Sports
Heath Bulldogs beat Fairfield Union Falcons in a close OHSAA round one matchup
By: Katie Bailey
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LANCASTER, Ohio (WOUB) –– The Heath Bulldogs are moving on in the OHSAA tournament after traveling to Fairfield Union and defeating the Falcons, 22-21.
The first quarter started off slow for both teams. Heath got charged with some large penalties and a big stop from Falcon Colton Borah set up Fairfield Union with strong field position when the second quarter began, and the Falcons still had the ball.
Fairfield Union used this momentum right away when star Falcon running back Lane Burkhart had multiple rushing plays and hit his 1,000-career rushing yard. Burkhart brought Fairfield Union to the scoreboard first with a touchdown after an offsides penalty on Heath. The Falcons also had a successful two-point conversion, up 8-0.
Fairfield Union quarterback Dean Clark slowly started to pass the ball more after the timeout and found Kohen Arnett with two seconds left in the end zone; Fairfield Union extended the lead to 15-0 going into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Bulldogs started to find their stride after halftime, recovering a kickoff fumble. Heath eventually found the end zone off a pass to Joe Ward and finally got on the board, 15-7.
This momentum switch definitely affected Fairfield Union, causing them to turn the ball over on a fourth-down conversion attempt. This set up the Bulldogs for good field position on the Heath 29-yard line. This drive resulted in Heath kicker Cam Montgomery securing a 41-yard field goal; however, the Falcons were still up 15-10 at the end of the third.
A similar back-and-forth style continued in the fourth quarter after Bulldog Cade Harbage picked off Clark’s pass on the first play. Heath used this switch up into the endzone and took the lead 16-15 after a failed two-point conversion.
Heath was able to stay up top with a touchdown by Ethan Griese even after a huge 72-yard endzone pass from Clark.
The game finished out with both teams fumbling the ball but unsuccessfully playing off of them, until Heath called their last time out after a strong pass on third down and ran the clock out, winning 22-21.
The Bulldogs will move on to the second round of the tournament and face off against New Lexington.