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By RICK SPRUNGER
WOODBURN — Things started well and finished badly for Southern Wells Friday night.
The Raiders scored a touchdown on the first play of the game and jumped
out to an early 21-7 lead, only to watch Woodlan come roaring back to
snatch a 34-28 win at Etzler Field in Woodburn.
Southern Wells falls to 2-1 in Allen County Athletic Conference play
and 3-2 overall. Woodlan improves to 1-2 in the conference and 2-3
overall.
“They made adjustments, and we didn’t respond well to those
adjustments,” summed up Southern Wells coach Mark Lefebvre after the
game. “We were pouting on defense because we stopped scoring
touchdowns. When we were scoring touchdowns, Woodlan wasn’t moving the
ball at all. When we stopped scoring, they moved the ball up and down
the field.”
For a while, everything was going Southern Wells’ way.
Jamie Bryant took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage and
raced down the right sideline 74 yards, breaking a tackle at the
30 before sprinting into the end zone.
Woodlan answered that score with one of its own. But Bryant came right
back with another long touchdown run, this one from 39 yards out for a
14-7 Raider lead. Bryant would finish the first quarter with 123 yards
rushing in four carries.
But Woodlan held him to minus-four yards the rest of the night. And
while Southern Wells added another touchdown at the outset of the
second quarter for a 21-7 lead, the momentum of the game was about to
take a drastic turn.
Woodlan recovered a Southern Wells fumble at the Raider 28 midway
through the second period, and from that point on the game pretty much
belonged to the Warriors.
The Woodburn bunch marched it straight on in to narrow the gap to 21-14
at halftime and then took control in the third quarter. And they did it
with defense.
From midway through the second quarter through the end of the third,
Southern Wells ran 12 plays, seven of which went for negative yardage
and two more of which got a yard or less.
After piling up 195 yards rushing in the first quarter and a half, the
Raiders were held to minus-10 in the next quarter and a half.
Woodlan, meanwhile, got a 10-yard scoring run from quarterback Josh Gay
and a 30-yard scoring pass from Gay to Trevor Hammond to take a 28-21
lead after three quarters.
Southern Wells had one big play left, getting an electrifying 59-yard
touchdown pass from Nick Russell to Devin Leas on the first play of the
fourth quarter to tie the score at 28-28.
But that one play did little to change the momentum.
Gay answered that pass with a 59-yard touchdown pass of his own,
hitting Hammond behind the Raider defense on a critical third-and-7
play with 5:38 to go.
And while the Warriors left the door open for Southern Wells by missing
the extra point, the Raiders were unable to get farther than the
Woodlan 39.
“When you win three or four in a row, sometimes you think that things
are going to come easier than they are,” commented Lefebvre. “And maybe
things were too easy in the first quarter. But we have to learn that
we’re not going to score on every series. And when we don’t, we’ve got
to make the stop.”
Southern Wells will return to action next Friday night against Bluffton.
Woodlan 34, Southern Wells 28
At Woodburn
Score By Quarters
Southern Wells 14
7 0 7
– 28
Woodlan 7
7 14 6
– 34
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
SW—Jamie Bryant 74 run (Trevor Bower kick), 11:41.
W-Josh Gay 1 run (Cade Hetrick kick), 7:07.
SW-Bryant 39 run (Bower kick), 3:06.
Second Quarter
SW—Devin Leas 6 run (Bower kick), 9:42.
W-Tyler Schnebelt 3 run (Hetrick kick), 2:08.
Third Quarter
W-Gay 10 run (kick blocked), 8:20.
W-Trevor Hammond 30 pass from Gay (Hammond pass from Gay), 3:58.
Fourth Quarter
SW-Leas 59 pass from Nick Russell (Bower kick), 11:11.
W-Hammond 59 pass from Gay (kick failed), 5:38.
Team Statistics
SW W
First Downs 12 15
Rushes-Yards 39-246 40-218
Yards Passing 82 141
Passing (Comp-Att-Int) 2-4-0 9-13-0
Penalties-Yards 3-20 5-40
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 2-0
Punts-Average 2-30.0 3-31.7
Time of Possession 20:43 27:17
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Southern Wells, Jamie Bryant 7-119, Brandon Killingbeck 9-39,
Devin Leas 8-36, Nick Russell 14-44. Woodlan, Josh Stone 19-66, Josh
Gay 12-73, Aury Keller 6-59, Tyler Schnebelt 3-21.
Passing: Southern Wells, Nick Russell 2-4-0 82. Woodlan, Josh Gay 9-13-0 141.
Receiving: Southern Wells, Devin Leas 2-82. Woodlan, Trevor Hammond
4-113, Luke Bremer 3-15, Josh Gorrell 1-8, Tyler Schnebelt 1-5.
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