Mogadore edges Field in a classic opener literally decided by inches
Opening night of the 2022 Portage County high school football season featured an epic battle between backyard rivals Mogadore and Field that may ultimately go down as the game of the year.
No contest played in the coming weeks will be any closer.
The left side of the Wildcats’ front seven stopped Falcons senior quarterback Braxton Baumberger inches short of the goal line on a potential game-winning 2-point conversion with seven seconds left to preserve a spine-tingling 27-26 triumph Friday night at Kenneth W. Lohr Stadium in Brimfield.
At least that’s the way the officials, and Mogadore head coach Matt Adorni, saw it.
“I felt like we got him short,” said Adorni. “I thought he was going to take it around the end, and he cut it up to where we actually had a few of our big guys. It was wild. The whole sequence toward the end was a pretty wild sequence.”
Field head coach Matt Furino’s eyes saw the deciding play differently.
“Our quarterback got the ball over. He didn’t make it, but he put the ball over. Clearly over. Everybody saw it,” said Furino. “He got stopped and he put the ball over.”
One can’t debate that the game was literally decided by inches, or less.
A feisty Falcons squad that finished 2-8 last year and fell to Mogadore 35-0 in the 2021 season opener led by seven points with just over five minutes remaining, and had the ball at midfield in a tie game with just over two minutes to go after stuffing Wildcats’ 245-pound senior bruiser Mason Williams on a fourth-and-1.
Then Mogadore junior Corey Lehner suddenly took over.
A 15-yard penalty put Field in a hole, then an outside rush by Williams forced Baumberger to loft a deep ball down the sideline a little higher and shorter than he desired. Lehner was not only able to pick off the pass, but he shook the receiver and returned the interception 35 yards to the Falcons' 25-yard line.
Then, on the very next play, Lehner broke loose on a jet sweep and made a nifty cut back while racing 25 yards for a touchdown that gave the Wildcats a 27-20 lead with just 1:14 remaining.
“Corey was that way for us last year in the playoffs. He had a knack for making like two big plays in a row,” said Adorni. “We hadn’t ran him much tonight, hadn’t ran him on the jet. I felt like he had the hot hand there. It was blocked well, and he’s really good at seeing that seam and cutting it back. He's an explosive player.
“I thought maybe when we put that one in it might break their back. But to their credit they fought to the end.”
Indeed, the Falcons refused to fold.
Facing a third-and-seven from their own 34 with 37 seconds left, Baumberger found Garit Greene over the middle and watched his speedy fellow senior nearly take it the distance before getting wrestled down at the Mogadore 28. Then, with 13 seconds left and no timeouts, Baumberger rolled to his right and threw across his body to Greene (6 catches, 77 yards) in the end zone for an 8-yard score that brought the Falcons within one.
Injuries to some key members of his kicking team made the decision to go for 2 and the win an easy one for Furino.
“It was my decision,” he said. “We wanted to go for the win right now.”
Instead, the Falcons suffered one of the most heartbreaking defeats imaginable.
“I just told them I loved them,” said Furino. “This showed them how far they’ve come from last year. Last year Mogadore had us down 21-0 in the first two minutes of the game. It was over. This year we had several opportunities to win the game. That was a great game.”
It wasn’t always pretty, but the game sure was competitive for a full 48 minutes.
Field dominated the opening quarter, but had a pair of promising drives stall in Wildcats territory due to self-inflicted wounds. Baumberger finally put the first points on the board with a 2-yard touchdown run with 4:24 left in the half. The extra point was blocked, leaving the hosts on top 6-0.
Mogadore answered on its next possession by hitching up to Williams, who busted off several big runs to set up an 8-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Zeke Cameron to sophomore tight end Nick Stephenson. Junior Austin Constantine added the extra point to give the Wildcats a 7-6 lead they took into the intermission.
Six straight running plays produced a Mogadore touchdown to open the second half. Williams scored from 4 yards out to increase the Wildcats lead to 13-6, but the extra point was blocked as Constantine was unable to kick due to cramps.
Long runs by Baumberger and 225-pound sophomore hammer Drexal McAmis set up a short 1-yard touchdown run by McAmis that brought the Falcons within one early in the fourth quarter. They went for 2, but the pass was incomplete.
Baumberger rushed 26 times for 130 yards, while McAmis also reached triple digits with 113 yards on 17 attempts.
“We’ve got some special guys,” said Furino. “I know when you look at (McAmis) he doesn’t look like a sophomore, but he’s a sophomore. He was riding his minibike to practice because he didn’t have his license just a little while ago. He's going to be a force to be reckoned with in the next couple years here. That's for sure.”
After a Mogadore three-and-out, McAmis dragged several defenders the final 10 yards of a 30-yard run to set up a 5-yard touchdown scamper by Baumberger. The 6-foot, 185-pound senior quarterback tacked on the 2-point conversion run to put the hosts up 20-13 with 9:09 remaining.
The Wildcats went repeatedly to Williams once again on the next drive, and he delivered. His 4-yard touchdown run and Constantine’s extra point tied the contest at 20 with 5:06 to play. Williams finished with 153 yards rushing on 23 carries.
“Mason is going to be big for us, play all over for us,” said Adorni. “He has to.”
A highly competitive game turned into an instant classic down the stretch.
“Last year we played a lot of games where we were in it and something bad would happen, and we totally folded,” said Furino. “We had plenty of opportunities in that first quarter to score, and we had a couple bad things happen. But we came back every time. We throw an interception at the end there, they go in and score. I think everybody in the world except for the 51 players on my sideline thought the game was over. Then we went right down and scored. That tells you about my team’s resiliency.”
But the perennial powerhouse Wildcats, as they’ve done for decades, found a way to win a game that could have easily gone the other way.
“I told the kids we played with a lot of heart. We need to get some brains,” said Adorni. “We made a lot of mental errors. That's part of the early part of the season, especially when you’re trying to grow with a lot of new guys in there. We knew Field was going to be a much-improved team. They’re big and physical. Wins are hard to get, especially on the road. We'll take it.”
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Mogadore edges rival Field in epic high school football season opener
