Early in the third quarter, it looked like Mount Gilead was well on their way to a win at Upper Sandusky on Friday.

Carson Trainer opened the second half by taking Upper’s kickoff and sprinting 92 yards for a touchdown that gave the Indians an 18-7 lead after a two-point run attempt failed. Unfortunately for the locals, their opponents would suddenly seize the momentum, driving for a quick touchdown and then shutting out Mount Gilead the rest of the way in what turned into a 27-18 win by the Rams.

“We came in with a good game plan, the kids executed it and we were really battling hard,” said head coach Mike Reid. “I can’t say enough positive about our effort tonight, but there are a lot of things we need to work on. We made some good adjustments at halftime and we returned that kickoff in the second half for a touchdown and took a good lead there and we just let that slip away. The adjustments we made were good. We drove the ball and we shot ourselves in the foot. We probably had over 100 yards of penalties tonight. We’ve got to eliminate those because that was the difference in the game tonight. Silly penalties.”

After Trainer’s kick return gave the Indians an 11-point lead, it only took five plays for Upper Sandusky to close the gap to an 18-14 score. A 32-yard run by Ethan Lewis placed them in Mount Gilead territory and a 36-yard pass from Justin Heilman to Kaleb Francis netted a touchdown.

The Indians looked like they would immediately respond, as a 47-yard run by Cam Vickers moved the ball from their 23 to the Ram 30. However, a pair of penalties sabotaged that drive and they would turn the ball over on downs at the 29.

Upper would make Mount Gilead pay, going 71 yards in seven plays while taking advantage of a 15-yard face mask call against the Indians and finishing that drive with another Heilman-to-Francis touchdown — this time on an eight-yard pass. That touchdown gave the Rams a 21-18 lead.

Mount Gilead would cross midfield on their next possession, but the team was forced to punt. Upper would then get another long drive, this time going 95 yards in nine plays thanks to a 53-yard pass from Heilman to Brodie Cox. The Upper Sandusky quarterback would later connect with Francis once again for an 18-yard scoring pass that provided the final points of the game.

The Indians had a couple more drives, but would not be able to turn them into points, as they fell to 1-1 on the season. Reid noted that his team did some good things on offense, especially in the passing game in the first half.

“Upper Sandusky is a little bit different,” he said in comparison to Week One opponent Triad, whom the Indians ran for 305 yards against. “We have to continue to develop our passing game and I was pretty happy with it early on. If we can stretch the field a little bit on them, that helps the run game a little bit. When they got up a couple scores, that put us in a position we don’t want to be in with only a few minutes left. We just have to develop all facets of the game. Upper Sandusky is a little stronger up front and we just couldn’t take advantage of everything they were giving us.”

The Indians were able to play strong offense in the first half to hold a 12-7 lead at the intermission.

After forcing a quick Ram punt, Mount Gilead took over on their 29 and got a pair of big plays by Trainer to snare an early lead. The Indian senior ran the ball 24 yards to put it in Upper Sandusky territory and also collected a pass from Cole Fricke that resulted in a 29-yard scoring pass that gave his team a 6-0 lead after the extra point attempt was missed.

After the two teams traded punts, Upper Sandusky would finish the first quarter with a scoring pass from Heilman to Francis to take a 7-6 lead. However, Mount Gilead opened the second quarter with a huge drive.

Starting from their own 15 after being flagged for holding on the kick return, the Indians would hold the ball for nearly eight minutes in driving the field. A bad snap on what would have been a punt after the team went three-and-out wound up galvanizing the team after Vickers grabbed the ball and ran 18 yards for a first down. From there, the team was able to move the chains on the ground and also got a pair of passes from Fricke to Wyatt Long, including a 16-yard one that resulted in six points and gave the team a 12-7 lead that they were able to carry into the half.

After Trainer’s big kick return, things looked good for the Indians, but Upper was able to rally down the stretch to steal the win. After the game, Reid noted his team will continue to work to get better.

“We want to continue to get better,” he said. “It’s a work in progress. We have to believe in the process and the best thing about it is tomorrow morning, we come in and we look at film. We look at those mistakes we made in the second half and we get better. We correct those and see if that shows up on film next week that we played a cleaner game and hopefully we come out with a win next week against Grove City (Christian).”

Fricke finished with a 7-of-13 game for 147 yards, two touchdowns and a late interception. Both Trainer (44 yards) and Long (45) picked up two receptions and one touchdown. On the ground, Vickers led the team with 129 yards, while Trainer added 33.

Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS