Wapakoneta’s Joey Truesdale (45) and Jayden Rampulla close in and make the sack of Hamilton Badin quarterback Alex Ritzie during Friday night’s Division III regional semifinal at Greenville’s Harmon Field.
Don Speck | The Lima News
GREENVILLE — Football teams will always have to face adversity.
Hopefully, the adversity does not come in bunches.
When Wapakoneta lost its starting quarterback and then eventually lost its top running back to injuries in Friday’s Division III regional semifinal game against No. 1 seed Hamilton Badin at Greenville’s Harmon Field, it was “next man up” for the Redskins.
Wapakoneta led until the final two seconds of the game.
Badin quarterback Alex Ritzie connected with Carson Cheek from five yards out to give Badin a thrilling 14-10 victory over Wapakoneta.
With the win, Badin (13-0) will face Celina (11-2) in a regional final at a site to be determined, at 7 p.m. Friday.
Celina defeated Tippecanoe Friday night, 27-13.
Last season, Badin defeated Wapakoneta in a D-III regional semifinal, 16-9.
Late in the first half Friday, Wapakoneta sophomore quarterback Caleb Moyer (5 of 9 passing, 65 yards) suffered a shoulder injury, which forced him out of the contest. Moyer is the son of Wapakoneta head football coach Travis Moyer.
Along with Moyer, Wapakoneta running back Jace Knous (16 carries, 51 yards) was eventually forced to leave with an apparent knee injury.
Grant Jolly, who is a starting wide receiver for Wapakoneta, took over the quarterback duties when Moyer left the game. Jolly ended the night 2 of 3 passing for three yards. In the first half, Jolly, at his wide-receiver position, hauled in two passes from Moyer for 26 yards.
Later, Jolly injured his foot but managed to play the rest of the game.
“Caleb (Moyer) broke his collar bone, Jace (Knous) has a knee injury, and Grant Jolly’s foot is injured,” Wapakoneta head coach Travis Moyer said. “So, obviously, by the end of the game, we were banged and bruised. But we just faced the adversity and our kids fought. Obviously, those injuries played a big part in the second half, offensively for us.”
For the game, Wapakoneta’s offense recorded 76 rushing yards and 68 more in the air.
Defensively, Wapakoneta kept Badin’s quarterback (Alex Ritzie) in check for most of the night.
For the game, Ritzie was 16 of 30 passing for 192 yards. Ritzie, who came into Friday’s contest with just two interceptions on the year and was completing 75 percent of his passes, was picked off twice by the Redskins. Jarrett Mullen and Ryan Richardson each had an interception for Wapakoneta (10-3).
“Our defense played phenomenal tonight. … They really did,” Moyer said. “We went toe-to-toe with the No. 2 team in the state and had them on the ropes. Unfortunately, we didn’t make enough plays at the end.
“Obviously, injuries really hurt us in the second half. But credit our team. Our kids fought extremely hard. I’m extremely proud of them. Our seniors led us throughout the entire year. We played some really good football. I’m just so proud of them.”
Wapakoneta got on the scoreboard with 3:45 left to play in the first half, on a 2-yard TD run by Reece Schnarre (8 carries, 28 yards). With the point-after by Kyle Beach, Wapakoneta led 7-0. That score held up to the halftime break.
Late in the third quarter, Beach kicked a 49-yard field goal to extend Wapakoneta’s lead to 10-0.
Here came Badin.
Late in the game, the Rams took full advantage of a Wapakoneta fumble at the Redskins’ 10-yard line.
With 3:28 left to play, Ritzie connected with Austin Buckle (3 catches, 54 yards) for a 10-yard TD pass. With the point-after, the Wapakoneta lead was cut to 3, 10-7.
A little later, Badin got the football back on a change of possession on downs.
The Rams then traveled 57 yards on 10 plays for the game-winning score.
“(I’m) just so proud of them – (with) the adversity we faced tonight,” Moyer said afterward. “The way we competed for 48 minutes. … I’ve coached for 23 years, and the way the kids represented our school district and our community tonight – I couldn’t be prouder of our kids tonight. They left everything they had on the field. Obviously, we came up short. We fought until the bitter end. I’m just really, really proud of our entire program right now.”
Game summary
Score by quarters:
Badin`0` 0 `0 `14`–`14
Wapakoneta` 00’ 07` 3` 0`–` 10
Scoring:
Wapak–Reece Schnarre 2 run (Kyle Beach kick)
Wapak–Kyle Beach 49-yard field goal
Badin–Austin Buckle 3 pass from Alex Ritzie (Bud Miyahara kick)
Badin – Carson Cheek 5 pass from Alex Ritzie (Miyahara kick)
Visitor ` Home
12 `First downs 8`
258 `Total yardage `144
69` Rushing yardage` 76
192 `Passing yardage `68
19-30-2 `Passing (Com-Att-Int) `7-12-0
1-0`Fumbles-Lost` 3-1
3-42.0` Punts-Average` 6-36.0
7-55 `Penalties-Yards` 9-75
Individual leaders:
Passing: Badin-Alex Ritzie 16-30-192; Wapak-Caleb Moyer 5-9-65.
Rushing: Badin-Lem Grayson 11-42; Wapak-Jace Knous 16-51.
Receiving: Badin-Carson Cheek 6-58; Wapak-Kaden Page 3-44.
