Tribe offense fizzles at half

ANNA, Ohio — The Indians pulled within reach twice in the second quarter.

With 83 seconds before half, they just needed to get into intermission — Fort Recovery was set to get the ball to start the third quarter.

The Rockets struck big before the break, and the Tribe offense fizzled thereafter.

Fort Recovery High School’s football team had its season come to a close with a 33-14 loss to the Anna Rockets in the Division VI Region 24 quarterfinal on Saturday at Anna Booster Field.

“That’s disappointing,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp, whose team ends the year 4-8. “We wanted to keep playing if we could. Too many big plays. They were explosive in some areas offensively. They got that two-score cushion and that really made it hard.”

Anna (6-6), the region’s No. 11 seed that had shut out No. 14 seed Fort Recovery 28-0 Sept. 10, advances to the regional semifinal against No. 2 seed Allen East (9-3) on Saturday at Wapakoneta’s Mercy Health Ford Field.

The Indians orchestrated an eight-play, 57-yard scoring drive late in the second quarter to pull within one score just before half. Cale Rammel capped the drive with a 1-yard TD run, and Riley Hiser’s 2-point conversion run made it 20-14 with 1:23 before half.

But Anna struck for its third big scoring play of the game when Carter Seigle connected with Zach Ambos for a 46-yard touchdown with 42 seconds before half.

Instead of going into the locker room down six and primed to receive the third-quarter kickoff, the Indians trailed 27-14 at intermission.

“That was huge,” Niekamp said. “Especially because we had the ball coming out in the second half. That was disappointing and difficult, and when you look at those two sidelines I think there is about twice as many (players) on their sideline as there was ours, and that matters in situations like the kicking game where they’re going to have some mismatches out there and that’s kind of what happened on that kickoff.”

Ambos returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown following a Tribe trick play TD.

“Our guys do our best on those,” Niekamp continued. “A couple of guys got out of position and with a good team like that there’s not much margin for error on those kind of plays.”

Troy Homan returned the third-quarter kickoff more than 80 yards but it was called back because of a holding call. The Indians punted eight plays later.

Their next two possessions resulted in a turnover on downs and another punt.

Anna, meanwhile, tacked on with a Seigle touchdown run from the 4.

Seigel finished 7-of-11 through the air for 168 yards, including a 56 yard TD to Ambos, who had four receptions for 141 yards and two scores in addition to his kick return.

Hunter Schmidt led the Rockets in rushing with 90 yards and a TD — a 5-yard run late in the first quarter — on 23 carries.

Down 13-0 at the end of the first quarter, Fort Recovery got on the board with a trick play, a 48-yard halfback pass from Logan Homan to Troy Homan.

Logan Homan took a toss from quarterback Cale Rammel to the right side of the field, and Homan lofted a pass to Troy Homan (no relation) down the right sideline. Troy bobbled the ball initially, but corralled it and trotted into the end zone. The conversion pass failed and the Indians trailed 13-6 with 5:53 before half.

“Three weeks we’ve been practicing it,” Niekamp said, laughing about the trick play.

But Ambos scored the second of his three total TDs when he returned the ensuing kick to the end zone.

Rammel completed just four of his 14 pass attempts for 38 yards, and he was sacked twice for a loss of 19 yards. Troy Homan had three catches for 71 yards.

Hiser’s career came to a close with 158 yards on 29 carries.

“He was what he always is; he’s such a reliable back,” Niekamp said. “He runs the ball so hard. These guys [the Rockets] know better because they know us … but I think it’s easy for people to look at his size and be surprised when he’s that aggressive and that forceful when he runs.

“That’s hard to bring down for big guys. We’re going to miss him.”