FINDLAY – After having a victory snatched away a week ago, Fremont Ross nearly did some victory-snatching of its own Friday night.
Quarterback Hayden Lehmann stiff-arms a Findlay tackler Friday night. RSR/Tony Zimmerman
The Little Giants rallied from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to score three touchdowns in the final nine minutes to send the game into the first of three overtime periods. The fairytale comeback, however, turned sour when Findlay punched in a 3-yard touchdown run in the third overtime to take a thrilling 55-49 win over the Little Giants.
“Our message to the kids is at some point we’re going to overcome adversity and win some of these games that are close,” Ross coach Chad Long said. “Unfortunately, the last two have been nail-biters and that’s what happens. That’s why we play the game of football.”
Ross looked dead in the water after the first play of the fourth quarter. Quarterback Hayden Lehmann’s pass was intercepted and returned 56 yards for a touchdown, giving Findlay an insurmountable-looking 42-21 lead with 11:45 to play.
But Ross wasn’t about to go down easily.
“I think a lot of leaders that aren’t noticed talked to players separately,” Lehmann said. “I talked to the o-line, Roger (Burling) was talking to people and Drew (Edmonds) was talking to people, and Shawn Newsome. We were saying ‘Keep your heads up, game’s not over we can do something really special out here.’”
Keyed by a 44-yard pass play to Burling, Ross scored with nine minutes remaining on a 5-yard touchdown pass to Edmonds, to trim the deficit to 42-28.
Ethan Chumley is tackled in the first half of Ross 55-49 loss to Findlay Friday. RSR/Tony Zimmerman
Ross got the ball back with six minutes to play and quickly marched down field into scoring position until Findlay picked off an interception an end zone interception with 4:35 to play, appearing to ice the game.
But Ross’ defense got one of its few stops of the night, forcing a three-and-out to get the ball back into Lehmann’s hands who then proceeded to shred the Findlay defense. Lehmann completed his next seven consecutive passes to produce an unbelievable comeback.
From midfield, he completed passes of 16, 17 and 13 yards to Newsome, Devyn Jagodzinski and Burling. Then Newsome plowed ahead for a 5-yard touchdown to get to within seven points, 42-35, with 2:17 to play.
On third down of the ensuing possession, Findlay lost the ball on a low snap to quarterback Tanner Rickle, which Ross pounced on, taking over possession at Findlay’s 37-yard line with 48 seconds to play.
Three plays later, Lehmann connected with Newsome from 15 yards out to tie the game with 17 seconds to play, sending the game into overtime – a thought that seemed impossible just a few minutes earlier.
“This could be his breakout game,” Long said of Lehmann. “Maybe he’s finally considered a junior instead of a sophomore making those mistakes. He played a great game and threw the ball well and our receivers caught the ball well in critical situations.”
Roger Burling reaches for a pass near the goal line in Ross 55-49 loss to Findlay. RSR/Tony Zimmerman
Lehmann finished the night with an eye-popping 428 yards on 25-of-43 passing with six touchdowns.
Burling caught 11 passes for 190 yards and a pair of scores.
Taking the first possession of overtime, Ross continued its offensive assault, as Lehmann connected with Noah Hotz on a 19-yard touchdown on the second play of the extra session for Ross’ first lead of the night.
Findlay, however, answered on its first overtime possession with a 1-yard pass from Rickle to Adam Gutting to send the game into a second overtime.
Ross’ defense then gave the offense a chance to win the game when Burling intercepted Rickle’s third-down pass. Facing third-and-10 from the 20, Lehmann was sacked, pushing the Little Giants back to the 33 and setting up a 50-yard field goal attempt by Mikey Contreras which sailed wide left.
“He was trying to make something happen, I don’t blame Hayden because he was doing it all night,” Long said of the sack. “But it kind of pushed us out of field goal range.”
In the third overtime, Ross again had to settle for a field goal try, this from 37 yards, but it too missed the mark, giving Findlay the ball with a chance to win.
Rickle ran around the right tackle down to the 2-yard line on first down and then Cam Dillon punched the ball into the end zone, ending the game, giving Findlay the victory and Ross a crushing, roller-coaster defeat.
“It looked like doom and gloom for them but they kept fighting,” Findlay coach Mark Ritzler said of Ross. “It was doom and gloom for us a couple times, and they kept fighting.”
Ross ended the night with 523 yards of offense to Findlay’s 378.
Scoring summary
First quarter
FHS – Cam Dillion 17 pass from Tanner Rickle (Chase Wilcox kick), 6:59
FR – Roger Burling 19 pass from Hayden Lehmann (Mikey Contreras kick), 0:48
Second quarter
FHS – Rickle 10 run (Wilcox kick), 10:24
FR – Devyn Jaogzinski 33 pass from Lehmann (Contreras kick), 8:54
FHS – Adam Gilbert 20 pass from Rickle (Wilcox kick), 0:20
Third quarter
FHS – Owen Morse 28 run (Wilcox kick), 9:22
FR – Burling 29 pass from Lehmann (Contreras kick), 8:14
FHS – Rickle 13 run (Wilcox kick), 5:48
Fourth quarter
FHS – Parker Fetterman 56 interception return (Wilcox kick), 11:45
FR – Drew Edmonds 5 pass from Lehmann (Contreras kick), 9:00
FR – Shawn Newsome 5 run (Contreras kick), 2:17
FR – Newsome 15 pass from Lehmann (Contreras kick), 0:17
First overtime
FR – Noah Hotz 19 pass from Lehmann (Contreras kick)
FHS – Adam Gutting 1 pass from Rickle (Wilcox kick)
Second overtime
No scoring
Third overtime
FHS – Cam Dillon 3 run
INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING – Ross: Shawn Newsome 11-74, Ethan Chumley 9-30, Garrett Schneider 4-10, Chrystjan Mancini 2-6, Remey Bulger 1-1, Hayden Lehmann 8- -26. Totals: 35-95.
PASSING – Ross: Lehmann 25-43-6-2, 428.
RECEIVING – Ross: Roger Burling 11-190, Noah Hotz 5-102, Devyn Jagodzinski 4-82, Shawn Newsome 3-42, Garrett Schneider 1-7, Andrew Edmonds 1-5.
| Football box score | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score by quarter | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1OT | 2OT | 3OT | ||
| Ross | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| Findlay | 7 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 6 | |
| Ross | Findlay | |||||||
| Total yards | 523 | 378 | ||||||
| Rush-yards | 35-95 | 48-203 | ||||||
| Pass yards | 428 | 175 | ||||||
| Comp.-Att-TD-INT | 25-43-6-2 | 18-25-3-1 | ||||||
| Fumbles-lost | 2-1 | 1-1 | ||||||
| Penalties-yards | 6-50 | 9-100 | ||||||