Zeb Pleiman races to a 26-yard touchdown in the first quarter to get the scoring started for Anna. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
Anna surprises Versailles, and the MAC, with a convincing Friday win over the Tigers to add intrigue to the final three weeks.
Anna, OH – The Midwest Athletic Conference football team with only five seniors played like a group of hardened veterans who had seen everything.
A team made up largely of juniors and sophomores were phased by nothing. They executed run plays, pass plays, blitzes and tackling, all those wonderful, win-producing things coaches demand.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
When they wanted to run the football, the offensive line made room. When they wanted to pass the football, the receivers got wide open. When they wanted to get to the quarterback or stop the running back, the front seven built a wall that fell on the quarterback or stonewalled the running back.
The team in green and white that hosted homecoming Friday night looked nothing like the team that lost to Minster in Week 3. They got some attention in Week 4 by beating Coldwater. They held their own for a half in a loss to once-beaten St. Henry. But their other three wins were against teams that entered Friday a combined 2-16. Still, much to prove.
Meet the new and improved Anna Rockets.
This version, which relies on nine coming-of-age sophomores, is 5-2 and ready to make the Division VI playoffs after stunning Versailles 35-7.
Stunning because the Tigers were coming off a disappointing and controversial loss to unbeaten and now 71-straight-win Marion Local. But as motivated as Versailles was to prove something, the Tigers couldn’t stop the Rockets who still carry the Minster chip on their shoulder into next week’s big game at Marion Local.
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“We’ve improved a drastic amount, and I think it’s just up from here,” said junior defensive end Julian Stearns. “Way better team than when we played Minster.”
Leading the super sophs back from the Minster disappointment to now is quarterback and cornerback Logan Ziegenbusch.
Anna quarterback Logan Ziegenbusch picks his wy through traffic…enjoyed his best conference game yet…with Friday’s win over Versailles.
“I don’t think that we’re the type of team that’s going to take a hit and just fold from that,” he said. “We’re going to come right back and swing.”
Ziegenbusch played his most productive league game with 198 passing yards, 67 rushing yards, two touchdown passes and a touchdown run.
“The quarterback is a good athlete and a good passer,” Versailles coach Ryan Jones said. “You got a multiple threat back there, and it makes it hard defensively to defend a guy who’s that good of a runner and that good of a passer.”
The progress since Minster has been evident on defense and was again, holding the Tigers to 191 yards on offense. But on Friday, the Rockets, who remained No. 10 in the Region 24 playoff points, launched an offense in the first quarter the Tigers couldn’t ground on the way to 387 total yards. Ziegenbusch and his cache of weapons, a mix-and-match deployment at halfback, wideout and slot deftly moved the ball.
Zeb Pleiman, a senior and the only one on the preseason scouting report, played halfback in the early going and scored on a 26-yard run barely four minutes into the game. The Rockets outflanked the Tigers on the right side, held their blocks and Pleiman raced to the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
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The Rockets followed with another six-play touchdown drive, this one ending on a 34-yard pass to sophomore T.J. Roberts. He caught four passes in the first half for 52 yards. He ran to ball eight times in the second half for 37 of his 44 yards.
And the idea that Versailles had to be aware of every running back and every receiver on every play was set. Pleiman rushed for 53 yards and caught four passes. Six players caught passes from Ziegenbusch, who completed 17 of 21.
Versailles quarterback Ethan Wilker found himself too often in the grasp of Anna’s young defense.
“It opens up so many possibilities,” Ziegenbusch said of the various directions the ball can go. “Because everybody’s eyes are on 4 [Pleiman]. You got to know where 4 is, and it opens up everything else. And our guys are good enough to make plays on the perimeter and do what they do best.”
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The last three touchdowns were just more evidence of Anna’s versatile offense.
Sophomore Brody Murray, who caught two passes, took a handoff coming from a receiver position on a misdirection play for a 25-yard touchdown run and a 21-7 halftime lead.
The next touchdown went from looking like a receiver sweep handoff to the right to Pleiman to a touchdown on sophomore Jace Noll’s only touch of the game. He got wide open to the left and Ziegenbusch lofted the easiest of passes over the defense for a 29-yard touchdown and 28-7 lead late in the third.
“It’s a great site as a quarterback, just looking down the field and seeing nobody’s around your guy,” Ziegenbusch said.
The final touchdown wasn’t tricky unless you count Ziegenbusch as keeping the ball a moment of sleight of hand. His 12-yard run around the right end early in the fourth quarter was the offense’s final act.
“I told them beginning of year we’re talented group and we got to spread it around as much as we can,” Anna coach Nick Marino said. “There’s a lot of guys that can make some things happen. We told them all week it’s time for our young, skilled kids to show up.”
The defense has been ahead of the offense, and that group had answers for everything Versailles tried. They kept 200-pound Landon Knapke to 105 rushing yards with 45 of them coming on a play that didn’t lead to a score.
T.J. Roberts rushed for tough yards in the second half as the Rockets mixed the run and pass to effectively move the ball.
And when Tigers quarterback Ethan Wilker needed to pass, defensive ends Stearns and Nolan Wilt made plays. Both made two sacks and other stops for short and no gains.
“Everyone gets to the ball, we blitz every single play,” said Wilt, a senior. “That really helps us stop the run, and our deep guys stayed deep and it prevents the long passes.”
Versailles (4-3) cut the Anna lead to 14-7 early in the second quarter with a 12-play drive that ended on Wilker’s 9-yard touchdown run through heavy traffic. The Tigers had a chance to cut into Anna’s lead again, this time to make it 21-14 in the second quarter.
The Tigers reached Anna’s 12 for a fourth-and-two play. But a false start penalty set them back five yards and Stearns sacked Wilker to give the ball back to the Rockets.
“Anytime you don’t score when you get down the red zone, it’s not good,” Jones said. “There was a lot of mistakes tonight, and that was just one of them.”
Versailles’ schedule doesn’t get easier as is often the case in the MAC. The Tigers host Minster, travel to Coldwater and host St. Henry. They sit at No. 10 in the Region 20 rankings with important points to be earned.
“We’ve got to get a little steel in our spine and come back ready to go Monday and understand that we’re a good football team, and we can compete,” Jones said. “But we got to execute a little better. We have to have a great week of practice.”
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