FREMONT – The Little Giants ran out of magic.
A week after a miraculous 21-point fourth-quarter comeback win over Findlay, the Fremont Ross football team staged another incredible fourth-quarter rally. The Little Giants scored 14 unanswered points to stun the St. John’s Titans and force overtime.
Then the Little Giants’ defense held St. John’s to just a field goal on the Titans’ opening possession of overtime. With a touchdown, the Little Giants would have their second-straight victory in miracle fashion.
But on Ross’ first offensive play of overtime, Hayden Lehmann’s fade pass to Bryce McKinstry fell short of its target, allowing St. John’s Dimitri Mitsopoulos to get his hands on it and dash the Little Giants’ hopes with a game-ending interception, 31-28.
“We lost three real close games,” Ross head coach Chad Long said. “We’re not really blowing anyone out, we’re not doing anything special. We’re not playing good football to be honest with you. We’re allowing teams to stay in the game and we’re relying on making this wishful comeback and these magical plays and it’s going to get ya. You can’t keep doing that. These kids thrive on that and I hate it.”
The Little Giants repeatedly shot themselves in the foot in the form of four costly turnovers, defensive offsides penalties yielding first downs and more coverage breakdowns in the secondary leading to Titan touchdowns.
“We have not played a complete game yet this year and it’s frustrating because we have the potential, you can see it,” Long said. “The defense was able to get better as it went along but we have to eliminate big plays on defense. And we have to be able to score when we get the opportunity, we got stopped on fourth and 1 on the 1 in the red zone. Things like that, we have to execute.”
After being tied at 14 at halftime, Ross quickly dug itself into a hole in the third quarter. Lehmann was sacked dropping back for a pass and lost the football. Mitsopoulos scooped up the ball and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown just 25 seconds into the second half.
The Little Giants took their next possession inside the Titans’ 5-yard line but stalled, turning the ball over on downs. Taking possession deep in its own end, St. John’s quickly went three-and-out and punted. Normally sure-handed senior Noah Hotz couldn’t corral the punt, however, and lost control of the ball, turning it back over to the Titans near midfield. From there, St. John’s marched down and extended its lead with a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Braydon Lichtenberg and a 28-14 lead where the score remained until the fourth quarter.
“Those are heartbreakers,” Long said of the fumbles. “But our kids didn’t give up.”
With memories of last week’s 21-point comeback still fresh in Don Paul Stadium, the Little Giants went to work. Led by terrific pass plays to Hotz and Deryante Hardin, Ross put together is best offensive drive since the game’s early going, amassing a 10-play drive capped by a 5-yard pass to Hardin for the touchdown.
The extra point, however, missed, leaving Ross eight points behind, 28-20, with 7:20 to play.
The Little Giants got the ball back with 1:47 to play on their own 32-yard line. Ross quickly moved into Titan territory, gaining first down at St. John’s 13. But a run lost two yards then a sack pushed Ross back to the 27-yard line for fourth down and 24 with the game on the line.
Lehmann then sent a Hail Mary into the end zone where the ball was tipped into the air and fell into the hands of senior Raleigh Weaver for the touchdown. The ensuing 2-point conversion saw Lehmann find Hardin to tie the game, 28-28 sending the game into overtime and Don Paul Stadium into another frenzy of disbelief.
Though Ross’ defense held St. John’s to just a field goal, they came a referee’s whistle away from ending the game. The Little Giant defense sacked Lichtenberg on third-and-goal, knocking the ball loose. Ross scooped it up and started its way down field when the play was blown dead and Lichtenberg was ruled down by contact.
“I’m not blaming the refs,” Long said. “We still had our opportunity. We’re down three points, we need to at least come away with a field goal and if we score it’s over. It’s that simple. That’s on us. We have to be able to score. I’m not even looking at that as an official mistake. We still had an opportunity and we threw an interception.”
The Little Giants got off to a fast start, scoring on their first possession of the game after marching 62 yards on 10 plays. Ross capped the drive when Lehmann, under pressure, bought time until he could find Hardin, who scampered into the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 6:07 to go in the first quarter.
St. John’s answered quickly. A nice kick return put the Tians into Little Giant territory then, on the third play of the series, Lichtenberg found Mitsopoulos in broken coverage for a 45-yard touchdown.
Ross’ offense, however, picked up where it left off on its first drive. Again, the Little Giants moved the ball effectively, getting first-and-goal inside the Titans’ 6-yard line. Ross, however, struggled to punch it in. When Lehmann tried to score on a quarterback sneak on 4th and goal at the 1, the ball popped loose. Hardin plucked the ball out of the air and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown albeit not exactly how the Little Giants drew it up.
Ross took its 14-7 lead into the second quarter and that’s when faulty secondary coverage struck again for the Little Giants. This time the Titans found Mitsopoulos again for a 29-yard touchdown strike to tie the game at 14, where it remained until halftime.
Lehmann finished the night 28-of-45 passing for 311 yards. Hotz grabbed 12 passes for 123 yards while Hardin caught 11 passes for 89 yards.
The Little Giants are now 2-3 overall this season, 1-1 in the TRAC. Ross enjoys its third-straight home game next week, hosting Lima Senior, before finishing the season with three of its final four games on the road.
Score by quarters
SJ 7 – 7 – 14 – 0 – 3 – 31
FR 14 – 7—0 – 14 – 0 – 28
First quarter
FR – Deryante Hardin 17 pass from Hayden Lehmann (Alec Slemmer kick), 6:07
SJ – Dimitri Mitsopoulos 45 pass from Braydon Lichtenberg (Gabriel Chlebowski kick), 4:35
FR – Hardin 1 yard fumble return (Alec Slemmer), 0:20
Second quarter
SJ – Mitsopoulos 29 pass from Lichtenberg (Chlebowski kick), 4:50
Third quarter
SJ – Mitsopoulos 40 fumble return (Chlebowski kick), 11:35
SJ – Lichtenberg 1 run (Chlebowski kick), 4:15
Fourth quarter
FR – Hardin 5 pass from Lehmann (kick fail), 7:20
FR – Raleigh Weaver 27 pass from Lehmann (Hardin pass from Lehmann), 0:14
Overtime
SJ – Chlebowski 25 field goal
ROSS’ INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Deryante Hardin 8-18; Noah Hotz 3-4; Caleb Wood 3-3; Garrett Schneider 2-3; Hayden Lehmann 12-28. Total: 28-60.
PASSING – Hayden Lehmann 26-43 308
RECEIVING – Deryante Hardin 11-89; Noah Hotz 10-120; Raleigh Weaver 2-40; Bryce McKinstry 2-34; Andrew Born 1-18; Caleb Wood 1-7. Totals, 26-308.
Ross St. John’s
Total offense 368 283
Rush att. -yards 28-60 27-34
Pass Comp-Att. 26-43 19-26
TD-INT 1-2 2-0
Fumbles-lost 4-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 5-40 2-20
Punts 4 6