Spartans not afraid to gamble in big moments
· Yahoo Sports
When it came to winning the first playoff game in school history, Conneaut coach Rocco Dobran was more than willing to roll the dice in several key situations.
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The biggest gamble was the one that nearly cost the Spartans the game.
During Friday’s Division V, Region 17 first-round playoff 18-12 overtime win win over visiting Chagrin Falls, the Conneaut defense had just forced Chagrin Falls to punt from midfield, giving the offense the ball inside the 10-yard line with around 45 seconds to play.
Conventional wisdom would have said take a knee and get ready for overtime, instead Dobran called for a screen pass that was caught, but then fumbled, giving the Tigers a chance to win it.
But the Tigers missed a field goal wide right.
On the next play, Conneaut took a knee, and decided to be content with overtime.
Dobran said it was simply the wrong call in that situation.
“My thought was they [Chagrin Falls] was going to have everybody back, I mean way back.” the coach said “When we first lined up, they did have everybody way back so I gave them the thumbs up to run it.
“We just wanted to get the ball to our fastest kid and see how far up the field he could get, down the sidelines, get out of bounds. He was a great kid, but a terrible call on my end. God was with us and they missed the field goal.”
It wasn’t the first gamble the Spartans took in the game by any means, though.
Before the punt by the Tigers, Conneaut’s offense had the ball facing fourth and six at the 50-yard line and just over a minute remaining.
Rather than kick it away though, Dobran elected to go for the first down, even though he knew failure would give the Tigers the ball at midfield.
Quarterback Wyant Dobran had Alden Goudge open over the middle, but the senior could not hang onto what would have been a first-down reception.
Coach Dobran, though, said they had enough confidence in their defense to be aggressive in that situation.
“The second half our defense was lights out,” he said. “We felt really confident about getting that. We saw some open things, we just didn’t capitalize on the pass, he was wide open. My team, though, they want to be aggressive, and you can question some things, but if we catch that ball there, we probably go down and score and there’s no overtime.”
Goudge may have dropped the pass that would have moved the chains, but he did not drop an interception in the overtime period to set up the Spartans offense with a chance to win it.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” the senior said of the pick.
Back on offense, Isaiah Boles was hit for a loss of three on first down, but Wyant Dobran ran for six to bring up a critical third down.
Conneaut had their distance kicker, Jacob Thompson, warming up.
But, once again, Dobran chose to be aggressive.
Wyant Dobrn rolled out to his left, then then threw the screen back to Steven Kessler, who rumbled behind his blockers 17 yards to end the game.
“If we had to kick a field goal, we would have,” coach Dobran said. “Jacob Thompson has a pretty good leg, we practiced long field goals from 40 yards in, but we wanted a touchdown.”
While the coach’s first two gambles failed, his third one was most definitely the charm.
“That play was executed perfectly,” he said. “Accoss the board from Wyant to Steven, with all the linemen downfield blocking. I’m really proud of the way they executed there.”
There’s a lot more than that to be proud of. The win was not only the first playoff win in school history, but it was the first Conneaut team to win 10 games since 1985, when they went 10-0 and lost to Youngstown Mooney in the first round of the state playoffs.