Opportunistic Yellow Jackets upend Trojans

FINDLAY – Perrysburg snuck into Donnell Stadium on Friday looking to steal a valuable Northern Lakes League win from Findlay.Steal turned out to be the operative word for the Yellow Jackets.Perrysburg picked off three Findlay passes, manufactured points off of all three turnovers, and chalked up a 37-14 Buckeye Division win over the Trojans."That's just guys making breaks on the football. That's fundamental football right there," Perrysburg coach Dirk Conner said after the Yellow Jackets, 7-1 overall and ranked No. 6 in the Division I state polls, improved to 2-1 in NLL Buckeye Division games."Findlay has a really good passing game. They know what to do and they're good at it. It was one of those things where they are going to get their yards, but when we get opportunities we have to make plays, and tonight we did that."The first two minutes of the game were a portent of things to come.And it was not a good portent for Findlay.On Findlay's third play of the game, Perrysburg's Lukas Polluck picked off a Landon Echelberry pass and returned it to the Trojans 23-yard line. A 21-yard pass from Josh Takats to Nico Walkosky and Walkosky's 2-yard plunge on the next snap put the Yellow Jackets up 7-0 just 1:58 into the game.Perrysburg got the ball back after a second-down sack by Eric Bush and a third-down interception by Brady Maxwell. Eight plays later Walkosky powered in for his second TD.Findlay answered with its best drive of the night, covering 65 yards in 14 plays with backup quarterback Riley Korkos, who had to come in when Echelberry was injured three plays earlier, connected with Jacob Ragland on a 5-yard scoring pass. Ragland, who made an acrobatic catch on fourth-and-15 to keep the drive alive, caught the pass on the left wing, froze the defender with a jab-step-fake, and raced into the end zone for his ninth TD receptions of the season.Perrysburg answered with a solid drive to restore its two-possession lead. But the real back-breaker was still to come, and the Yellow Jackets sticky fingers again were the key.Korkos had just scrambled 13 yards for a big first down in the final seconds of the second quarter. After spiking the ball to stop the clock, he fired one final pass of the half, but Perrysburg's Braxton Mefferd broke on the ball and snatched the Yellow Jackets third interception of the half. Mefferd was almost tripped up at the Findlay 40, but regained his footing and went 74 yards for the score that made it 29-7 at the half."That was a tough way to start out," said Findlay High coach Stefan Adams."We talked about it and looked at it and still there are some things we maybe didn't execute as well as we could have to put ourselves in a position to be successful."Hats off to them, though. They had a great game plan and they executed it."Findlay finished with four turnovers overall, losing one of two fumbles in addition to the three picks. Takats threw one interception, but was also 13-of-17 passing for 145 yards and a score.In addition to the three picks, Perrysburg's defense limited Findlay to just 48 yards rushing. A dominant reason for that was the play of Eric Bush, a 5-foot-11, 278-pound senior noseguard for the Yellow Jackets who slapped hands with every Findlay lineman before the first snap of the game, then spent the rest of the night harassing and chasing down every quarterback, running back and receiver he could get his hands on."He's a pretty special player," Conner said of Bush, surprisingly quick for a player his size."He enables us to do what you saw us do defensively, and that's play three down linemen and get a lot of guys in coverage."Bush had seven tackles and a sack."We've seen him on film all year long," Adams said."We told our guys he's a beast and he was."Echelberry, a freshman, had stepped in for Ryan Montgomery when the Georgia commit suffered a knee injury on the first series of Findlay's first game of the season. Echelberry had thrown for 1,342 yards and 11 touchdowns in his seven games as a starter, and was 8-of-14 for 72 yards before being injured Friday."It's been the story of our season, but we'll be resilient," Adams said of the injuries."Our job as coaches is to figure it out. We've got two games to play. What are we going to do, are we going to fold or are we going respond, be creative and give ourselves a chance?"Korkos, who first stepped in when Montgomery was injured in Game 1, guided Findlay to its two TDs on Friday. In addition to his second-quarter pass to Ragland, the sophomore QB fired a 15-yard pass to Reece Little, connected with Israel Moore for a 30-yard gain, and scrambled 4 yards on fourth-and-2 to cap a fourth-quarter scoring drive.Ragland caught nine passes for 75 yards, giving the senior end 56 receptions, almost 1,000 yards and nine TDs with the games – two regular season one playoff – remaining.Findlay, 3-5 overall and 1-2 in NLL Buckeye Division games, hosts Toledo Whitmer (6-2, 2-1 NLL) on Friday before wrapping up the regular season with an Oct. 25 games at Sylvania Northview (0-8, 0-3 NLL). Perrysburg 7 22 8 0—37Findlay 0 7 0 7—14 First QuarterPER – Walkosky 2 run (Seuberling kick) Second QuarterPER – Walkosky 5 run (Seuberling kick)FIN – Ragland 5 pass from Korkos (Huff kick)PER – DeVries 12 pass from Takats (Seuberling kick) PER – Mefferd 74 interception (Seuberling kick) Third QuarterPER – Takats 5 run (Woods pass from Takats)Fourth QuarterFIN – Korkos 4 run (Huff kick)FIN SPRFirst Downs 15 18Rushes-yards 28-48 29-142Passing Yards 176 145Comp-Att-Int 16-28-3 13-17-1Punts-Avg. 1-36.0 1-18.0Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0Penalties-Yards 5-41 4-30INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING —Findlay, Lane 3-1, Ragland 2-8, Echelberry 10-4, Moore 1-10, Williams 8-21 Korkos 3-3. Perrysburg, Walkosky 8-35, Takats 10-63, Pershing 7-35.PASSING —Findlay, Echelberry 8-14-2, 71 yards; Korkos 8-14-1, 105 yards. Perrysburg Takats 13-17-1, 145 yards.RECEIVING — Findlay, Moore 3-49, Ragland 9-75, Little 1-12, Imke 3-40. Perrysburg, Walkosky 1-20, Woods 3-36, Foster 1-5, Zeeb 4-32, DeVries 2-23, Graham 2-29.