FRHS drops finale in OT

FORT RECOVERY — Two yards.

That’s how close the Indians were to securing their second win. Just 2 yards.

St. Henry stopped the 2-point rushing attempt from Troy Homan to secure a 28-27 win over the Fort Recovery High School football team in overtime Friday night.

“It's disappointing that it didn't turn out the way we wanted, but doggone it, did we play some, some tough, smart, physical football,” FRHS coach Brent Niekamp said. “And that's what we try to do all the time.”

St. Henry (3-7, 2-6 Midwest Athletic Conference), which clinched a playoff berth with the win, got the ball first at the start of overtime. It ran five straight plays in which quarterback Charlie Werling kept the football to cover the 20 yards to the goal line.

The Indians (1-9, 1-7 MAC) wouldn’t go down without a fight of their own.

After giving up the score, Fort Recovery punched back with a 14-yard run by Reece Wendel. 

Two more rushes by Wendel had the Indians on the 1-yard line. Troy Homan found the end zone the next with a quarterback keeper.

Niekamp had a decision to make. Kick the ball for the tie or to go for the win.

The Indians went for it.

With the game on the line, Homan tried to rush the ball through a seam in the right side, but was stopped by the defense, just 2 yards short of the goal line.

“The 10 seniors that are crying in the locker room right now, all wanted to go for two, I agreed with them,” Niekamp said. “I thought we had the momentum, moving the ball, running the ball. The way we were blocking and controlling the line of scrimmage, I felt good about trying to pound it in there. 

“It didn't work out, but if I had to decide 100 more times I’d do it 100 more times.”

Fort Recovery had to go on a mid-game tear to even be in the position for overtime.

St. Henry came out strong, scoring on its first two drives to go up 14-0. Both scores were rushes by Logan Dehan.

Midway through the second quarter, the Indians started to figure things out. An onside kick that Owen Heitkamp smothered began their first scoring drive. A well-mixed balance of rushes from Ethan Hartnagel, Reece Guggenbiller, Homan and Wendel marched the ball 54 yards down the field.

The score came with 1:30 left in the half on a 6-yard rush by Guggenbiller.

The momentum carried over into the second half for Fort Recovery. Between Homan and Wendel, the Indians ran the ball for 110 yards on the first two drives of the half. Both times Homan punched the ball in for the score on a 4-yard carry.

“We knew the conditions that we had to run the ball, and the offensive line did a great job,” Homan said. “All game, they're phenomenal upfront, and everything ran through them, we were able to run the ball game because of them guys.”

Homan finished with 56 yards and two touchdowns on 15 attempts and Wendel had 111 yards on 15 attempts.

Despite having given up three straight scores to the Indians, St. Henry answered the call late in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Its offense got the ball back with six minutes left and a push from Werling and Dehan moved it 62 yards to the end zone. Werling ran the ball in from the 3-yard line to tie the game with 1:18 left.

“There was some adversity and at different times this year we haven't rose to the moment,” St. Henry coach Brad Luthman said. “Tonight they did, so I'm really happy that they get to enjoy this one.”

Fort Recovery’s season now has officially come to a close, along with the careers of 10 seniors, including Homan. Even though the Indians were already eliminated from playoff contention, the team came out with heart and the desire to win, but fell just short.

“We played with heart, and there's nobody else I’d rather play with,” Homan said. “Nobody plays harder than my teammates, and I'm just so proud of everybody.

“I knew this was my last game. I've been playing for six years, looked up to my big brothers and I just had to put my head down and go down for them. So I wasn't gonna go down without fighting.”