Philo provides an electric Friday night thriller
By: Coleman Bacon
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DUNCAN FALLS, Ohio (WOUB) – The Philo Electrics played host to the Tri-Valley Scotties in a Friday night lights classic. With an electric finish Philo was able to come out on top on a last second touchdown to pull out the win 31-29.
The identity for these teams is pounding the rock, and they did exactly that tonight. Leevi Wade looked to continue his stellar season, and he got right to it on the first drive. Punching it into the endzone for a one-yard touchdown, making the lead 7-0 with 7:12 remaining in the first. Slade Sprankle is the workhorse of this Philo team, and he showed it. He had eight carries on the first drive alone and with a Cohen Davis field goal the score was 7-3 heading into the second quarter.
On Tri-Valley’s second drive, Wade would cap it off again with another one-yard touchdown to extend their lead making it 14-3 Scotties with 9:12 to go in the quarter. After Philo’s next drive resulted in a punt, Tri-Valley would get the passing game involved. With Stone Spiker hitting AJ Pusz for the 27-yard touchdown, making it 21-3 with 1:39 left in the quarter. Slade Sprankle exploded for a huge run taking it to the Tri-Valley 20. Philo punched it in with a pass from Audie Buchanan to Rusty Trout for the touchdown. Philo cuts into lead 21-10, ending the first half.
Philo receives the ball and wastes no time getting the action with Hayden Harper taking the kickoff all the way down to the Tri-Valley 31-yard line. Slade Sprankle scored on a one-yard touchdown and the two-point conversion. Philo cuts into the lead, making it 21-18 Tri-Valley early in the third quarter. After a stalled Tri-Valley drive and a failed fourth-down conversion by Philo, the third ended with the score still 21-18.
Starting the fourth, Tri-Valley mounted a drive to get to the Philo five-yard line but failed on a fourth down. Philo with the ball back and Slade Sprankle put his team on his back and broke away for a 50-yard touchdown, giving Philo the lead 25-21 with five minutes remaining. Tri-Valley would get a huge completion on fourth down when Spiker launched a prayer to Madden Povlinko and he catches it and gets tackled at the Philo eight-yard line.
Wade would get the go-ahead score on a one-yard carry, then Lucca Gargasz would speed in for the two-point conversion, with 49 seconds left Tri-Valley taking the lead 29-25. With no timeouts, Philo needed an answer to win the game. Rusty Trout took the kickoff to the Tri-Valley 47-yard line, and the Electrics were in business. After going backwards for two plays Ky-Mani Phillip get a big catch for the first down on the 20-yard line and spikes the ball with four seconds to go. Audie Buchanan dropped back to pass and looked for Walker Dupler In the back of the endzone and its dropped. But there was a pass interference, giving Philo an untimed down. Buchanan dropped back to pass and throws up a prayer, and it’s caught by Rusty Trout for the game-winning touchdown. With no time on the clock, Philo pulled out the win 31-29.