Noah Aufderhaar (21) snags a pass from Anna’s quarterback Alex Shappie for the first touchdown of the night. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
After claiming a 21-0 lead, the Anna Rockets (3-2, 1-2) fought off a threatening comeback from St. Henry (2-3, 1-2). The Rockets clung on to a 21-14 win behind two receiving touchdowns by Noah Aufderhaar, a Zach Osborn pick-6, and a fourth down goal line stand.
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
Anna, OH – With 4:31 left to play, Anna’s offense marched onto the field with a 21-14 lead, not a drop of momentum, and one simple mission: run the football, expire the clock, and capture the one-score win. The problem was Anna hadn’t moved the ball on the ground much all night. St. Henry’s defense struggled to stick with wideouts but wrangled rushers fairly well.
Running Back Zach Osborn moved the chains once with a punishing run on 3rd & 7 that barely found the line to gain. Then on 2nd & 6, with Osborn’s tough run fresh in St. Henry’s mind, Alex Shappie pulled the ball on an option and dashed 30 yards to ice the 21-14 win.
The final score is perhaps a prettier product than the process of arriving at that score for Anna. Sometimes the destination really is better than the journey. The Rockets led 21-0 and looked poised to run away with it early in the second half, but St. Henry rallied and took it to the wire, even after suffering a couple of gut punches along the way.
Anna’s defense dominated all night, giving Zach Osborn (above) more opportunities to run.
Early in the fourth quarter while trailing 21-7, St. Henry had 4th & goal. Charlie Werling, one of two Redskin quarterbacks, got the green light to take the biggest snap of the game. It was a quarterback run, a play designed for the Werling, the running quarterback. But Werling got stonewalled inside the 1-yard line by a host of Anna linemen.
“We talk about a game of inches, and this one was,” St. Henry Coach Josh Werling said. “The kids battled and played their butts off on both sides, but unfortunately we came up just an inch short.”
If that wasn’t painful enough in a one-touchdown loss for the Redskins, while the Anna offense sputtered through the first half, Osborn intercepted Jack Huelsman, St. Henry’s preferred passing quarterback, with only 30 seconds left in the half. Osborn instantly transformed from safety to running back, and dodged three or four tackles en route to a 75-yard pick-6.
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The rollercoaster win couldn’t have come at a better time for the Rockets, who launched to a 2-0 start before losing two straight to Minster and Coldwater.
“We needed this one,” Head Coach Nick Marino said. “We didn’t play perfect football but we played tough football.”
Anna’s linebacker Landon Hewitt sacks St Henry’s quarterback Jack Huelsman.
The Rockets improved to 3-2 (1-2) and now have a great shot at bettering last year’s 5-5 regular season record.
In the first half, Anna bottled St. Henry’s offense. Despite using five defensive backs on most plays, Anna’s front six played well enough and , you might’ve thought they had seven bodies in the box. Each of St Henry’s first four drives ended in third-down sacks. The Rockets frequently brought extra pressure on passing downs from linebackers like Aufderhaar, who leads the MAC in tackles, and Landon Hewitt.
“That pass rush is a big deal,” Marino said. “Nolan Wilt is one of the top sack guys in the league. He plays both ways and he might’ve come out for one snap tonight. He’s playing his tail off.”
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Anna’s toughness up front allows their DBs to play 10+ yards off the ball to prevent chunk plays, while trusting their front to stop the run, which a few missed tackles aside, they did.
Wide receiver Noah Aufderhaar (21) scores his 2nd touchdown for the Rockets taking the referee and St Henry’s Brayden Heath (11) with him.
But Anna’s offense didn’t heat up early either. Its first two drives also ended in sacks, but once the offensive line settled in and protected Shappie, the Rockets started their takeover. On the final play of the first quarter, Shappie hit Aufderhaar 15 yards downfield between the hashes, but with St. Henry’s safeties playing much lower than Anna’s, no one was home to make the tackle and he ran untouched for an extra 40 yards before getting dragged down.
A few plays later Shappie floated another pass to Aufderhaar, this time in the back corner of the end zone, dropping it where only his go-to guy could snag it.
“I saw they were in man coverage and I just went to the guy I know best when we needed him,” Shappie said. That’s high praise considering Shappie’s got a brother in the receiving corps, who also made a few plays tonight.
After exchanging punts, Osborn’s pick-6 put St. Henry in a 14-0 hole at the break.
Anna’s quarterback Alex Shappie uses his athleticism to gain a first down.
On the first drive in the third, Anna marched straight to the red zone and Aufderhaar hauled in another TD, accidentally plowing through the umpire in the process, who thankfully was OK.
“Our connection is second to none, it’s not like anyone else I’ve ever played with,” Aufderhaar said.
But all wasn’t lost for St. Henry. After barely contributing in the first half, star receiver Carter LaGuire, beat his corner on a go route. The safety jumped the ball to bat it down, but missed by a few inches leaving LaGuire nothing but 35 yards of spacious, albeit slightly sunburnt, grass to run through for six.
St. Henry forced a pair of punts, and was stuffed on fourth down less than a yard from paydirt in between those punts, but LaGuire ripped off a huge punt return with 7:37 to play, re-energizing the ‘Skins. From the 20-yard line, Huelsman dropped back and found, who else, LaGuire in double coverage to chop the lead to 21-14.
St Henry’s wide receiver Carter LaGuire makes the final touchdown of the night for the Redskins.
All St. Henry had to do was stop the run and get the ball back. They’d done it all night. They had every ounce of momentum in the stadium. But they couldn’t do it. Shappie’s 30-yard run buried the Redskins comeback and sent them packing at 2-3 (1-2).
“We all always talk about effort, and the effort was absolutely there,” Werling said. “We can build on that. I’m so proud of them for not throwing in the towel.”
Coach Werling has his work cut out for him in his first year at the helm with Minster, New Bremen, and Versailles still on the schedule, but don’t sleep on the Redskins. The offense has too much talent to not work out the kinks on display tonight, and the defense came alive like we hadn’t seen all season. Don’t be surprised if they beat last year’s win total by a couple of games. They’ll walk into the playoffs as battle-tested as any Division VII team, and they proved last year that even a 3-7 MAC team can make some noise in the postseason.
As for Anna, I’d say the sky’s the limit, but that’s not how rockets work. After two straight losses, they blasted off again, and they don’t plan to return to Earth anytime soon.
St Henry’s Michael Gonzalez was penalized 15 yards for a facemask offense on Noah Aufderhaar (21).
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