Spartans rally to beat Warriors, remain undefeated
· Yahoo Sports
ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — When Conneaut couldn’t get things going through the air, the team was more than happy to shift gears against Friday in a battle of unbeaten county teams.
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Wyant Dobran and Isaiah Boles combined for 143 yards of rushing, mostly in the second half, as the Spartans rallied for a 20-17 win at Corlew Stadium.
Conneaut improved to 3-0, while the Warriors fell to 2-1.
Spartans coach Rocco Dobran said the key to win was the Spartans mantra of “Team over Me” that his team lived out on the field Friday night.
“We have a lot of talent this year, but we couldn’t get our receivers the ball and the line wasn’t throwing great blocks, so instead we went double-tight [formation] and ran the ball, and nobody was mad about it,” he said.
Players who were used to running routes and catching passes were suddenly fine with just blocking.
“When you get that kind of thing going on, you know it’s a team thing,” Dobran said. “When it’s a team thing, you can overcome those hardships we had in the first half.”
First-half hardships came in the opening quarter.
The Spartans returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, but that was nullified by a penalty.
Then, Zaiden Fox picked off a Wyant Dobran pass. That set up a 1-yard JJ DuFour run.
The Spartans later answered with a 99-yard drive, capped by a screen pass from Dobran to Alden Goudge who took it in from 9 yards out. The extra point gave the Spartans a 7-6 advantage.
The Warriors took the lead with a 25-yard field goal from Noah Drake.
Then, one possession later, a well-executed hurry-up offense drive resulted in a 4-yard touchdown pass from DuFour to Nolan Standle.
But in the third quarter, the Spartans committed to the run.
Boles and Dobran carried the ball a combined eight times during a 17-play drive that set up a field goal attempt. It was actually blocked, but then overturned by a roughing the kicker penalty.
The flag gave Conneaut new life inside the 10-yard line. Two plays later, Dobran took it across the goal line.
Edgewood coach Olajuwon Cooper said the call was the turning point in the game.
“I’m not an excuse guy,” Cooper said. “But, roughing the kicker on fourth and 17 when the game is completely in our control and our kids do a great job of getting them in position to get off the field ... if we didn’t have it on the iPad, maybe you could talk about it being subjective. But, we watched that thing, and he didn’t touch that kid.
“I thought we played well enough to win, but momentum is huge. When kids feel defeated because they’re playing hard and something was taken out of their hands, that completely changed the course of the game.”
Conneaut scored again early in the fourth quarter on another touchdown run by Dobran, to give the Spartans their first lead of the night at 20-17.
Edgewood had two more opportunities with the football, but the Conneaut defense was equal to the task, getting turnovers on downs on both possessions, then going back to the ground game to eat away the fourth quarter clock.
DuFour threw for 182 yards. Standle made two catches for 55 yards.
Both teams are scheduled to play home games Friday.
The Spartans take on Berkshire, while the Warriors go against Geneva.