Blade prep football playoff coverage: 11/11
TD with 9 seconds to play helps Whitmer advance; Central Catholic, Eastwood, Liberty-Benton roll to regional finals
11/11/2017
Whitmer's Jasean Rader celebrates a touchdown during Friday's regional semifinal against Olentangy in Tiffin. Rader caught game-winning touchdown pass from Riley Keller with 9 seconds left to help the Panthers advance, 32-29.
The Blade/Kurt Steiss
Buy This Image
Whitmer's Jasean Rader celebrates a touchdown during Friday's regional semifinal against Olentangy in Tiffin. Rader caught game-winning touchdown pass from Riley Keller with 9 seconds left to help the Panthers advance, 32-29.
Whitmer rallies for 32-29 win over Olentangy
TIFFIN – In what will go down as one of the most dramatic wins in the storied tradition of Whitmer football, the No. 2 ranked Panthers rallied with two touchdowns over the final three minutes of a Division I regional semifinal to stun Lewis Center Olentangy on Friday night.
Whitmer authored a remarkable fourth-quarter rally to knock off the Braves 32-29 at Frost-Kalnow Stadium.
The Panthers (12-0) trailed by five points with 52 seconds left, but drove into scoring position engineered with remarkable poise by sophomore QB Riley Keller. With just nine seconds remaining, Keller connected once again with senior Jasean Rader on a clinching 10-yard TD pass as the Panthers earned a stunning victory in freezing cold conditions. FULL STORY/PHOTO GALLERY ■ VIDEO
Central Catholic in regional finals for sixth straight season
OREGON — Central Catholic ran wild on Clyde in Friday night’s Division III second-round football playoff contest, and solved the Fliers’ passing attack after halftime in rolling to a 45-27 victory at Clay’s Memorial Stadium.
Dallas Fields rushed 29 times for 165 yards and four touchdowns, and Devon Rivers ran 13 times for 192 yards and two TDs before leaving late in the first half with an injury, as the Irish racked up 492 yards on the ground. FULL STORY/PHOTO GALLERY ■ VIDEO
Eastwood 12-0 for first time in school history
MILLBURY — In a rematch of Northern Buckeye Conference opponents, the result was much of the same.
Eastwood followed a regular-season shutout of Otsego with a 41-14 pummeling Friday night in a Division V regional semifinal playoff game at Lake High School.
Jaden Rayford paced a dominant rushing attack for the top-ranked Eagles, who improved to 12-0 for the first time in school history. The sophomore running back ran for 227 yards and three touchdowns, carrying and bruising defenders all night. FULL STORY ■ VIDEO
Archbold falls in final seconds
FINDLAY — Archbold had it won until it didn’t.
Leading by three with less than a minute to go and after a sack put Marion Pleasant at its 1, the Blue Streaks had their foe seemingly beat.
However, on the next play Pleasant quarterback Ethan Warner hit Lane Russell for a 92-yard pass down the Streaks’ sideline, and he was run down at the Archbold 7.
With 15 seconds left, Warner completed a broken play to Tristan Conklin in the end zone and a whiplash of a 28-24 victory in a Division V regional semifinal game at Findlay’s Donnell Stadium on Friday night. FULL STORY
Liberty-Benton takes advantage of turnovers, hammers Hicksville
DEFIANCE — An opportunistic Liberty-Benton team forced four Hicksville first-half turnovers and jumped to a 45-7 lead at halftime en route to an easy 60-7 victory in Division VI, Region 22 semifinal action at Fred J. Brown Stadium.
The Eagles (11-1), winners of nine in a row, will play Jeromesville Hillsdale (9-3), a 41-0 victor over Carey, in the regional championship game on Friday at a site to be announced Sunday. FULL STORY
Blissfield bows out of Michigan playoffs
In a Division 6 regional final at Warren, the Royals saw their offense sputter against a Warren Collegiate team that was making its first regional final appearance in six years.
Blissfield trailed 16-6 at halftime, and couldn’t get anything going against the Cougars.
“I’ll be honest, we really hadn’t seen a team like that all year,” Blissfield coach Ryan Love said. “They had a running quarterback, and he liked to run the fly sweep a lot and run on counters.
“The only team this year that really went to a shotgun look was [Brooklyn] Columbia Central, but that offense was nothing like the one we saw tonight.” FULL STORY