By Levi Klingler
Faced with bad weather and a large point deficit to overcome late in the game, Ada fought a stiff battle against the St. Henry Redskins of the Midwest Athletic Conference, but came up just short of victory with a final score of 40-35 last Friday night at Lima Stadium.
CHECK OUT THE GAME PHOTOS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY.
Ada began with the ball on offense on their own 19 yard line. After a short run by senior running back Kellen Decker, senior quarterback Mason Acheson threw his first of five picks on the night into the hands of Alex Post (who went on to intercept four of the five throughout the rest of the night).
St. Henry took over with excellent field position. Starting on Ada's 16 yard line, the Redskins scored on their second play, taking a 7-0 lead with less than two minutes of play having expired.
The Bulldogs resumed with the ball on their 32 yard line following the kick. Six plays into the drive, the Bulldogs found themselves within St. Henry's red zone, and appeared to be on the verge of scoring when on third and long Acheson threw his second pick of the night to Post.
The Redskins took over on their own 20 yard line. They put together a time consuming, 11-play drive, ending eventually on an incomplete pass on 4th and 6 inside of Bulldog territory and giving Ada the ball on their own 30.
With 3:40 to go in the first, the gears of the Bulldog aerial attack offense began to turn at a familiar pace. Striking quickly and with a vengeance, Acheson connected with junior wide out Matt Wilcox on play three for a 68-yard touchdown. Wilcox flashily juked out three defenders on his dash to the end zone, turning the tables of momentum in Ada's favor. Junior Hunter Waller's kick for the point after was good, tying it up 7-7 with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter.
The next two possessions ended with each team being forced to punt. It was on the following possession that St. Henry managed to score again, this time on the 8th play of their drive on a post to a receiver that beat Ada's secondary deep. With 7:23 to go in the half, the Redskins took a 14-7 lead.
The Bulldogs answered with a scoring drive of their own, lasting 11 plays and ending on an 18-yard pass from Acheson to senior wide out Jacob Ansley for the score. Waller's kick would be good, tying it up again at 14-14, 4:42 left to play in the second quarter.
St. Henry returned the favor, scoring on the following drive in 9 plays with another deep pass. Their PAT fell short after a vigorous Bulldog defense penetrated the front line of St. Henry's extra point unit, which seemed to panic the kicker in the process. This made it 20-14, St. Henry, with 49 seconds remaining. Time would expire in the first half with neither team managing to orchestrate another score in the last minute of play.
The Redskins started the second half with the ball, and found themselves up against a hungry Bulldog defense that forced them to punt on 4th and 8.
Taking over on their own 30, Ada's first drive of the half met an untimely end on the first play with Acheson throwing his third interception of the night. The Redskin defender took the ball to Ada's 25 before being brought down, giving the away team excellent field position to pull off a score.
And score they did, covering the distance to the goal line in five short plays as they ended their drive with a quick pass to the end zone. The Redskins chose to go for two points following their score to compensate for the lack of an extra point on their previous score, but failed to convert as the ball was thrown just short of the intended receiver. This made it 26-14, St. Henry, with 8:02 left in the third.
The first play of Ada's second drive of the half ended with yet another interception, this time off a tipped pass intended for Ansley on Ada's 30 yard line. Once again finding themselves in ideal position to score, the Redskins did just that, this time in four plays, and once again on a quick pass. The PAT was good, giving the Redskins what was beginning to look like an insurmountable lead with a score of 33-14.
But the Bulldogs refused to give up. There were still 18 minutes of hard fought football to be played, and as the next drive showed, the Bulldogs weren't going down without a fight.
In 7 plays, Ada found themselves in a 4th-and-7, do-or-die situation deep in Redskin territory. Acheson, rolling right and shaking a defender, bolted for the point where the line of scrimmage met the sideline, firing a pass off at the last second before being met by another defender. The pass found Wilcox in the end zone, mere inches from stepping out of bounds on the same sideline that Acheson had thrown from. He managed to plant both feet and pull it in for an Ada score, keeping the Bulldogs' spirits alive and narrowing St. Henry's lead to 12 points after Waller's successful extra point. The score stood at 33-21 with 4:21 to go in the third.
