Ross Henschen’s TD in OT advances St. Marys to next round in postseason.
Back from injury, junior back scores game-winning touchdown in OT
Ross Henschen made the right call.
The junior was playing in his second game back after recovering from a knee scope and being out since Week 2 — while hard to watch his teammates compete from the sidelines — the fullback wanted to be 100% for when instances such as Friday occur.
Deadlocked in a scoreless tie, Henschen — 100% knee and all — took the ball around the left tackle and scored on a 14yard run for the gamewinning touchdown in overtime to propel the Roughriders to another week of football in a 6-0 victory against Franklin at Grand Lake Health System Field.
“It was big for me because it was a tough decision to make going out for a couple of weeks, but I thought that was the right decision to make,” Henschen said. “I wanted to be 100% — I am a lot better at 100% than I am at 50 or 60%.
“I came back and I proved myself. I am just so proud of my team.”
In a game where it almost felt as if everything that went against St. Marys did, the team prevailed.
“The resiliency of our kids is what stood out tonight,” Roughriders coach Doug Frye said. “Franklin played really hard. That’s the best football game I’d seen Franklin play all season with the films that I’ve seen.
“But our kids wanted to win, we were resilient and I’m really proud of them tonight.”
The Roughriders (62) will make the 1 hour and 30-minute drive south next week to Bellbrook, who routed Chaminade Julienne 58-0 on Friday.
But as they did against Wapakoneta in an OT win against the Redskins in Week 2, forcing overtime in a double OT loss to Ottawa-Glandorf and doing just enough to squeak out a 10-7 win on the road at Shawnee — the
Roughriders persevered again on Friday.
Already without running back Braeden Hemmelgarn for the rest of the season because of a broken collarbone, more injuries riddled the team on Friday.
Running back Ethan Wedding did not return from an ankle injury, Aiden Hinkle was on crutches after the game and even Henschen limped off the field in the second quarter — as injuries caused shuffling in the offensive backfield and on the Roughriders’ defense. Also, St. Marys managed just 195 on Friday against Franklin’s vaunted defense after piling up more than 800 total yards of offense in the last two games combined.
Yet the Blue and Gold are playing another week.
“We’ve lost two football games where we lost in double overtime and 34-28,” Frye added. “This group of kids — we have some talent but I don’t think we are overly talented — but I just think our kids have
been resilient, they believe in each other, they believe in the coaching staff and that’s a quality that is often taken for granted.
“It is a quality these kids can take with them through a lifetime. It’s also a credit to our assistant coaches. They didn’t panic, remained calm and continued to evolve with the game as it went along.”
The Wildcats had a chance to strike first in the team’s opening possession of the second quarter but kicker Isaiah Bates’ kick was pushed wide right with 9:56 remaining in the first half.
St. Marys responded in its first drive of the quarter with a 9-play, 55-yard drive but Devin Shannon could not haul in a Gavin Reineke pass in the flat to turn the ball over on downs.
On Franklin’s first drive of the fourth quarter, Reagan Brown caught quarterback Tressel Gibson’s pass but Brown did not have control on his way down as the ball landed on him without hitting the ground and covering on the play was Aidan Eigenbrod who wrestled the ball away for the interception — setting the offense up at the Riders’ 48-yard line with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter.
Dylan Trogdlon took the pitch right and raced 22 yards up the right sideline to get down to the 30. Four plays later, Spencer Trogdlon attempted a 39-yard field but the kick was short with 6:22 left in regulation.
After each team traded punts, Franklin gave it one more try to walk out of St. Marys with a win.
With St. Marys pinned deep in its own territory as it looked to run out the clock to overtime, Brandon Bowers was forced to punt the ball back to the Wildcats with 1:06 remaining in regulation. The junior’s boot, however, was a short, linedrive punt as Franklin took over at St. Marys’ 40-yard line with no timeouts remaining.
The Wildcats bled the clock down to 10.3 seconds left to bring in Bates for a game-winning 47-yard field goal but the kicker missed wide right despite having the length as the game moved to overtime.
St. Marys won the toss but deferred to Franklin to open OT as
Franklin set up for Bates one more time with a 36-yard field goal attempt to take the lead, but Bates kick was not in the same area code as the goalpost as St. Marys took over. Affecting that kick was the rush that Stash Patterson had. The junior played the A-gap and rushed upfield to get in front of the left-footed kicker.
“We made a change with our extra point block before that and I thought that helped,” Frye added.
The first play was to Tanner Howell — who took the ball left tackle for a 6-yard run that set up for Henschen’s heroics. On the game-winning play, Henschen found an opening outside left tackle Bryan Ward as he sprinted upfield. Henschen then made a slight cutback inside when Trogdlon made a seal block in front of him and the rest was history.
“It was so exciting,” Henschen added. “Our blockers did an excellent job of finishing there and we love to finish the football game up on top.
“We’ll be back next week, playing even harder.”