Urbana slugs it out with Lima Central Catholic, but runs out of knockout punches in second half

Urbana’s Carson Stokes was looking for a fellow defender to join him in celebrating this stop.

After a wild first half with eight ties or lead changes, Urbana fell into a 10-point hole early in the second half and couldn’t quite escape in a 37-34 loss to Lima Central Catholic (PressProsMagazine Feature photos by Angie Greenwood).

Urbana, OH – What other coaches might label an opportunity lost is a useful lesson learned to Urbana’s Geron Stokes, provided his Hillclimbers assimilate it after coming up short in a 37-34 cliffhanger against Lima Central Catholic on Friday night.

Stokes could have lamented scoring on only one of six second-half possessions after getting TDs on four of five tries before halftime.

He could have groused about Urbana’s share of untimely penalties on a night when the officiating crew operated as if getting paid by the hour (game time: 3 hours, 8 minutes) or the flag (a staggering 24 of them).

But instead Stokes smiled at the propriety of a three-point loss that traced farther back than anything that followed the 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

“We didn’t want to practice this week, so that’s the way you should lose,” Stokes said. “The football justice department forces you to lose by three when that happens.”

Not before Urbana quarterback Grady Lantz offered terrific opening and closing arguments, finishing with four touchdown passes and a 17-yard touchdown run.

Lantz got the Hillclimbers on top early with the first of two scoring throws to Carter Houseman and kept them there by countering his equally-impressive LCC counterpart, Brady Parker.

Like Lantz, Parker had his hand in all five of his team’s touchdowns, throwing for scores of 49, 75 and 34 yards, while running across from the 3 and the 9.

Parker’s biggest yards, though they provided no points, came late after LCC’s Jordan Neal intercepted at the Thunderbirds’ 4 when Lantz tried to find Carson Stokes behind the defense at the goal line.

With still 4:56 left and LCC pinned at the Urbana 4, it seemed Stokes team still have the requisite spunk to force the ninth tie or lead change of the night.

Instead, Parker ran quarterback power three times to reach the 14. Then, three more times to reach the 25. By now, Urbana was down to only two timeouts, and Carter Lester’s conversion of third-and-2 at the 33 with two minutes left sealed the T-Birds advance to 3-0.

“When the game is on the line, we’re going to run it behind those three guys on the left side of the line of scrimmage and give Brady the ball,” LCC coach Colin Stolly said. “He’s really a special player and he deserves all the credit he gets. He’s a very humble kid and he works his butt off.”

Brady has followed his brother, Carson (now the starting quarterback at Ohio Domincan) into the Thunderbirds quarterback job.

He and Lantz had quite the first-half duel, which ended with Parker driving LCC 76 yards to score on his 7-yard run for a 23-20 margin and then Lantz driving Urbana 63 yards to a 27-23 edge on 10-yard Braxten Spriggs touchdown catch with 23 seconds left.

That’s where the Hillclimbers stalled, however, going scoreless on two straight third-quarter possessions, while Parker shook off the second of three LCC touchdowns called back by penalty to score from the nine and provide a 37-27 margin with 2:38 left in the third quarter.

“It felt at times like were really up against it out there, like 12 against 14, so we have to learn to stay composed in those situations” Parker said. “We kept fighting through the whistles, fighting through the flags and playing the game with our brothers. We had to really fight to earn this one because that’s a good team over there.”

Down 10 points with the fourth quarter approaching, Urbana tried to convert a fourth-and-14 from the LCC 45, only to have Lantz’s nifty spin move away from pressure and perfectly-throw pass for Houseman at the sticks knocked down by White.

Two plays later, the Hillclimbers appeared on the verge of disaster when Parker rumbled across the line behind left guard and center and sprang free, cutting right to escape Urbana’s defense for an apparent put-away TD from 55 yards out.

Well after Parker crossed the goal line, however, a rotund official at midfield began tossing hankies like Elvis enthralled adoring groupies clamouring to join him on stage.

First came one yellow projectile, launched high into the moonlight. Then another, and then – down to his pants, shorts and hat – the Golden Corral Frequent Dining cardholder thankfully picked his hat from the remaining options and furiously launched it into orbit.

So, instead of a 44-27 lead and 11 minutes to run out the clock, LCC found itself back inside its own 10-yard line facing second-and-47 from the eight-yard line.

Asked what kind of explanation he received for the post-TD personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct called on an LCC lineman, and the accompanying unsportsmanlike flag on him, Stolly said: “Not a very good one. But that’s part of the game. You face adversity and you know you can’t do dumb stuff. If we don’t do dumb things, that doesn’t even allow the penalty to happen.”

Lantz seized immediate advantage with his fourth touchdown pass, a 37-yarder to Carson Stokes, but that would be as close as Urbana could get with LCC getting the tough yards it needed to escape further trouble.

“We played hard, but our execution was not good at all,” Lantz said. “We just had a bad week of practice, so we didn’t have the edge we needed going into a game like this. I thought that showed in the end.”

Edge shouldn’t be an issue for Urbana (2-1) next week, when it welcomes Central Buckeye Conference rival Graham (3-0).

“Any bad thing you do, you should get punished for it,” Stokes said. “So, I think this is perfect. Hopefully we’re excited not just about Graham, but about practice on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We have to get excited about the process of getting better and what that takes.”