Sun Nov 08 2009
By TIM McDONOUGH
It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win.
The Bulldogs of Defiance ran their record to 2-0 for the first time since 2001, holding off a tough challenge from the Titans of Ottawa-Glandorf for a 7-3 victory on Friday night at Fred J. Brown Stadium in the opening game of Western Buckeye League play.
Defiance (1-0 WBL), made big plays defensively all game long, while the offense chewed up nearly all of the final 4:16 of the fourth quarter to earn the win.
"Our kids stepped up and made some plays when they had to in the second half," said Defiance head coach Jerry Buti. "I thought we played great defense all night. They had a lot of shots at us in the second half and that was tough on our defense, but our offense finally stepped up in that last drive and made some big plays."
It was a tough night all-around for the Titans (0-2, 0-1 WBL), the defending WBL champions. O-G lost leading rusher Logan Kaufman in the first half after just three carries with what appeared to be a knee injury, while also turning the ball over four times.
But despite the adversity, O-G was just one play away from winning the ballgame.
"It was a great football game from a defensive standpoint and that's what you come to expect when Defiance and O-G play football against each other," stated O-G mentor Ken Schriner. "When you look at the scoreboard and see 7-3, the bottom line is we can't make the mistakes we made and win the football game."
In the first half Defiance dominated in every way. The Bulldogs held the Titans to 20 yards rushing and just 85 total yards with 45 of those coming on a long pass play near the end of the half. Defiance picked off O-G sophomore QB Nathan Kahle three times and forced a fumble, but at halftime led just 7-0.
"We drove the ball down their throats to score (on a 5-yard run by Travis Spitnale), but then we get all those turnovers and lead just 7-0 at the half ... O-G had to be ecstatic," said Buti. "I'm sure they were in their lockerroom with all kinds of confidence because they were still in the ballgame. One touchdown and it would have been all tied up."
In the second half, the Titans took the opening kickoff and put together their best drive of the game. Starting from its own 21, O-G used the running of Jacob Lugo, who took over for the injured Kaufman, and the passing of Kahle to drive all the way to the DHS 24.
The Defiance defense stiffened, however, forcing O-G into a long field goal attempt. Nolan Croy was up to the task, booting a 42-yarder to cut the deficit to 7-3 and seize the early momentum at the 6:27 mark of the third quarter.
"I told the kids at halftime that no one is bigger than the team and that they had to keep working hard," said Schriner. "It's one of those things where everyone needed to step up. Logan (Kaufman) is a big part of what we do and it doesn't look good for him ... we're going to find out about that tomorrow."
The O-G defense then turned up the heat, forcing Defiance into a 3-and-out on its first series. The Titans looked to ride the momentum and nearly broke a long play for six on a pass from Kahle to Ryan Kuhlman, but a game-saving tackle by Craig Gutman forced O-G to try another field goal.
This time, Croy was off the mark on a 32-yard attempt with 2:10 to play in the third quarter, preserving the 7-3 lead for Defiance.
Despite seeing the DHS defense bend, junior linebacker Max Peter explained it was all about staying aggressive so that it wouldn't break.
"We found out tonight that we can make big plays defensively if we stay a0ggressive and that's what we have to continue to do," said Peter. "I think we all learned last week that we can overcome adversity and that helped us tonight in a tight ballgame."
In the fourth quarter, a Defiance turnover didn't come back to bite the Bulldogs as the DHS defense forced O-G into a 3-and-out series. That set the stage for the DHS offense to take control with 4:16 to play.
Starting a drive on its own 36-yard line, the Bulldogs turned to workhorse Travis Spitnale. The senior running back, who finished the game with 42 carries for 151 yards, had his number called eight times in the Bulldogs' final drive, converting runs for two big first downs on third-day plays as O-G was forced to burn all its timeouts.
In all, Defiance took all but 14.4 seconds off the clock, pinning O-G on its 5-yard line following a Mark Sebring punt.
"That last drive was so big, I think we stepped up on the offensive line when we really had to," said junior center Casey Furhmann. "It wasn't easy, O-G played great in the second half. But it felt good to come through when we had to late in the game."
Although not pleased with a loss, Schriner knew his kids gave it everything they had.
"You can't fault the effort of our kids, especially in the second half," said Schriner. "This is two weeks in a row where we've come out offensively in the first half and just played awful. But we were in the game and that's a credit to how our defense has been playing."
Now 2-0, Buti and the Bulldogs will now turn their attention toward the Redskins of Wapakoneta.
Concluded Buti. "I have no idea what it means to be 2-0 because it hasn't happened in so long. We have a lot of respect for O-G, so to beat the defending league champs is something to be proud of. Now we've got to continue to work hard and see what happens next week."
O-G DEFIANCE
First Downs 7 11
Rushing Yards 25-29 56-186
Passing Yards 173 9
Total Offense 202 195
Passes Attempted 20 4
Passes Completed 11 1
Had Intercepted 3 0
Fumbles 1 2
Fumbles Lost 1 2
Yards Penalized 2-10 4-20
O-G 0 0 3 0 - 3
Defiance 0 7 0 0 - 7
Defiance - Spitnale 5-yard run (Sebring kick).
Ottawa-Glandorf - Croy 42-yard field goal.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Ottawa-Glandorf - Lugo 9-19; Kaufman 3-12; Greve 5-8; Kahle 8-(-10). Defiance - Spitnale 42-151; Sebring 9-29; Gonzales 1-6; Alex Nofziger 1-0; Murray 3-0.
PASSING: Ottawa-Glandorf - Kahle 11-20-3-173. Defiance - Murray 1-4-0-9.
RECEIVING: Ottawa-Glandorf - Kuhlman 6-87; Moening 3-60; Laubenthal 1-15; Schmiedebusch 1-11. Defiance - Nofziger 1-9.
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