St. Henry rallies past Fort Recovery

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians will have a bye in the first week of the playoffs.

They might need that time to recover from Friday’s regular-season finale.

Fort Recovery High School’s football team had what seemed to be a comfortable lead before St. Henry scored all of its points in the final quarter for a 22-21 comeback victory.

St. Henry (4-2) put itself in position to tie the game when Bryce Brookhart tossed a 43-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Lange with 38 seconds left. But instead of going for the kick and the tie, the visiting team decided to let the game come down to a single play. Brookhart delivered again, this time connecting on a pass to Owen Lefeld for the winning 2-point conversion attempt.

Fort Recovery (2-4) built a 21-point lead, scoring a touchdown in each of the first three quarters. The first came on a 10-yard pass from Clay Schmitz, who finished 16-of-29 for 191 yards, to Regan Martin nine minutes into the game.

Gavin Thobe extended the Fort Recovery lead to 14-0 with an 18-yard scoring run 5:09 before halftime, and Derek Jutte added a 6-yard TD scamper 3:22 into the second half. Cobe Wendel hit all three extra-point attempts.

But, the Indians’ offense stalled from there, and St. Henry fought back in the final stanza. A 4-yard TD run by Lefeld got the visitors on the scoreboard, and Brookhart tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Bennett Gels with 3:30 left to set the stage for the last-minute, game-winning drive.

The comeback gave St. Henry a 323-258 yardage advantage of the Indians, with Brookhart matching Schmitz’s 191 yards as he completed passes to eight different receivers. Lefeld also racked up 138 yards on the ground.

Martin caught six passes from Schmitz for 87 yards. Thobe had four receptions, and Derek Jutte led the rushing attack with 52 yards on 13 carries.

Thobe’s 11 tackles were the team high for Fort Recovery.

After taking next week off, Fort Recovery will host Fairbanks in the Division VI Region 24 tournament at 7 p.m. Oct. 17.