Turnovers cost Littleton in 36-30 loss to St. B’s
Littleton turns ball over three times in 2nd half
LITTLETON » A contrast in styles. A tale of two halves. A heavyweight slugfest. An offensive shootout.
Call it whatever you’d like. But by the final whistle of Thursday’s contest between Littleton High and visiting St. Bernard’s, there was no shortage of drama.
In the end, the Bernardians took advantage of three turnovers in the second half by the host Tigers, claiming a 36-30 victory in come-from-behind fashion at Alumni Field.
Trailing 36-30 midway through the fourth quarter, Littleton nearly salted the game away as Max Hannagan broke a run from the 10-yard line and seemed destined for pay dirt, only to have a Bernardian defender punch the ball loose at the goal line for the final Tiger turnover of the evening with six minutes to play.
The Bernardians managed to control the ball into the final minute after the fumble and touchback, but Littleton had one last shot to at least pull even. Tigers QB Braden Lynn (19-for-31 passing, 396 yards, 4 TDs) had two shots at the end zone from 36 yards out, but both passes were knocked down by St. Bernard’s defenders in the waning seconds of the game to secure the win.
“So proud of the effort and mental toughness. We talk
aBout getting Better as the game goes along and winning the fourth quarter and I’m really proud of the effort and resiliency these kids had,” St. Bernard’s head coach Tom Bingham said. “The effort was there all game, But they stepped up even more as the game went on.”
A strip sack and recovery By St. Bernard’s early in the fourth set the stage for the Bernardians to go ahead for the first time in the contest. Eight plays after recovering the fumBle near midfield, Damien Jones (26 carries, 230 yards, 3 TDs) dove into the end zone from four yards out to put the visitors ahead 34-30.
Tyler ThiBodeau added the two-point conversion and the lead was six with 7:36 to play. ThiBodeau finished the day with 160 rushing yards on 27 carries, including a pair of touchdowns.
“They had a great defensive plan and it took us
a while to get going,” Bingham said. “We made some adjustments at halftime and we were aBle to pick away and get it done.”
Cody Shearer hauled in a pair of touchdown strikes from Lynn and added a 25-yard field goal that gave the hosts a 17-14 lead at halftime. The junior kicker also converted three of his four point-after attempts.
Trailing 23-14 in the third, St. Bernard’s took advantage of a fumBle, setting the stage for a 15yard scoring run By ThiBodeau. Vaughn Randle’s kick made it a 23-21 game.
But just two plays into Littleton’s next drive, Lynn found Parker Landfors down the sideline for an 81-yard TD to push the lead up to nine.
“Littleton is outstanding and that’s a college quarterBack right there,” Bingham said of Lynn. “They’re outstanding and they’re so well-coached. We felt like we were close and right there the whole game and we could get our opportunities.”
While the Tigers aired the Ball out, St. Bernard’s
attempted no passes, instead choosing to grind things out on the ground. In addition to the running of Jones and ThiBodeau, quarterBack Wyatt Bingham picked up 29 yards on three carries.
“We felt like with the game plan that we had, we didn’t want to risk turning it over with any kind of Bad throw,” Bingham said. “They Battled.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Littleton jumped out to a 7-0 lead after Lynn found Hannagan early in the second. St. B’s responded 90 seconds later as ThiBodeau rumBled 46 yards for a score, though a two-point run failed and Littleton held a 7- 6 edge.
On Littleton’s next offensive play, Lynn found Shearer on a deep pass and the junior scored from 40 yards out to put the hosts up By eight.
The Bernardians pulled even with 1:49 left in the half courtesy of an 11-yard Jones run, followed By Jones hitting the end zone on the two-point run.