Cowboys beat Shawnee 14-7, win Regional Championship

Wyoming beat Springfield Shawnee 14-7 last night at Welcome Stadium in Dayton, thereby winning the Regional Championship and advancing to the State semi-finals next Friday. Our opponent will be Columbus St. Francis DeSales, and the likely venue is (again) Welcome Stadium.

They say that for a team to be great, it has to be able to win when it doesn't play its best. Thanks primarily to the defense, that's what happened Friday night.

The offense moved the ball, racking up 343 yards of total offense. It just had difficulty sealing the deal. In the second quarter we drove down to the Shawnee 19 before fumbling the ball away, and at the end of the quarter were down to the seven when the clock ran out. In the third quarter we drove down to the 10, but subsequently had a Joe Panos field goal attempt blocked. In the fourth quarter, we drove down to the 15 before turning the ball over on downs.

We enjoyed great field position early, with Harry Meisner's 35 yard opening kickoff return setting up the offense just short of the midfield. However that drive ended four plays later with a turnover. The defense held Shawnee to a three and out, and a six yard Jonathan Tighe punt return gave us the ball at Shawnee's 44. Three Isiah Nearor runs and Kyle Seyfried passes of 18 yards to Harry and 12 yards to Evan Aleshire got us to fourth and one at the seven yard line. The coaches showed confidence in the offense and were rewarded by a 7 yard TD pass from Kyle to Isiah with 5:15 left in the first quarter. Isiah was hit at about the first down marker but broke the tackle and went into the end zone standing up.

(Isiah scores.  Mr. Overbey makes the call.)

As for the defense, it allowed Shawnee just four plays on our half of the field during the first two quarters. Shawnee's opening drive of the second half was a nine play drive that covered 40 yards, but the defense rose up and held them on a fourth and five at our 31 yard line. The next time Shawnee had the ball, Tony Davis caused a fumble which was recovered by Michael Travers at the Shawnee 31.

On Shawnee's next possession, they mounted their best drive of the night, a 12 play, 68 yard drive (aided by a 15 yard Wyoming penalty) but again, the defense held, forcing an incomplete pass on fourth and three from our twelve.

Shawnee finally got on the scoreboard on their next drive. They started at our 35 and immediately lost 7 yards. Then their quarterback dropped back to pass, scrambled free to the back side of the play and lofted a pass that was caught and taken down to the one for a 41 yard gain. Shawnee scored the next play. The game was tied with 8:24 to go in the fourth.

Now the pressure was back on the offense. After having managed to gain just 16 yards in 3 second half possessions, we got the ball back at our 36, thanks to a nice 28 yard kickoff return by Phillip Schuholz. Kyle dropped backed to pass, made a pump fake and threw it deep.

I have no idea what happened at that point because the Dayton Welcome security personnel were pretty strict as to where hangers on could stand. Therefore I saw nothing further. However, I read in the paper this morning that Spencer Herbst caught the pass and ran it in for a 64 yard touchdown. Twenty seconds had elapsed since Shawnee's score.

Here is a picture of Spencer celebrating at the end of the game.

He probably looked similarly happy after catching a 64 yard TD pass,

but we can only speculate about that.

After we drove down to the 15 but couldn't produce any points, Shawnee had one last chance, with 54.2 seconds left on the clock. They made two first downs before Max Kadish intercepted a pass and returned it 19 yards to close the door for good.

Kyle took a knee to run the last 1.5 seconds off the clock. The defense had not allowed Shawnee out of their half of the field after the touchdown. It allowed Shawnee just 192 yards on the night.  The defense was led by Jibreel Black and Tony Davis, who were each credited with 6.5 tackles.

Kyle was 18 for 26 on the night, but two or three of those incompletions were him spiking the ball toward the end of the first half to stop the clock. He threw for 243 yards and both touchdowns.

The win brings the team to 13-0, extending the record for most wins in a season which was set last week at 12.

Our Athletic Director, Jim Barre, often mentions how important senior leadership is for the success of any team.  Here are the football seniors waiting to accept the Regional Championship trophy.

Andrew Kraner, Dillon Burk, Alex Etler, Spencer Herbst, Harry Meisner, Evan Aleshire, Isiah Nearor, Jibreel Black, Jared Frost, Nick Layman, Jacob Allsop, Broderick Williams, James Edwards, Oliver Jawwaad

With some folks out of town for Thanksgiving next week, we're going to need everyone around to make a special effort to get out to the game and support the Cowboys.

(Hi Grace.)

Enquirer article with photo gallery here.

OHSAA state football bracket here.

Photo gallery here.

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