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Napoleon hangs tough for three quarters

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Bruce Hefflinger
October 25, 2008

By BRUCE HEFFLINGER
hefflinger@crescent-news.com
FINDLAY - For three quarters Napoleon traded punches with Greater Buckeye Conference heavyweight Findlay. But a 1-2-3 by the Trojans to open the fourth period brought a quick knockout of the defending league champions and gave Findlay an outright GBC title with a 49-28 win on Friday at Donnell Stadium.

Clinging to a 28-21 advantage after three quarters, the Trojans scored three touchdowns in the first 1:25 of the final quarter.

First Ryan Wolfe scored on a 50-yard reverse on the opening play of the stanza.
Napoleon then fumbled on the first play following the Findlay kickoff and the Trojans needed just one play to hit paydirt when Eric Gilbert connected on a 29-yard strike with Mandela Sheaffer.

Another Napoleon turnover, an interception by Alex Henry, quickly gave Findlay possession and Nate Kupferberg rambled in from 22 yards out one play later for a 49-21 lead with 10:35 to play.

"What fun our offense is to coach," said a jubilent Findlay coach Mark Ritzler after his squad won its first GBC championship since 2005. "The last four weeks we've made plays when we needed to."

The senior trio of Gilbert, Wolfe and Sheaffer all had big games for Findlay, Gilbert running for one TD and throwing for four more, two each to Wolfe and Sheaffer.

"They had six guys in the box with a lot of sugaring off the end," Ritzler noted. "It was just a matter of the right formation and the right play. We've got a lot of weapons. You can't load the box and you can't play Cover 2 all night. I imagine it's difficult to play against our offense, we've got such balance."

Despite playing without leading rusher Wade Arredondo who was out with a foot injury, Findlay rolled up 429 yards of offense, 230 through the air and 199 on the ground.

"They're so explosive," Napoleon coach Tory Strock said of Findlay, which closes out the season at 6-4 overall and 5-0 in the GBC. "They're a tough matchup for us. They have great players that make plays. They just have a great program."

Still, the Wildcats were able to hang with the Division I squad.

After Napoleon ran nearly six minutes off the clock on the opening drive of the game only to come away without points, Findlay appeared on its way to an easy win with two touchdowns in a span of 2:23 to go in front 14-0 late in the first quarter.

But the Wildcats then put together perhaps their most impressive drive of the season, marching 92 yards on 16 plays, using 9:17 of the clock to score on a 7-yard pass from Andrew Keller to Nick Rettig on fourth-and-goal with 3:53 to play in the half.

Both offenses were unstoppable in the third quarter, each scoring touchdowns on a pair of possessions leaving the hosts in front 28-21 following a 56-yard TD run by Napoleon's Jason Brown. The senior standout finished with 220 yards on 23 carries in his final game for the Wildcats.

"He's special," Strock said of Brown. "He played a big, big game. It doesn't matter who we play, he can play with anybody."

However, two Wildcat turnovers to start the fourth quarter meant no share of a second straight GBC crown for Brown and his Napoleon teammates.

"Our margin for error is small and a team like Findlay will capitalize," Strock explained.

It was what Ritzler was hoping for out of his defense.

"I told the defense as soon as they make a turnover the game is ours," Ritzler said. "We got two in a minute."

And with it a GBC title for 28 seniors.

"The seniors helped turn the ship around," Ritzler said of rebounding from a pair of sub-par years by Findlay standards. "We said at the beginning we had to get respect, our swagger and a championship back and we got all three."

The Wildcats, meanwhile, close out Strock's first year at 5-5 overall and 3-2 in the conference.

"We traded punches with a Division I heavyweight as long as we could," said Strock, who loses 10 seniors to graduation. "I'm proud of the kids for trading punches."

NAPOLEON FINDLAY
First Downs 18 11
Rushing Yards 47-295 25-199
Passing Yards 102 230
Total Yards 397 429
Passing 10-18-1 12-14-0
Fumbles 1 0
Fumbles Lost 1 0
Penalties 0-0 5-46

Napoleon 0 7 14 7 - 28
Findlay 14 0 14 21 - 49

Findlay - Sheaffer 37-yard pass from Gilbert (Roberts kick).
Findlay - Gilbert 1-yard run (Roberts kick).
Napoleon - Rettig 7-yard pass from Keller (Detmer kick).
Findlay - Wolfe 23-yard pass from Gilbert (Roberts kick).
Napoleon - Vocke 3-yard pass from Keller (Detmer kick).
Findlay - Wolfe 30-yard pass from Gilbert (Roberts kick).
Napoleon - Brown 56-yard run (Detmer kick).
Findlay - Wolfe 50-yard run (Roberts kick).
Findlay - Sheaffer 29-yard pass from Gilbert (Roberts kick).
Findlay - Kupferberg 22-yard run (Roberts kick).
Napoleon - Weaver 3-yard run (Detmer kick).

Rushing: Napoleon - Brown 23-220; Weaver 17-56; Hummer 4-17; Keller 2-9; Team1- -7. Findlay Wolfe 1-50; Gilbert 7-48; Alexander 3-45; Kupferberg 4-41; Oates 3-8; Armstrong 4-8; Hutton 1-1; Sheaffer 2- -2.
Passing: Napoleon - Keller 10-18-1-102. Findlay - Gilbert 12-14-0-230.
Receiving: Napoleon - Rettig 3-35; Detmer 2-31; Bloom 2-17; Fisher 1-15; Vocke 1-3; Brown 1-1. Findlay - Sheaffer 5-118; Wolfe 5-100; Crawford 2-12.




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