By Bill Bray
FREMONT – In another ‘instant classic’ the Fremont Ross Little Giants improved their winning streak to 5-0 with a 41-38 TRAC win over Toledo St. Francis.
Fremont Ross (5-0, 2-0) broke the deadlock on the scoreboard with 5:54 remaining in the opening quarter with a 24-yard Johan Silver field goal to go ahead 3-0.
Before the end of the quarter ended Toledo St. Francis took the lead back at 7-3 with a Denim Truss pass to Myron Conner covering 38 yards. Travis Kenner tacked on the PAT.
After Fremont’s offense was stymied, the Knights took advantage using their top receiver of the night in Trey Talboo. The talented receiver ended the night with 18 receptions and 311 yards along with four scores. On his first touchdown catch, he hauled in a 43-yard strike from Truss with 11:47 remaining in the first half to put St. Francis up 14-3. Just over a minute later, the Little Giants answered back with a 47-yard strike from Kaden Holmes to Adam Hrynciw at the 10:09 mark. Silver added the extra point and Ross closed the gap to 14-10.
With St. Francis in control and driving in the next series of downs, a Truss pass intended for Conner was picked off by Elijah Simms and the Little Giant galloped all the way into the St Francis endzone to give Ross the lead back at 17-14 at the 6:02 mark of the quarter. Silver added the extra point.
The Little Giant defense rose to the occasion after a timeout and some words from coach Chad Long. The offense, however stalled, and Long, called on his golden toed senior, Johan Silver, to boot a 41-yard field goal. Silver did not disappoint his coach as he gave Ross a 20-14 lead with 2:07 remaining in the half.
St. Francis would answer back with two more scores before the half. At the 1:49 mark, it was Talboo again on the receiving end. This time the touchdown play covered 79 yards and Kenner added the extra point to put the Knights up 21-20.
The Knights ended the half with no time left on the clock as Kenner was good on a 42-yard field goal. The teams went into the locker room with St. Francis up 24-20.
The second half started slow as there was no scoring until the 4:27 mark of the third quarter when, who else, Talboo caught a 35 yards touchdown. Kenner’s kick gave St. Francis their biggest lead of the night at 31-20. “It was a frustrating game at times,” Long said. “Hats off to them they had a great game plan. A lot of different things that we never saw. We were able to adjust, and we were lucky to come away with this win because we almost lost this one.”
Ross had shown in previous games this season that they had the ‘never say die’ attitude and it showed again in the third quarter. With 2:13 left in the quarter, Holmes threw a bomb intended for Adam Hrynciw. Had Hrynciw’s fingers been shorter, the pass would have dropped incomplete, but fortunately for the talented junior receiver, they were not, and he held on to the ball and completed a 67-yard pass play that put the Little Giants right back in the contest at 31-27 with Silver’s PAT. “That was an amazing catch,” Long said. “We thought it was going to be overthrown and we saw “Ciwie” give it all he had. He had to play both ways for us tonight especially since we went to the nickel defense.” “We say that these kids step up when they need to and that is just one of those things with “Ciwie”. He’s Mr. Clutch. He steps up a lot of times and he did a fabulous job tonight.”
Moving to the fourth period, Ross, at the 10:03 mark, scored with another terrific pass from Holmes to Bryson Hammer. This pass covered 41 yards. Silver again was good on his PAT and Fremont had the lead at 34-31.
The icing on the game’s cake came on a 49-yard sprint by Holmes with 5:22 remaining. Silver again was good on the PAT and Ross completed a run of 21 unanswered points.
To St Francis’ credit they had one more touchdown up their sleeves and again it as Fremont’s nemesis of the game, Talboo. He caught his fourth touchdown pass of the night. Kenner’s kick was good and with 3:03 remaining the Knights closed the gap to 41-38.
With possession of the ball, Ross was driving and on a fourth down pass, junior Mason Villareal, who was primarily used on defense on the night, caught the pass and broke a tackle to gain the first down helping Ross secure the TRAC win. Villareal, a linebacker 99 percent of the time, was the leading tackler for the Little Giants. He finished the night with 7.5 tackles, two solos and 11 assists. “That kid plays with a lot of heart. Long said of Villareal. “It was just a waggle, but we needed that first down badly to secure the win and I didn’t think he was going to get it. He broke the tackle. He’s a hard-working kid and he deserves everything. That may be the biggest play of the night because then we didn’t have to worry about going out and defending Talboo.”
Statistically, the Knights Trey Talboo stole the show at receiver. His receiving helped Denim Truss complete 29 of 42 passes for 422 yards along with five touchdowns and one interception.
For Ross, Kaden Holmes completed 17 of 26 passes for 332 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Holmes was also the leading ball carrier again for Ross with 120 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown. Bryson Hammer and Adam Hrynciw were both over the century mark in receiving. Hammer led the way with 149 yards on nine receptions and a touchdown. Hrynciw had two catches covering 114 yards and two scores.
The other take away from this game was the fact that fans saw what are probably two of the best kickers in Northwest Ohio. Johan Silver for Fremont Ross had two clutch field goals. His first from 24 yards out and his second from 41 yards out. St Francis’ Travis Kenner also booted a 42-yard field goal. The kickers combined for 19 of the 79 points scored
Next up, Fremont Ross will invade Donnell Stadium in Findlay Friday as the two rivals go head to head in a key TRAC ball game starting at 7pm.
