War Eagles survive Spartans

SHENANDOAH - Senior kicker Patrick Coale delivered a 43-yard game-winning field goal in the second overtime as Oak Ridge (3-0) persevered to a 45-42 win over the Stratford Spartans (1-2) Friday night at Woodforest Bank Stadium.

“Hopefully this teaches us to fight through adversity, our kids fought and fought, but we have to do a better job of finishing football games, when we get ahead we have to stay ahead,” said War Eagle Head Coach Dereck Rush. “Give credit to Stratford, that’s a great football team, they are going to be a playoff team, we have to learn from our mistakes and get back to work.”

Stratford rallied slowly from a 35-13 deficit in the second half beginning with an 67-yard drive capped off when Freddy Price connected with tight-end Jack Brice on a 20-yard touchdown on a seam route down the middle to cut the War Eagle lead to 35-20 with 39 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.

Oak Ridge could not muster anything on offense and gave the Spartans new life when they marched 83 yards on their next possession in 3:43, capped off when Price found Will Bredthauer on a 26-yard touchdown pass to cut the Oak Ridge lead to 35-27 with 6:03 left in the fourth quarter.

The War Eagle offense turned the ball over on it’s next possession when Spartan defensive back Brice Stevenson intercepted a Braden Letney pass at the War Eagle 23-yard line and brought it back 16 yards to set up the Spartans with first and goal at the 8-yard line. The Spartans would score on a Terrance Peters Jr., 8-yard touchdown run up the middle on the very next play and with the two-point conversion the game was tied with 3:29 remaining.

The War Eagles found themselves trailing after the first play in overtime as Price found Brice for the second time of the evening to give the Spartans a 42-35 lead. Oak Ridge showed heart as on fourth down and goal from the 1-yard line Letney kept the option read for a 1-yard touchdown to tie the game 42-42 and send it to a second overtime period.

“Our team has come a long way, we keep fighting till the end and we’ve been working hard through offseason, every one of us and never giving up,” said Letney.

Stratford had a chance to win in regulation, but Jonaton Dalmas’ 37-yard field goal fell short and the game went to overtime.

The War Eagle offense was clicking on all cylinders as they scored on each of their first five possessions to open the game and didn’t look back as the dynamic duo at quarterback of Sophomore Braden Letney and Senior Jacob Norton proved to be too much for the Spartans to be able to stop.

The game opened with both offenses clicking from opening kick as Stratford opened the game marching 75 yards in 2:16, getting a 1-yard touchdown run from Terrance Peters Jr.. Oak Ridge responded with a quick drive lasting just over two minutes as Etwi ran up the middle for a 6-yard touchdown run to give the War Eagles a 7-6 lead with 7:39 left in the first quarter.

On the ensuing possession for Stratford, the War Eagle defense turned the tide as Junior defensive back Nick Lauterbach intercepted a Spartan pass and returned it 54 yards to the Spartan 29-yard line. It was Norton’s turn at quarterback and on the next play following the turnover Norton connected with Etwi on a 29-yard touchdown reception to extend the Oak Ridge lead to 14-6 with 5:21 left in the first quarter.

The shootout was on early as both teams combined for 364 yards of offense in the first quarter, which continued when the Spartans continued to answer when Peters Jr., broke away for a 50-yard run down to the War Eagle 22-yard line. Stratford scored on the very next play as Freddy Price completed a pass to DeBaron Nixon for a 22-yard touchdown to cut the War Eagle lead to 14-13 with 4:50 left in the first quarter.

Oak Ridge capped off the first quarter scoring barrage with a 1-yard touchdown run by Junior fullback Justin Edwards to give the War Eagles a 21-13 lead with 2:52 left in the first quarter.

Stratford couldn’t muster yards in the second quarter as they held the ball for a total of 2:20 of the second quarter, while Oak Ridge continued their offensive fireworks as they methodically the Spartans defense on a 78-yard drive that took nearly 8:00 minutes off the clock when Letney called his own number and scored on a 7-yard touchdown run to increase the War Eagle lead to 28-13 with 4:46 remaining in the second quarter. Following another Spartan punt, the War Eagles went 66 yards in 1:57 just before halftime as Etwi scored his second rushing touchdown of the first half from 9 yards out to give the War Eagles a 35-13 lead with 25 seconds left in the first half.

The War Eagles improve to 3-0 on the young season and will stay at the friendly confines of Woodforest Bank Stadium for their final non-district game of the season, hosting Aldine Nimitz on Saturday, September 21 at 6:00pm.