Wild play foils Streaks' upset bid

SANDUSKY — Neither coach had ever seen it before. With about five minutes left, Tiffin Columbian lined up to punt on fourth-and-15, and the kick flew almost straight up in the air. A punt recovered behind the line of scrimmage can be advanced. TC's 6-foot-1, 257-pound personal protector Bradley Willman didn't know that. But the ensuing bounces looked like it might've been muffed, and it came to Willman, and he ran. "I didn't see the ball, but then I saw it fall, and it rolled right to me," the junior Willman said. "I picked it up, and nobody blew the whistle, so I just started running." Twenty yards later, the Tornadoes' had the most bizarre turn of momentum imaginable. And about 40 more yards later, Damien Brockington was in the end zone with the winning touchdown. "We drew it up just like that," Columbian coach Judd Lutz joked. That ending helped Division III No. 9 Columbian (5-1, 1-0 SBC Lake) escape Strobel Field with a 42-35 win over Sandusky (3-3, 0-1). The Tornadoes had looked in trouble down two touchdowns early in the third quarter but had found a way to somehow rally and spoil what would've been a marquee win for the Blue Streaks. "There are a ton of good takeaways from today," Sandusky coach Lucas Poggiali said. "The hard part is the immediate reaction of your players. If it didn't matter and didn't sting like this, that would mean they didn't care. Our kids care like crazy. They're so resilient." Sandusky nearly rallied for a touchdown in the final seconds, after which they would've gone for two and the win, Poggiali said. But a third-down pass short of the sticks with no timeouts and the clock running was followed by a spike that resulted in a turnover on downs with five seconds left. "I'm on the numbers, and I'm shouting," Poggiali said. "Gosh, gosh, gosh, that one was tough." The Blue Streaks had started the game on fire, getting a quick defensive stop and then using a fake punt run to keep their drive going. An intentional grounding pushed it back to third-and-30, but then Amir Aaron took a screen pass from Jason Henlon 69 yards to paydirt to open the scoring. "Showed something last week on third-and-long, kind of went off of it on the screen, it worked out perfectly," Poggiali said. An Aa'Zoriyon Bonner interception in the end zone temporarily stifled Columbian's offense, but the Tornadoes eventually answered back when Brockington's 49-yard run propelled a drive toward his first of four rushing scores, this one from two yards out. "Just gotta see the gaps, run hard and run through somebody," Brockington said. Sandusky pushed its way to leading 13-6 at halftime when Jamarion Alexander turned a motion right and pass into the flat into a 53-yard TD. "As games go on, he gets stronger," Poggiali said. "As the season goes on, he get stronger." The Blue Streaks received the second-half kickoff, marched right down the field and scored on a 10-yard run from Jason Henlon to go up 20-6. "It was one of (Henlon's) best games when you put on the tape," Lutz said. Columbian faced fourth-and-short on the ensuing drive, and Brockington converted. On the next play, Akron-commit Brayden Roggow hit Brady Gooding over the top for a 52-yard TD. A quick A.J. Hickman interception set up Brockington for a 4-yard score, and Roggow hit Jack Koerper for 2 to go up 21-20 with 4:42 left in the third. Then it was a Brady Gooding interception creating another chance for Brockington, and he cashed in from 6 yards out for 28-20. "Us putting ourselves into bad situations with turnovers absolutely killed us," Poggiali said. Sandusky answered when Alexander sprinted 37 yards for a rushing touchdown, then Henlon found Aaron for a 2-pointer to tie it 28-28 on the penultimate play of the third quarter. "That's a great football team," Lutz said. "They've got great players." Roggow gave Columbian the lead back with a dime off his back foot that hit Koerper in stride en route to a 63-yard touchdown. "He's a D-I quarterback for a reason," Lutz said. The next play from scrimmage went 63 yards, as well — Alexander raced down the left sideline to score with a Will Thomas PAT tying the game 35-35 with 8:26 left. "From what they've been through this year, from what they went through in this game, to even give us a chance to win this game is all resiliency from them," Poggiali said. The Tornadoes leaned on Brockington on the ensuing drive, which had the added benefit of burning some clock in the tie game. But they got behind the sticks and threw incomplete on a screen on third-and-15. Columbian kept Roggow, the backup punter, in the game, potentially signaling a trick play. It wasn't. But what looked to be a major problem for the Tornadoes, a punt that went absolutely nowhere, turned into the biggest play of the night. "We were telling our guys to get away, it's what we practice every day," Poggiali said. "... I was so confused about what was going on. Never seen that once in my life. You don't practice that." Willman, who has been a lineman his whole life, had never had a ball-carrying moment like this. "That was exhausting," Willman said. "... It just changed the game, changed it completely." Brockington watched from the sideline and hopped back onto the field with renewed energy. Soon enough he was in the end zone from a yard out, his fourth rushing score. "I saw the bad punt and was like, 'Bro, please don't," Brockington said. "Then I saw we got the ball and was like, 'Go, go go.' I was so excited." The senior and likely scholarship-level football player ran 29 times for 177 yards. "He's the truth," Lutz said. Sandusky put one final, efficient drive together. Adrik Purdy caught a first down, then Alexander ran for a pair. An illegal shift left Sandusky with 14 yards to gain, and on third down, Henlon hit Bonner for about 10 yards. With the clock ticking inside 10 seconds and no timeouts left, all Sandusky's coaches could do was try to wave wildly from the sideline to prevent what on any other down would've been a logical spike. "I know what he was thinking," Poggiali said. "It's inbounds and the clock is running." It was a heartbreaking way to lose for Sandusky, which was on a three-game win streak. The Blue Streaks felt much like this in Weeks 1 and 2 after tough losses to Oregon Clay and Fremont Ross. They showed then, though, that they could rebound and win football games. The hope is that they can do so again. "You have to make sure that our kids know they are battle-tested," Poggiali said. "They have to continue to believe that we are a good football team, because we are a good football team." On the other end of the turf Friday night, the postgame mood was very different. Columbian hadn't played its best and knew it, but for the Tornadoes to compete with Perkins to win the SBC Lake Division, they couldn't slip up in their league opener. They're just grateful that in a game played with a ball shaped as a prolate spheroid, the biggest, most extraordinary bounce of the night went their way. "Momentum is a beautiful thing when you've got it," Lutz said, "and it's a terrible thing when you don't." Sandusky 7 6 15 7 — 35 Columbian 0 6 22 14 — 42 S — Amir Aaron 69 pass from Jason Henlon (Will Thomas kick) C — Damien Brockington 2 run (kick failed, bad snap) S — Jamarion Alexander 53 pass from Henlon (kick failed) S — Henlon 10 run (Thomas kick) C — Brady Gooding 52 pass from Brayden Roggow (Liam Kerr kick) C — Brockington 4 run (Jack Koerper from Roggow) C — Brockington 6 run (Kerr kick) S — Alexander 37 run (Aaron pass from Henlon) C — Koerper 63 pass from Roggow (Kerr kick) S — Alexander 63 run (Thomas kick) C — Brockington 1 run (Kerr kick)