Bulldogs bite Indians late

Aug. 27—OSKALOOSA — Ottumwa had the lead only 19 seconds out of the 48 game minutes, but that's all they needed as they put together a late drive to score in the final seconds of the game and spoil Oskaloosa's opening night on the new turf with a 21-20 defeat.

It felt like Friday night football was back in the air as fans filed into Statesmen Community Stadium on a beautiful night to kickoff the new season. A couple of key injuries to the Indians and a late push by Ottumwa to steal the win put a tough punctuation mark on the first game of the year.

"It was good environment tonight," Oskaloosa head coach Brett Doud said. "We're thankful for everybody coming out. We have a great community when it comes to the game. We battled, I'll say that, we got a bunch of guys dinged up and the guys that were left were playing their butts off and we just fell short."

The first touchdown of the season came courtesy of the Indians midway through the first quarter. Junior quarterback Trevor Willett sent one deep to senior wide receiver Waylon Bolibaugh who somehow was able to turn around with a defender in his face and haul down a one-handed catch for 33 yards to put the Indians in business. AJ Lawrence would then take a jet sweep around the outside 13 yards for the opening score with the first cannon blast of the season booming Osky in front, 7-0.

The Indians would then lose a couple of key guys to injuries later in the quarter with sophomore lineman Ethan Perez going down with an apparent leg injury while linebacker Wyatt Grubb would sustain a concussion with neither boy returning to the game.

In the second quarter, Ottumwa would miss a 39-yard field but would later get the ball back and get their first score of the season with Abaya Selema getting a toss right and breaking it outside with great blocks from the Bulldogs to skip 38 yards for the touchdown to tie things up at 7-7 with 6:13 left in the second quarter.

Oskaloosa quickly answered back just before the half with quarterback Willett once again connecting with Bolibaugh on a great throw and great basket catch for a 37-yard gain. Willett then found sophomore receiver Jacob Greenhalgh on a quick out as he turned it upfield for an 18-yard score to put the Indians back in front 14-7 at the break.

The Indians forced a three-and-out to start the second half and turned to the running game as JT Baker broke one outside for a 23-yard touchdown. Unfortunately for Osky, Baker would go down with an injury after the play and would try to come back in but would re-injure his leg and would leave the game. Also, what turned out to be a very important extra point, was missed to make it 20-7 in favor of the home team.

The fourth quarter saw the momentum shift to the Bulldogs after it looked like Osky was driving down for another score. Ottumwa would pop the ball out on a long passing play to Lawrence who looked like he had just converted a long third down for the Indians. Instead, Ottumwa jared the ball loose and Braylon Griffiths would jump on it for Ottumwa to give possession back to the the Bulldogs.

Just one play later, Selema took one up the middle untouched for an 81-yard house call to make it a one-score game at 20-14 with 9:19 left.

Ottumwa would follow up with another stop on defense and get the ball back on their own 30 with 8:00 to go.

The Bulldogs proceeded to march down the field behind their option running offense, completing a huge fourth and long along the way with Cooper Derby eventually mashing up the middle for a three-yard TD to cap off a seven minute 12-play, 70-yard drive with the extra point going through to give them their first lead of the night with just 19 seconds left.

Oskaloosa would try a couple of desperation plays but the clock would strike zero and the Bulldogs would leave Statesmen Community Stadium with a win.

"You can say it was injuries or fatigue or whatever, but it's the game of football," Doud said. "There's four quarters, so we got to find a way to finish that's for sure. We had a chance there at the end with a big play. And no blame on AJ, he made a great play and the ball just got knocked loose. That could have been the nail in the coffin and it wasn't so we got to figure out how to close games."

Offensively, Oskaloosa had its moments. Willett in his first career start, finished 17-for-30 with 215 yards and one touchdown. He had a good connection with Bolibaugh, who looks to be in for a big season, all night as he had nine catches for 127 yards.

Sophomore Dom Piersel stepped up on both sides of the ball as he was their leading rusher with 10 carries for 42 yards while also finishing with a team-high 10 tackles after stepping in for Grubb at linebacker.

"I thought that some of those new guys played really well," Doud said. "Willett looked good, he made a lot of good reads, he distributed the ball well. That's his first varsity game. I don't know what he threw for or what his completion percentage was, but it had to be pretty good and that's a tribute to our offensive line to giving him time and receivers running quality routes."

The Osky defense held Ottumwa to just 3-for-10 passing for 40 yards but the Bulldogs got the big completion when they needed it in the fourth and were able to tally 254 rushing yards on the night behind Selema's 12 carries for 176 yards and two touchdowns.

It's a tough start for Oskaloosa as they not only have to swallow that tough loss but also already have to deal with some key injuries that will test their young depth.

The good news is the Indians continue through a manageable non-district schedule that they went 4-0 against last year so they will have a good chance to bounce back starting next week.

"We've got eight more games starting with Knoxville next week," Doud said. "We're going to make sure that we try to get as healthy as we possibly can be and we'll give it everything we've got."

Oskaloosa (0-1) hits the road for week two as they travel to Knoxville (0-1) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Ottumwa 21, Oskaloosa 20

OTT 0 7 0 14

OSKY 7 7 6 0

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

OSKY — Lawrence 12-yard rushing TD. PAT is good (7-0, 5:27)

Second Quarter

OTT — Selema 38-yard rushing TD. PAT is good (7-7, 6:13)

OSKY — Willett pass to Greenhaigh for 18-yard TD. PAT is good (14-7, 3:23)

Third Quarter

OSKY — Baker 23-yard rushing TD. PAT is no good (20-7, 7:48)

Fourth Quarter

OTT — Selema 81-yard rushing TD. PAT is good (20-14, 9:19)

OTT — Derby 3-yard rushing TD. PAT is good (20-21, 0:19)

Oskaloosa Individual Stats

Passing — Willett 17/30 215 yards 1 TD, Bolibaugh 1/1 35 yards

Rushing — Piersel 10-42, Baker 5-38 1 TD, Lawrence 2-10 1 TD, Willett 1-(-4)

Receiving — Bolibaugh 9-127, Lawrence 5-81, Greenhaigh 2-26, Grubb 2-16

Top-three tackles — Piersel 10, Westercamp 9.5, Toubekis 4.5, Linder 4.5

Sacks — Westercamp 1

Colin Peters can be reached at 641-672-2581, by email at cpeters@oskyherald.com or on Twitter @ColinPetersOH.