OTTAWA – Down 21-7 with 1:14 left in the first half and ball at their own 40-yard line, the Ottawa-Glandorf offense needed a spark against Bellevue. The Redmen defense had dominated the Titan offense that had only 9 total yards and no first downs.
Enter Titan signal caller Jay Kaufman. The versatile quarterback drove Ottawa-Glandorf 60 yards in eight plays with precision passing to a host of receivers and then capped off the drive by hitting his favorite target, Richie Knowlton, in the right side of the end zone on a square out pattern for the touchdown. After the successful extra point, Bellevue led 20-14 with 28 seconds left in the half.
The momentum Ottawa-Glandorf got in that final drive of the first half continued into the third quarter as the Titans exploded for the first 28 points of the second half to propel Ottawa-Glandorf to a 49-34 victory over Bellevue in the first round of the Division IV Region 14 playoffs Friday night.
Ottawa-Glandorf head coach Ken Schriner called the game a tale of two halves.
“Offensively we didn’t get enough plays to see what we could do and that is a credit to their defense,” Schriner said. “They shut us down and we didn’t execute. In the second half we calmed down at halftime and we just came out and executed better in the second half.”
Schriner said he felt extremely lucky to be just down at by six at the end of the first half but said it was that drive that was the key to the Titans coming back.
“To have the score on the special teams was huge (earlier in the first quarter) and then to drive at the end of the second half was huge,” Schriner said. “That is kind of what we have done all year. We have stunk up the joint in the first half and played great in the second half.”
Bellevue head coach Ed Nasonti also pointed to that drive at the end of the first half as the turning point in the game.
“I thought we did a good job in the first half and kept their offense off the field and that was our best defense,” Nasonti said. “I think they got rolling right at the end of the first half and then that carried over to the second half and once they got things going good things happened for them.”
Kaufman, who was 6 of 13 for 79 passing yards in the first half with zero yards rushing, finished with 127 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns and through the air finished the game 13 of 28 for 205 yards and two touchdowns.
Titan receiver Richie Knowlton, who electrified the crowd with several key catches including a one-handed grab, finished the night with 6 catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.
The stat sheet was lopsided in Bellevue’s favor in the first half, but the Titans were only one score down, 20-14, thanks to a 42-yard punt return in the first quarter and the drive at the end of the second quarter.
In addition to Bellevue’s defense stuffing the Titans, the Redmen’s offense was hitting on all cylinders. Led by talented quarterback Alex Foos, the Redmen scored on three of their four possession in the first half. Foos led the Redmen on drives of 80, 74 and 76 yard drives to chew up clock and keep the Titans off the field.
By halftime, Foos had passed for 109 yards and ran for 142 yards. The Redmen held a 255-76 advantage in total yards. However, in the second half, the Titan defense held Foos to 41 yards rushing and 67 yards passing. For the game, Bellevue finished with 377 total yards while O-G rolled up 428.
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