Walker spoils Senior Night at Gordon Lee
The Gordon Lee Trojans entered Friday night’s home season finale unsure of whether a win would be enough of a power rankings boost to get them into the Class A Public School state playoffs.
They likely won’t have to worry about it now.
A few too many missed tackles and a couple of ill-times mistakes proved to be the Trojans’ undoing as an inspired Walker squad spoiled Senior Night at Gordon Lee with a 28-14 victory.
Tied at 14 apiece going into the third quarter, the Wolverines stopped Gordon Lee once in the red zone, forced two second-half punts and came up with two fourth-quarter interceptions, while the offense used one long drive and one short drive to put the game out of reach.
Walker (4-6) opened the game with an 11play, 64-yard drive that saw them collect six first downs, one coming on a Gordon Lee penalty. The Trojans stopped the Wolverines two straight times on the 1-yard line, but Lawson Ashby would crash in on fourth down as Alex Hardie added the first of his four extra points.
Gordon Lee (5-5) answered with a nineplay, 51-yard march of their own. The Trojans were flagged for holding on first-and-goal from the 10-yard line, but Drew Cobb - the state’s second-leading rusher entering the night - blasted up the middle on a 20-yard scoring run and Jarrett Lassetter’s point after knotted the game with 1:19 left in the opening quarter.
The Trojans then forced a Walker punt only to see the Wolverines return the favor. However, a high snap on the Gordon Lee punt attempt resulted in a 32-yard loss and Walker would take advantage of the short field.
They needed just seven plays to cover the 27 yards as Connor Coolbroth took a direct snap on fourth-and-goal and ran it in from three yards out to briefly give the Wolverines the lead.
But just two plays later, Cobb found a seam right through the heart of the Walker defense and raced 56 yards for the touchdown that would send the game to halftime deadlocked at 14.
Gordon Lee took the second-half kickoff and
moved it down to the Walker 17. But Cobb would be stopped for a three-yard loss on third down and Austin Thompson’s screen pass attempt fell incomplete on fourth down, giving the ball back to the Wolverines.
And the Wolverines knew what to do with it. They went 80 yards in 10 plays, helped out by another costly thirddown penalty on the Trojans. Thomas Rath had four carries for 45 yards on the drive, while quarterback Brigham Stroher was 3 of 3 for 25 yards. Coolbroth punched it in from two yards out to give Walker a 21-14 lead with 1:32 left in the third.
After an exchange of punts, the Trojans took over at their own 35, but three plays later, Carl Grindstaff made a great play, intercepting an attempted screen pass while falling down, to set up shop for the offense at the Gordon Lee 24. On the third play of the possession, Rath slipped a tackle, avoided another and took it 18 yards to paydirt with 6:29 remaining.
The Trojans would have two final possessions, but managed just one more first down. The first drive ended with a punt and Lake Boyer would later pick off one final pass by Thompson with 48 seconds to go to seal the win.
Walker rushed 36 times for 160 yards. Ashby had 72 yards on 17 carries, while Rath picked up 65 yards on eight attempts. Stroher was 5 of 7 in the air for 46 yards.
Cobb led all rushers with 142 yards on 18 carries for the Trojans. The senior will likely end his season with 1,761 yards on the year. He also caught four passes for 67 additional yards. Thompson was 11 of 20 passing for 97 yards.
The final Class A power rankings still had to be announced as of press time, but initially projections had the Trojans ranked 30th and only the top 24 teams make the state tournament.