­der of the first half, as both teams turned the ball over once in the final min­utes of the sec­ond quarter.

How­ever, a strong third quar­ter would give the Indi­ans a big enough lead to carry them the rest of the way as they fin­ish their sea­son with a win.

Ringer noted that he wanted his squad to make some pos­i­tive mem­o­ries as they fin­ished off their sea­son — or, in the case of his seniors, their careers.

“We talked before the game about how it’s spe­cial for these boys to have an oppor­tu­nity to do that (fin­ish with a win),” he said. “Your last foot­ball game is one you’ll never for­get, so we told them, ‘Let’s go out and make this a mem­ory you will like.”

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Oct 31 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.