Olpe roars back from early hole, goes on to beat Uniontown, 23-6
By Michael Ashford
Monday, November 6, 2006
OLPE — Apparently, the Olpe football team responds pretty well when it falls behind.
After all, Uniontown led Olpe, 6-3, midway through the second quarter of Saturday night’s State playoff game — the first time all season that Olpe had trailed — and all Olpe did was go on to score 20 unanswered points to win, 23-6.
Olpe (11-0) turned that 3-point deficit into a going-away victory thanks to a strong running game that pounded out 160 rushing yards and a stout defense that held Uniontown (9-2) to just 114 subsequent yards after Uniontown took the lead on a 66-yard passing touchdown from Chad Hays to Gage McKinnis.
“That kind of got us fired up more than anything,” Olpe’s Seth Pargman said of falling behind. “Once we got down, we kind of got mad at ourselves and took that onto the offense, and we started pounding it up the middle.”
Olpe answered Uniontown’s lone score of the game with an eight-play, 66-yard drive that featured all running plays save for a 4-yard pass from quarterback Tanner Coble to Pargman. A 3-yard touchdown run by Drew Pettijohn capped the drive and put Olpe on top for good, 10-6.
“Our line did a pretty nice job blocking, and we worked on it all week in practice,” Pettijohn said. “We ran through the right holes, and we were able to go right up the middle.”
Pettijohn found paydirt again just before the end of the third quarter when he broke free down the middle of the field, hauled in a play-action pass from Coble and took it 24 yards to the end zone to make it 16-6 after the extra point was no good.
“That is a play coach (Mike Plunkett) put together this week in practice. He thought it would work because they ran a double safety, and both of those safeties normally run and take the outside guys,” Pettijohn said. “It opened up the middle of the field for me.”
Meanwhile, the Olpe defense suffocated the Uniontown offense, holding the normally high-powered rushing attack of Hays and McKinnis to just 81 yards combined on the ground, which forced Uniontown to turn to its passing game.
Pargman said Olpe was able to reign in Hays and McKinnis thanks to sure tackling and a commitment to stopping the duo.
“We worked on tackling low in practice. I think we did a pretty good job of wrapping up,” Pargman said. “We knew they were going to run the option a lot, so we worked on taking the quarterback out first and making (Hays) pitch it out, and having a linebacker out there on (McKinnis).”
Also hampering Uniontown’s cause were 10 penalties for 77 yards, which halted any consistency the Uniontown offense could muster.
“They took away our running game. They’re extremely strong up front,” Uniontown coach Jim Mason said. “We had a couple things going with the passing game, but then we would stop ourselves with penalties.
“But that’s nothing but an excuse. The best team won tonight.”
McKinnis even tried a pass of his own off a reverse in the third quarter, but his toss was intercepted by Andrew Haag. Four plays later came Pettijohn’s touchdown reception to put Olpe up by 10, which seemed to totally deflate the Uniontown sideline.
Olpe iced the game in the fourth quarter with an 18-yard rushing score from Colton Stueve that made it 23-6.
In all, Olpe totaled 288 yards of offense, with 128 yards coming on an 8-of-14 passing performance from Coble.
Pettijohn chalked up the win to an ability to control the ground, which opened up the entire Olpe offense, he said.
“If you can run, you can beat any team,” he said. “We came out and really got on them with the running plays, and we’d mix in a pass every once in a while, and it worked good for us.”
Olpe advances to play Lyndon (7-4), which beat Centralia, 24-22, in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Lyndon 24, Centralia 22
There was no doubting the gameplan Lyndon would use heading into Saturday’s game against Centralia.
Minutes into the game itself, Lyndon offensive coordinator Mike Massey affirmed that plan, which was to run Cade Neilson — a lot.
Turning to Lyndon head coach Damon Leiss, Massey said, “I’m riding that horse until it drops.”
Neilson produced like a thoroughbred, as the junior running back carried the ball a whopping 41 times for 293 yards and two touchdowns to help Lyndon upset Centralia, 24-22, in the Class 3A State playoffs.
“Cade Neilson was just amazing,” Leiss said. “Our offensive line did a great job too. I don’t know if ‘peaking’ is the right thing to say; they are building.”
Neilson opened the scoring for Lyndon on a 5-yard TD run in the first quarter to put the Tigers up, 6-0. Centralia answered with a TD of its own to go up, 7-6.
Quarterback Shea Kirsop put Lyndon back ahead with a 1-yard run in the third quarter that was again answered with a Centralia score that made it 15-14.
But after being such a force on offense all game, Neilson produced a huge play defensively for Lyndon when he recorded a safety in the fourth quarter to give the Tigers a 16-15 lead.
“That was the play that changed the game,” Leiss said.
Not long after, Neilson returned to his offensive position and put the game away with an 11-yard TD run to make it 24-15. Centralia added a late score, but Lyndon recovered the onside kick to close out the game.
Leiss said he was pleased with the way his team responded to an aggressive and speedy Centralia squad.
“Before the start of the game, we were nervous because Centralia is big and fast,” Leiss said. “We hadn’t played a team this fast almost all year long, but we did an excellent job of containing Centralia’s speed, and we hit them pretty hard.”
Lyndon next will play host to Olpe — which won the previous matchup between the two teams this season, 34-6 — on Friday in Lyndon.
“We have the utmost respect for Olpe,” Leiss said. “They are better than Centralia, and this is going to be a huge game for both teams.”