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Posted: 2008-09-18
2008 GAME SUMMARY: JV vs. Brighton
JV Battle to 12-12 Tie Against Brighton
Most of the 1st quarter had both teams going back-and-forth on offense with little success. At the end of the quarter, however, Hartland gave Brighton a gift by way of a 25-yard penalty (why so many yards, I still don't know!) on a punt return play. This put Brighton in scoring range and a few plays later they did just that on a fade-right pass play. They missed their extra point and Brighton led 6-0.
Ryan Conway ran the ensuing kick-off down to Brighton's 28-yard line, but Hartland's offense couldn't develop a drive and punted away.
Hartland's defense took over and after a couple of plays, Conway intercepted Brighton's QB — giving ball control back to Hartland. After a Danny Richmond 1st down, it was Chad Hunt's turn. Hunt took one hand-off for a long gain down inside the Brighton 5. His number was called again and thanks to the some great blocks by the offensive line, Hunt walked-in for the score untouched. Our extra-point attempt was blocked and the score was 6-6 with 6:37 left in the 2nd quarter.
Phil Annese hammered the return man on the ensuing kick-off — which charged-up our rather calm bench. Then the defense stepped-up again by putting pressure on Brighton's QB and forcing him to throw another interception — to Conway again. However, this time Brighton's defense adjusted and forced us into a punting situation. An errant snap was recovered by Brighton and put them in our red zone. A few plays later (at 3:34 in the 2nd) they punched it in. Their attempted two-point conversion was stopped by Hartland's defense. Brighton led, 12-6.
Hartland's last offensive possession of the first half ended with an impressive run by Annese that came one defender away from being a score.
The second half started with another long kick-return from Conway. Brighton's defense continued to play tough — and forced us to punt again. This time our punt buried them deep into their own territory. Then it was Hartland's turn to play tough defense — forcing them to turn the ball back over to us via punt.
Hartland's next offensive possesson was cut short after losing a fumble to Brighton at mid-field. However, the Hartland defense did it again and forced Brighton to punt right back to us.
The 3rd quarter ended — we switched sides — and then started the next possession with a couple great runs from Annese for Hartland 1st downs. A play or two later, Richmond faked it to Annese and kept it on a long run left down to the six yard line — barrelling over a Brighton defensive back on his quest to tie the score. The Hartland crowd was on their feet, the sidelines were jacked...then Richmond took the next snap and ran the same play — this time with the result he desparately wanted — a Hartland touchdown. From my vantage point, it looked like he was going to be pushed out of bounds before the goal line, but he instead dove for the corner with his tall frame out-stretched for the tying touchdown with 9:56 left in the game. However, we missed the opportunity to get up on Brighton by one point after missing the extra point attempt. The score was even at 12-12.
After kicking-off to Brighton, our defense was able to stop them and get the ball back into the hands of our offense. Defensive back, Josh Miller had a GREAT play on 3rd and 10 — flying up hard to bust-up Brighton's sweep right and force the punt situation.
The Hartland offense tried just as hard to get something rolling on their next possession to break the tie, but Brighton continued to match-up well and forced us to punt back to to them with 3:26 left in the game.
Brighton's power-I formation and was mildly successful, but when they went to the air they fell apart. They tried two attempts to the endzone — one over-thrown the other broken-up by three Hartland defenders. Facing 4th and 5, they attempted another pass which fell incomplete and turned the ball over to Hartland with :21 seconds left in the game.
After a Hartland run play, Richmond then went deep to the right side looking for the game-winning touchdown pass — but Brighton's defensive backs saw it coming and positioned themselves to make the interception. The clocked ticked to zero and the game was over, 12-12. (There is no overtime at the Freshmen and JV level in high school football.)