Bulldogs comeback brings down Ozen
NEDERLAND -- That's not exactly how Nederland's football faithful would have wished to write this script.
The Bulldogs backers would have wanted homecoming night to go a bit smoother. They would have wanted their offensive and defensive leaders to play key roles, but they would see Kirk Dean miss the whole game and Chase Gentile miss the last three quarters with a knee strain.
After Gentile suffered his injury, the Dogs' distinguished coach suffered a momentary case of the dumbs just so that the fans could be treated to an Alfred Hitchcock twist ending.
Those scary developments occurred against none other than defending 20-4A champion Beaumont Ozen, of all opponents. But Nederland further underscored its impressive definition of being a team by winning 16-13 before 10,000 fans and a pretty homecoming queen, Allie Crommett, on Friday night at Bulldog Stadium.
The daughter of NHS assistant coach David Crommett and his wife Karm should have been able to be relax after Nederland took over on downs with 1:38 to play. That's when most of those 10,000 onlookers probably expected NHS quarterback Dustin Hood (14 of 25 for 200 yards) to take a knee and kill the clock.
But when Dogs head coach Larry Neumann opted to have running back Daniel Tompkins try to gain yards with a handoff, an alert Panthers linebacker Brandon Greenwood jumped on a loose ball at Ozen's 46 with 49 seconds to play. Dogs safety Andrew Ferguson refused to prolong the suspense and intercepted an Ozen pass on the next snap to turn out the lights.
Ozen led in first downs 18-15 and total yards 318-269 but Panthers coach Thomas Brooks watched his club dip to 3-2 and 2-1, while Neumann walked off with his squad at 3-1 and 2-0.
"My first directions were for Dustin to take a knee and then I started thinking about it," Neumann said, trying to explain his play call in the game's final two minutes. "I looked at the clock and I got to thinking that after three kneel-downs and a time-out, that we might be forced to give the ball up."
Fortunately for Neumann, it marked the night's only Nederland turnover. Although the Bulldogs rushed 33 times for a modest net 69 yards, this game showed some significant improvement in Nederland's ground game from previous weeks. That part was not a coaching case of the dumbs.
"We had thrown for 197 yards last week at West Orange and we knew if we were going to be able to keep doing that, we were going to have to run the ball better," Nederland offensive coordinator Monte Barrow said.
Absolutely, Monte, but when Nederland had to win the game, the Dogs had to have Hood throw it and Josh Atterberry catch it in clutch situations once again.
"When we needed to do some things to win, we didn't make the plays and Nederland did," Ozen's Brooks said. "They made a crucial drive after we went ahead. That hurt us because we had momentum. The score did not indicate the way that both offenses ate up a lot of clock."
Atterberry leaped high for a 12-yard touchdown pass from Hood in the back of the southwest end zone corner just whiskers behind Ozen's double coverage to give NHS a 16-13 advantage with 6:16 to play.
Ozen led 13-10 as Nederland faced a 3rd and 8 at the Panthers 12. Instead of settling for a game-tying field goal, the Dogs offense converted a play called "63 and go."
"I go four yards, look at the quarterback, spin out and go deep," Atterberry said. "The spin took the corner (Tory Wingate) out of the play and Hood just put it where it needed to be."
Wingate and Ozen safety Tony Ward covered the pass just a hair late. Ward had knocked Atterberry silly earlier in the 67-yard, 12-play scoring drive. Atterberry held onto Hood's 21-yard dart at Ozen's 46.
But champions convert on third downs. Nederland converted 4 out of 4 third-down passes on the five-minute drive. A 14-yard flip from Hood to Ben Davis moved the ball to Ozen's 31 and solved a 3rd and 9 dilemma. A 15-yard out to Ryan Butler advanced it to the Panthers' 14 on 3rd and 8. Then the second of two to Atterberry gave Nederland a lead for good with 6:16 to play.
Ozen opened the fourth quarter reclaiming a 13-10 lead on Greg Hathaway's six-yard scoring run with 11:25 left in the game. An 18-yard punt enabled Ozen to drive 44 yards in seven plays at that point.
Hathaway never carried the ball again after that and finished with 28 yards on nine carries. Ozen's most deadly weapon was the footwork of quarterback Curtis Shaw who ran for 88 yards and threw for 158. Shaw's 17-yard scoring toss Calvin Mickens capped a 57-yard scoring drive early in the second quarter.
Nederland's defense took quite hit on that series because Gentile left with a knee ligament strain. Linebackers such as Darin Smith and Jordan Rash really had to grow up at that point.
"I looked around and there were a lot of people who didn't know what to do," Smith said. "We had to compose ourselves."
It helped Nederland's defense that the Dogs offensive line carved out gains on nine straight running plays. The Dogs finally took a 7-6 lead when Hood kept the ball for one yard with 6:03 left in the half. The lead improved to 10-6 midway in the third on Josh Waite's 34-yard field goal.
"We took it to them," offensive line leader John Tobias said. "We made it seem like the fourth quarter in the second quarter. We made them panic."
Nobody seemed to panic with either of these so-called backup quarterbacks in the game. They never played like backups, either.
Nederland will return to work next week when it ventures to Lumberton while Ozen hosts West Orange-Stark in a most interesting affair. For now, the Bulldogs are quite glad to have defeated both of them.