Generals beat Trojans with TD in final seconds

Findlay played five straight football games with a running clock. Against Anthony Wayne on Friday, the Trojans could not get the seconds to tick off fast enough. Findlay was nursing a 14-12 lead and milking the play clock for all it was worth in the final minutes. But Anthony got a defensive stop, forced a punt and drove 60 yards in the final 1:50 to beat the Trojans 18-12 in a Northern Lakes League game between the Buckeye Division teams. "Every game is not going to be like it was the last several weeks," FHS coach Stefan Adams said of the Trojans, who had rattled off five straight wins by an average score of 47.2-10.0. "I didn't think we pressed. I just think we never got into a rhythm offensively. It was a different kind of game than we're used to. There was one point in the game where I was like, 'OK, we have to win this game ugly.' "Hats off to them. They made the plays and we didn't." Findlay led 14-6 at the half, but after a scoreless third quarter, the Generals went 56 yards in just four contested plays to pull within two. An encroachment penalty gave Anthony Wayne a bit of help, a pass interference call gave them a lot. Junior quarterback Grant Kinnee then found 6-foot-5 end Griff Pike in a corner of the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown pass with 9:23 left. Anthony Wayne was marching again a when second-down sack by Ashton Yeager and a third-down defensive stop by Campbell Layne and Nathan Riegle forced a punt. Findlay took over at its own 27 with 4:20 on the clock. But the Trojans, who went three-and-out on their last three possessions of the game, booted it away with under two minutes left. Kinnee picked up 6 yards on a quarterback keeper, then 8 on a pass to Crue Carroll. On a third-and-5 call with 52 seconds left, Kinnee called his own number once again, slithered his way through traffic, then sprang free and raced 41 yards to the Findlay 5. After running a few seconds off themselves, the Generals scored the game-winning TD when Kinnee dove right of center, found that gap plugged, then stepped back and shot through a hole on the left side of the line. On a night when both quarterbacks struggled throwing the ball, Kinnee was 10-of-19 for 103 yards with one interception. He rushed 17 times, though, for 114 yards and the winning TD. "I'm glad he's on our side," said Anthony Wayne coach Andy Brungard. "He makes great decisions, he makes a few great plays, and on that last run he made a few great cuts to win it for us in the end." "He was able to break loose and get free in there," Adams said. "Is it a schematic thing? Is it a physical thing? Is it a mental thing? That was a great run. But we have to be able to wrap up. We have to do what we've coached to do." Findlay's Ryan Montgomery, who entered the contest averaging 345 passing per game, was 10-of-21 passing for 58 yards. Matt Guthrie had 60 yards and a rushing touchdown, but Findlay's 132 yards total offense was a season low. Those numbers surprised Brungard as much as anyone. "It's funny, because we lost our two starting corners (cornerbacks) last week (in a 42-28 loss to Toledo Whitmer). We had to put two kids in there who been on our scout teams all year," he said. "We had three linebackers out too. We just told the kids, 'Our backs are against the wall, how are you going to come out?'" Findlay went three-and-out on its first possession – an indication of things to come – but got a huge play when CJ Reid-Tisdale returned an Anthony Wayne punt 59 yards for a score. Reid-Tisdale fielded the ball at his own 41 and headed right. Around midfield he seemed swamped in a sea of teammates and Anthony Wayne players, but he used his blockers well and tight-roped the sideline all the way to the end zone. Montgomery would complete 5-of-7 passes and Guthrie would cover the final yard on drive that put Findlay up 14-0 a minute and a half into the second quarter, Findlay got a monster defensive game from Luke Weihrauch, a senior cornerback who broke up two passes, intercepted one and had 14 total tackles. Layne had 11 tackles, Isaac Tuiloma and Ashton Yeager eight each and Riegel six tackles and a sack. Friday's outcome left Findlay and Anthony Wayne with identical 5-2 overall and 1-1 NLL-Buckeye Division records. Next week the Trojans travel to Perrysburg to face the Yellow Jackets, who are 6-1, 1-1 after Friday's 25-15 loss to Toledo Whitmer (5-2, 2-0 NLL). Anthony Wayne 0 6 0 12 — 18 Findlay 7 7 0 0 — 14 First Quarter FIN – Tisdale punt return, 59 yards (Sprague kick) Second Quarter FIN – Guthrie, 1 run (Sprague kick) AW – Gardner 2 run (kick blocked) Fourth Quarter AW – Pike 23 pass from Kinnee (pass failed) AW – Kinnee 1 run (VonLehmden kick) FIN FR First Downs 8 17 Rushes-yards 19-74 43-203 Passing Yards 58 103 Comp-Att-Int 10-21-0 10-20-1 Punts-Avg. 7-29.1 3-43.0 Fumbles-Lost 1-0 0-0 Penalties-Yards 6-46 6-35 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING — Findlay, Guthrie 13-60, Montgomery 4-13; Ragland 1-5. Anthony Wayne Kinnee 17-114, Gardner 18-48, Carroll 4-20, Schaller 2-14, Carswell 2-7. PASSING — Findlay, Montgomery 10-21-0, 58 yards. Anthony Wayne, Kinnee 10-20-1, 103 yards. RECEIVING — Findlay, Hill 2-9, Hasselbach 3-10, Best 1-11, Little 2-8, Ragland 2-20. Anthony Wayne Schaller 4-36, Garnder 2-13, Pike 2-46, Carroll 1-8. FHS stats thanks to Jim Welch.