One For Al…Tigerball 1.0 Sparkles On Opening Night, Versailles Wears Down Harvest Prep

As close to being mistake-free as you can have on opening night, Versailles delivered on Scott Broerman’s promise of conditioning and discipline with a 21-18 win over Harvest Prep.

Versailles, OH – Who says you can’t convince an old Tiger he needs a few new tricks?

Or, more accurately, who says an old Tiger needs to be convinced?

Consider first-year Versailles football coach Scott Broerman on one or both counts…following Thursday night’s demonstration of a promise he made when he was hired in late December to replace Ryan Jones as the Tigers’ seventh football coach.

“I don’t know how many we’ll win, but I promise you we’ll be the best conditioned and the most disciplined team on the field,”  said Broerman in January interview with Press Pros.

And Thursday he made good on that promise, outscoring favored Harvest Prep 21-18 in a game so mistake-free as to remind those old enough of Broerman’s coach and emotional mentor Al Hetrick, for whom he once played at Versailles.

Hetrick, in his day, preached clean football, ‘Tigerball 1.0′, it came to be.  Largely cliche’ in this day, but back then Hetrick proved time and again that the team that’s the most disciplined wins football games.  Thursday night Versailles had just one penalty, a five-yard procedure call.

Hetrick believed that you needed the mental toughness to create opportunities and then cash them in.  Each team scored three touchdowns Thursday, but only Versailles made its extra points.  Harvest Prep was 0-3 on two-point attempts.

Hetrick believed in the simplicity of attack…physical dominance at the line of scrimmage…and mental wear-down of an opponent.  On the Harvest Prep sideline Thursday coaches repeatedly cautioned players to “Don’t go to sleep.  They’re not going to stop.  They’re going to come at you.  You know it’s coming, you have to stop it.  They’re going to run those same plays.”

And like in Hetrick’s day, they did stop them sometimes.  But there were enough times that they didn’t to beat them.

For instance, Tiger running back Oliver Brunswick’s breaking an 87-yard run in the first quarter, taking advantage of teammate’s Nate Marshal’s block that created just enough crease for Brunswick to shoot through and outrun the Warriors’ secondary to the end zone.  Brunswick’s score was a shock to the Harvest Prep psyche, believing that they were the faster team, and too fast for Versailles to beat them in an 87-yard sprint.

On defense, Versailles forced Harvest Prep to turn the ball over three times on downs, killing valuable time with each change of possession.

Simply put, they did the little things that Hetrick preached and practiced, that won him hundreds of games and six state titles.  Simply put, there was no convincing him, otherwise.

Brunswick’s score came at 9:31 of the first quarter.  And buoyed by that one play early in the game, the defense began holding its own at the line of scrimmage, quicker than the bigger, slower Prep interior linemen.

At 6:58 of the second quarter Blake Monnin took advantage of a shanked punt and completed his first pass of the game, three yards to Kade Schwartz, proving that the Tigers could pass and scored through the air to go up 14-0.

But Harvest Prep quarterback Collin Boff was not perturbed, and promptly moved the Warriors on the ensuing drive to strike 60 yards downfield to receiver SJ Harris, setting up a 9-yard touchdown run by Danthony Gaulden.  Without a credible kicker, Harvest attempted the two-point conversion, missed, and trailed 14-6 with 3:33 left in the half.

Boff is the real deal, a commit to play next year for Bowling Green, and after Versailles failed to moved the ball on the next conversion, Boff got it back, ran the clock down and found teammate AJ West on the final play of the half, 77 yards on a slant pattern to make it 14-12.  Again, the absence of a kicker for the extra points.

Resilience was always a characteristic of Versailles teams under Hetrick, and on the opening drive of the third quarter the latest version of Tiger ball ran off a 7 and a half minute drive, consuming 13 plays to score on a Blake Monnin lunge for a 5-yard touchdown.  Kade Schwartz made his third extra point of the game, and Versailles again led by nine points, 21-12.

Collin Boff was now confident that the only way they were going to beat Versailles was to throw, and he quickly moved the ball past midfield through the air, only to have that same Oliver Brunswick pick him off to kill another drive, and more time off the clock.  The Tigers took possession and tried pounding with the run game.  Failing to move it themselves, Versailles turned the ball over on downs, but it didn’t seem to matter.

The defense dug in, sacking Boff and adding some urgency to Prep’s second half plan to throw the ball over the top of the Tigers’ secondary.

He quickly went 75 yards in 9 plays before scoring on a one-yard run from just outside the goal line to close the margin to 21-18, still with 9:23 left in the game.  And once again, they missed the point after attempt.

But even Hetrick’s teams were seldom perfect in their execution, and Versailles was forced to punt the ball away, giving Harvest at least one more try to go ahead.  Boff moved the ball to the Versailles five yard line, where on fourth and goal a desperation pass went through the hands of AJ West to complete the goal line stand.

Taking over on their own five, Versailles and its run game – Cole Brewer and Brunswick – began hammering its way out of the shadow of the end zone, despite Harvest Prep selling out, trying to rip the ball away.  On fourth and three, Monnin broke a 18-yard run for a surprise first down with 2:51 on the clock.

Moments later, on fourth and seven, Monnin did it again, picking up a measured first down by a foot to seal the game with a minute left to play.  Harvest Prep had used all of its time outs and could not stop the clock.  As the clock expired, Scott Broerman turned and high-fived an assistant.  He had delivered, at least on opening night, playing football close to the vest and to his convictions.  His team had, indeed, been the best conditioned when it counted, and when it was over Harvest Prep slumped its way towards the locker room and the bus ride back to Canal Winchester.

Versailles passed enough (7 for 11), and ran enough (168 yards) to amass 267 total yards of offense for the game.

Harvest Prep, on the strength of Collin Boff’s passing, bested them by 83 yards (352 yards), but found it’s hard to beat a team that doesn’t turn the ball over, and makes the clock seem like death sentence.

Versailles’ young offensive line had held its own – more than its own.

Oliver Brunswick and Cole Brewer had proven their team’s depth in the absence of featured senior running back Landyn Knapke.

“These kids did everything tonight,”  said Broerman, post-game, trying hard to contain his joy and pride for his team.  “This was as good a night as I’ve had in a while.  To finish a game there at the end the way we did (the goal line stand and the drive from the shadow of the end zone to kill the clock)…we did it on Monday to win the freshman game….we did it tonight against a dang good football team.  There’s no better formation in football than to take a knee at the end.

“That quarterback was really good, he’s going to Division I next year, and to hold him to three scores…we’ll take that.  Kudos to our kids.”

But kudos to the coaches, or at least the head coach, for believing in what he believed, professing eight months ago that “if I had my way we’d line up in the ‘T’ and just rip off first downs one after another…it’s demoralizing to a defense.”  Coaches just don’t do things like that anymore because that style of football – Hetrick’s style – isn’t popular.  Better, in this day, to not write checks you can’t cash.

But it didn’t matter to Broerman, who calmly pulled a keepsake of Al Hetrick from his pocket as he talked and held it in his hand.

“We gave up a couple of big plays tonight, but the kids proved their resilience when they came out to the start the second half with that seven-minute drive,”  he added.

And they proved their discipline, of course, over and over.

The extra points…the lack of penalties…the mental strength to run the ball out of trouble at the end of the game.  All the little things that used to win game at Versailles…as if it’s possible that back to the future really exists.

“You didn’t pick us to win,”  Broerman broke out in a laugh, as if to question whether I had nail scars in my hands – a doubting Thomas.

Nor did anyone else, and it didn’t matter.

Scott Broerman had believed all along.  And he’s the one that matters!