MILLBURY — All Lake senior quarterback Jared Rettig could do was watch from the sidelines.
The star, the leader of the Flyers, out with a shoulder injury sustained in the first half, was helpless
as his team nearly pulled off the most improbable of comebacks in the final two minutes of the biggest
Northern Buckeye Conference game of the year against Eastwood.
Rettig yelled and cheered as his sophomore brother, Jacob, led the Flyers to a touchdown with seven
seconds left, pulling Lake within one point of the Eagles.
What went from a moment of jubilation on the Lake sideline turned into pure heartbreak.
Eastwood’s Tyler McCrory busted through the Flyers’ offensive line, stopping Lake’s Branden Short at the
line of scrimmage on a two-point conversion attempt, sealing a 28-27 win for the Eagles.
“We’ve been working for this play since June,” said Eastwood linebacker Grant Geiser. “We knew this play
could make or break our season. The league championship was on the line.”
Eastwood improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the NBC, now with wins over its toughest conference opponents
in Genoa and Lake.
The Flyers, ranked No. 11 in Division IV, dropped to 5-1, 2-1.
“We’re really lucky. (Lake coach) Mark (Emans) has a good football team,” Eastwood coach Jerry Rutherford
said.
Eastwood’s heroics came after fumbling on Lake’s 32 yard line with 1:14 to play and leading 28-21.
Jacob Rettig connected with Todd Walters on two straight passes to move the ball to Eastwood’s 48 yard
line. He drove the Flyers to the 12 yard line, only to throw three straight incompletions to the end
zone.
But on fourth-and-10, Jacob Rettig scrambled to his left and found Walters all alone in the corner of the
end zone with seven seconds showing on the clock.
Emans, in a bold move, chose to go for two instead of kicking the game-tying extra point after his
sophomore quarterback had just drove 64 yards in 1:07.
“We have our backup quarterback and they were pushing us around a little bit in the second half, so I
just thought that was our chance to win the ball game,” Emans said of his choice to go for two.
“Down there, in close, it’s awfully tough,” he added. “We thought the buck sweep was very, very good.
Branden Short has been a very, very nice player for us this year and we thought we could sneak him in
there and it didn’t work. I’ll take the blame for that.”
Eastwood was not at all surprised by Emans’ decision to go for two.
“They were confident in themselves, so why wouldn’t they go for two?,” said Geiser, who ran 40 times for
191 yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought if they scored they’d go for two,” Rutherford said. “They put it on the (left) hash, I said
they were going to run the sweep and that happened and our guys made a play. We’re lucky.”
Eastwood fell behind 21-3 early in the second quarter after Short busted off a 44-yard touchdown run,
giving Lake momentum and a seemingly easy path to victory.
The Eagles responded by scoring 17 points in the final 6:24 of the first half.
Geiser capped a seven-play scoring drive with a five-yard scoring plunge to the left side before Noah
Smith intercepted Jacob Rettig on Lake’s ensuing possession. Eastwood capitalized when Devin Snowden
went untouched for a 23-yard score to cut Lake’s lead to 21-17 with 1:25 left in the second quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, Connor Bowen fumbled on Lake’s 28. Eastwood went four plays before Lucas
McCullough’s 23-yard field goal made it 21-20 at halftime.
“Going into halftime the turnover we had gave us a ton of momentum coming back,” Geiser said. “We just
had to keep doing what we do, move the football.”
Late in the third quarter, Geiser fumbled on Lake’s 1 yard line with a chance for a go-ahead touchdown.
Fortunately for him, the defense held strong and forced a punt.
And it wasn’t even the biggest play for Eastwood’s defense.
Jacob Rettig was intercepted for the third time, this one by Brennan Seifert, who returned it 40 yards to
the Lake 36, after an illegal blocking penalty.
Geiser, with Eastwood still trailing by a point, barreled in for a 1-yard touchdown with 2:38 to play.
With Eli Brown’s two-point conversion run, the Eagles had their 28-21 lead that prefaced Lake’s near
late-game heroics.
“We had some huge opportunities we didn’t take advantage of and that almost cost us the game. Luckily we
came out on top,” Geiser said.
“It’s huge obviously for playoffs,” Rutherford said. “But right now we’re not a playoff team. We’ve got
some work to do. We have to get back at it.”
EASTWOOD 28, LAKE 27
EASTWOOD 0 20 0 8 —28
LAKE 14 7 0 6 —27
L — Short, 3 run (Duncan kick)
L — Jared Rettig, 1 run (Duncan kick)
E — McCullough, 21 field goal
L — Short, 44 run (Duncan kick)
E — Geiser, 4 run (McCullough kick)
E — Snowden, 24 run (McCullough kick)
E — Geiser, 1 run (Brown run)
L — Walters, 12 pass from Jacob Rettig (run failed)