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2009-11-21

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Saturday, September 05, 2009 1:00 AM

Photo by Elliot J. Sutherland/The Ottawa Herald

Anderson County High School junior Alen Troyer runs the ball Friday evening during a football game between Anderson County and Osawatomie at Osawatomie. The Bulldogs lost, 38-34.

Trojans stop Bulldogs

Tough battle down south

By MIKE WEBBER, Special to The Herald

OSAWATOMIE — The finish of the Anderson County Bulldogs at Osawatomie Trojans game was right out of a Disney movie. The Trojans were trailing by four points, and they were faced with having the ball at their own 1-yard line and just 1:59 left in the game.

The Trojans drove the ball 99 yards in four plays, completing a 38-34 come-from-behind victory.

The opening game of the year was not crisply played by either team. The two teams combined for 10 turnovers, including five by Anderson County in the first half.

The scoring started quickly when Osawatomie’s Brandon Oakes took the opening kickoff back 86 yards for a touchdown. Daine Needham caught the extra point conversion pass from Seth Jones, and just 14 seconds into the game the Trojans had a 8-0 lead.

The Bulldogs took just five plays to tie the score when Joseph Wittman scored his first touchdown of the game with an 11-yard run behind the left side of the line. That play capped a 78-yard drive, which took just 1:04.

The next five drives all ended with turnovers. The Bulldogs fumbled the ball away three times, and the Trojans threw a pair of interceptions. One of the Bulldog fumbles occurred just one yard from the Osawatomie end zone.

The last Bulldog fumble of that sequence gave the Trojans the ball at the Anderson County 30-yard line. The great starting position coupled with a questionable pass interference call led to a 14-yard touchdown reception by Hunter Taylor from Jones at 9:25 in the second quarter. The conversion failed, but the Trojans led 14-8.

“The turnovers really hurt us. We set up their score with the short field, and we ruined a scoring chance of our own with that fumble on the goal line,” Anderson County coach Don Hilliard said.

After falling behind, the Bulldogs controlled the game until late in the third quarter.

Wittman ripped off a 57-yard run for a touchdown and less than a minute after falling behind, Anderson County regained the lead, 16-14.

The score stayed there until the third quarter, with the Bulldogs missing another great opportunity just before halftime when Jones threw three straight incompletions from the Trojan 14-yard line, then getting picked off in the end zone on fourth down with two seconds left in the half.

Wittman’s third score of the game came on the first drive of the third quarter on a 4-yard run through the middle of the Trojan line. That extended the lead to 22-14.

Anderson County’s Eric Pretzer stopped the next Trojan drive by scooping up a fumble near midfield. Seven plays later Wittman scored the fourth touchdown of the game on a 13-yard run behind the left guard, and the Bulldogs led 28-14.

The Bulldogs defense had looked very strong up to that point, allowing only four running plays longer than five yards. Suddenly, the Trojans started to find seams in the defense.

“Early in the third quarter we looked like the fresher team,” Hilliard said. “They then came up with a couple of big plays and seemed re-energized. I hope our conditioning wasn’t the reason for that.”

The Trojans’ tailback, Joseph Greenwood, then began to get rolling. He narrowed the Bulldog lead to 28-22 with a 39-yard touchdown run with 1:44 left in the third quarter.

Greenwood put his team into the lead with a 4-yard run with 8:27 left in the fourth quarter, bringing the score to 30-28. Greenwood had just 34 yards rushing on 14 carries in the first half. In the second half, he carried the ball 14 times for 173 yards.

Wittman scored his fifth touchdown of the game with 5:31 left to play, and the see-saw tilted in the Bulldogs favor, 34-30. Wittman ended the night with 135 yards rushing in 17 attempts.

The final score of the game came on a 38-yard reception by Oakes, who had scored on the first play of the game three hours earlier. The touchdown was thrown over the top of the defense, and the speedy Oakes out ran the defenders to give his team a 38-34 lead with 53 seconds left.

The Bulldogs desperation heave at the end of the game was picked off by Dylon Needham to seal the Trojan win.

“Up front in the fourth quarter we made too many mistakes,” Hilliard said. “We just couldn’t make plays at several key points of the game.”

The Bulldogs (0-1) will play Friday at home against Santa Fe Trail.