Anna’s running back Zach Osborn runs for his first touchdown in Friday’s win over the Versailles Tigers. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Chaos reigned in Anna’s 13-7 win over Versailles, featuring three touchdowns erased by penalties, and 28 yellow flags in total. Zach Osborn’s 2nd quarter scoop and score made the difference in a matchup void of offense.
Versailles, Oh – “That’s maybe the craziest game I’ve ever coached,” Anna head coach Nick Marino said.
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
It’s tough to pick the craziest part. It might be the 28 combined penalties. Maybe the trifecta of Rocket touchdowns wiped off the board by yellow flags. Or perhaps it’s that the victorious Rockets managed just one touchdown drive, and it was just nine yards long.
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Crazy, weird, ugly, slow, boring. Whatever words might malign Anna’s 13-7 win against Versailles (5-2, 3-2), it counts the same in the standings and the Rockets improved to 5-2 (3-2) and hold a firm grip on the 2nd seed in Region 24.
No matter how strange a game gets, Anna can always count on one thing, more accurately one player, to show up in a big way. Zach Osborn scooped up a fumble and took it 35 yards to the house in the second quarter for what became the game-deciding score.
“Zach’s so important,” Marino said. “That’s his third defensive touchdown of the year. He’s found the football in some very critical situations.”
Ethan Wilker loses control after a hard hit by Rocket defenders….
Osborn also scored the Rockets’ first touchdown on a four-yard swing pass.
Anna’s front six didn’t give an inch against the Versailles run attack, and the back five deflected most of the passes thrown their way. On the rare occasion quarterback Ethan Wilker had an open receiver, he couldn’t get a clean look to throw him the ball due to Anna’s pass rush.
Anna’s defensive front shifted constantly until the snap, and seemed to have an edge in guessing where the ball was headed.
“In our film study we felt like they had some giveaways that helped us know what they were doing and how to blow it up,” Osborn said.
…Recovered by Anna’s Nolan Howell, which resulted in a touchdown.
Noah Aufderhaar, the Rockets’ leading receiver, followed Osborn’s lead by making an impact on defense on an offensively dry night. He wrapped up Wilker for a sack on third down, and pursued and tackled tailbacks effectively. Marino said Aufderhaar is Anna’s most reliable playmaker at linebacker.
“We just couldn’t move the ball effectively,” Versailles Coach Ryan Jones said. “When we had opportunities we either dropped the pass, or missed a pass, or missed a block, or fumbled it, or had a penalty that killed the drive. It was just one thing after another that killed us.”
To Versailles’ credit, their defense performed nearly to the standard of Anna’s. It allowed just one score on a nine-yard drive.
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“We did a good job of getting off blocks,” Jones said. “And we did well shutting down some of those swing routes they love to do. We made them do some other things that they probably don’t prefer to do, and we tackled well. You’re gonna miss some tackles against players that athletic, but we pursued well so when we missed those tackles they weren’t breaking for touchdowns.”
Versailles’ Landyn Knapke runs in the only touchdown for Versailles.
Anna’s offense received the opening kick and threatened to take the game over early, cruising to the 2-yard line before even facing a third down. Osborn did most of the work getting them to the red zone, including a couple of first downs on direct snaps starring quarterback Alex Shappie as the lead blocker. But the last two yards proved problematic for the Rockets and they turned it over on downs, ending what few expected to be Anna’s offense’s only effective drive.
Versailles’ single successful drive wouldn’t come until the second half. Its opening possession ended when Ethan Wilker took a shot in the backfield, fumbled, and Anna lineman Nolan Howell fell on the football. The recovery left just nine yards for Anna to cover, and on third down from the four, Shappie found Osborn on a swing route with receivers blocking out in front of him to snag a 7-0 first-quarter lead.
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Penalties and turnovers stamped out any semblance of a successful drive for the rest of the half.
“We need another penalty here,” a sage 8th-grade spotter said in the press box as Versailles faced 3rd&12. He was right in thinking that was the Tigers best chance at 12 yards on a play in the first half. Eleven flags flew in the first 15 minutes.
Versailles’ Landyn Knapke fumbled the ball when hit…
Both teams committed constant errors, both minor and major. But Versailles tailback Landyn Knapke committed the backbreaker. He put the ball back on the grass and Osborn snatched it. His convoy of bodyguards guided him untouched to the endzone for a two-score lead in the second quarter.
A false start, Anna’s seventh penalty of the half, pushed the extra point back five yards. The kick sailed left of the uprights, giving the Rockets just a 13-0 advantage.
To no one’s surprise, a penalty killed the ensuing Versailles drive, and Anna’s offense marched onto the field with 1:26 left in the half and a chance to put the Tigers away for good.
Shappie rolled to his right and threw to Camden Palmisano who was running down the right side, redefining the term “wide open.” The senior wideout hauled it in for the touchdown … but not so fast.
…Zach Osborn (31) recovered the fumble and ran it in for a touchdown.
A penalty for an ineligible player downfield wiped away the score. Three plays (and two penalties) later, James Schmitmeyer jumped a route and intercepted Shappie, keeping the Tigers in the game at the half.
But a different team came out of the Versailles locker room. They received the second-half kick and paraded down the field in 9 plays, all rushes, to score. Running back Landyn Knapke capped the possession with a 31-yard touchdown run to the right, by far the Tigers’ longest play of the night. The drive was noticeably absent of penalties which prevented Versailles from playing behind the chains and needing to put the ball in the air.
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What ensued for the remainder of the game would excite only an Iowa Hawkeye fan, and maybe Jim Tressell. It went like this: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, time expires.
It sounds slow, and the 14 second-half penalties made it even slower, yet the second half found its own style of drama.
Following Versailles’ touchdown, Osborn rushed to the right, made a couple of defenders miss, made another fall flat on his back, and cut it all the way back to the left corner of the end zone for a thrilling 82-yard touchdown … but not so fast.
Holding on the offense set the Rockets back 80+ yards, and they punted.
In the fourth quarter Wilker dropped back to pass and threw a pick-six to Palmisano finally adding the exclamation point to the slow burn of the second half … but not so fast.
A block in the back during the return erased Palmisano’s second would-be touchdown.
All said and done, the officiating crew called 28 penalties, 14 apiece including a couple of declined penalties.
“We overcame a lot tonight,” Osborn said. “We just kept our heads and played hard smash-mouth football.”
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