As the kickoff unit took the field, history bizarrely repeated itself at what might have been the most untimely moment of all -- for the third and final time this season, a bolt of lightning reared its ugly face on the Bulldogs, squelching their newfound momentum and sending both teams to their respective locker rooms while the storm was waited out.
Some 70 minutes later, the teams were finally let loose to take the field. Ada kicked off to St. Henry, with Waller's kick landing in the end zone for a touchback. Despite the booming kick, St. Henry came out on offense determined to up the score on the Bulldogs once more, eventually doing so on a quarterback dive on 4th and goal to put the Redskins ahead 40-21.
With only 4 seconds having expired since the start of the fourth quarter prior to the score, this gave the Bulldogs 11:56 to come back, if by some miracle they could put up enough points while staving off St. Henry enough times on defense to go ahead.
Stopping at nothing, the Bulldogs set out to do just that.
At first, things didn't look so good for Ada. Acheson threw his fifth and final pick of the night to end an 8 play drive on 4th and 16. However, the ever tenacious Bulldog defense held the Redskins to 4th and 2, forcing St. Henry to punt it away.
With 7:17 left to play, Ada resumed on their own 20. In four plays, they finally were able to pull off another score on an impressive catch by senior receiver Brenden Szippl. Szippl dashed the length of the field, outrunning his defender and breaking a tackle to score for the Bulldogs. Following Waller's PAT, this made it 28-40, Ada, with 6:28 remaining.
Ada's defense held the Redskins to yet another three and out possession, with sophomore linebacker Luke Long-Green sacking St. Henry's quarterback for a loss of 8 on third down. Forced to punt on 4th and 15, the Redskins kicked it away to Decker, who fielded a fair catch on Ada's 38 yard line.
5:25 to go. In 3 short plays, the Bulldogs pulled off another score on an impressive play by senior receiver Micah Roberson, as he caught a pass from Acheson and proceeded to juke out defenders down the length of the field as he gained the 58 yards needed to score. With Waller making his fifth consecutive PAT of the night, the Bulldogs only trailed St. Henry by a meager 5 points. The score stood 40-35 with 4:27 remaining in the ball game.
The Bulldogs had but one timeout left to use, and St. Henry knew it. For five consecutive plays, the Redskins kept the ball on the ground, running up the middle with their behemoth of a quarterback to keep the clock moving. Every play ended in a pile at the line of scrimmage.
With 1:55 to go, Ada took their last timeout. The play that followed was critical. It all came down to this. It was 4th and 1. If the Bulldogs managed to pull off a stop, it would give them a little under 2 minutes to score. As Ada has proven time and time again this year, two minutes is all they need. With all the momentum in the world behind them, there's no questioning that the Bulldogs weren't capable of pulling it off.
Both teams took the field, lining up as close as they dared to the line of scrimmage. St. Henry's quarterback took the snap, immediately lurching forward into the gap and lunging his arms outward. At 6'4", 220 pounds, his forward momentum and lengthy height was all he needed to get the yard needed. With no time outs left for Ada to dispose of, St. Henry triumphantly took the field and ran the clock out to bring Ada's season to a tragic end.
In what may have been their finest last period of play, in the end, the Bulldogs came just short of doing the impossible. They simply ran out of time.
Acheson completed 19 of 34 passes for 378 yards and threw five touchdown passes, while throwing an season-high five interceptions.
Decker was held to a season-low 49 yards rushing on 13 carries, garnering 34 additional yards on 3 catches. He ends the season with 1,705 yards rushing and 22 touchdowns, gaining ownership of both the career rushing and scoring records for Ada.
Wilcox had 121 yards on 3 catches, scoring twice. Ansley had 65 yards on 4 passes, scoring once. Roberson caught five passes for 57 yards and a touchdown. Szippl caught his three passes late in the game for 94 yards, scoring once.
The Bulldogs finished out their season 10-2 (7-1 NWC), finishing second in the NWC to LCC and seeded first in Region 24 going into the post-season.
Ada's seventh year under Coach Mike Fell marks the seventh consecutive year that Ada has made playoffs.
-PHOTOS BY TODD KLINGLER-
