Windham Bombers use ground game and a rabbit's foot to defeat St. John 32-26 in overtime.

Geneva, Ohio- On Saturday afternoon, I made the nearly three-hour drive to Genva, Ohio, to catch my first game at Spire. The two teams matched up were Astabula St. John and Windham; this also would be my first time seeing each team. Entering the game, St. John came in (1-4), while Windham was (6-0).

The Bombers would go to their ground game with a hard-running Jack Eye, seeing things clearly enough to break to his left and pick up 45 yards. Carlos Bruton busting free for an 18-yard run. Eye ended the 4-play, 65-yard drive with a two-yard gut run to make this a 6-0 game. He would be stopped short on the two-point conversion run, leaving this a 6-0 game with 9:50 on the clock.

The Bombers defense started strong when Nick Hopper got to Heralds quarterback Vin Narducci for a loss of five. At the 5:00 minute mark, Brandon Petrich laid a bone-crunching hit on Emanuele Fantozzi for a loss of three. The Heralds were able to shake off the negative plays, getting a 7-yard run by Ryan Williams to set up a first and goal at the Bombers three. Williams capped the 6-play, 21-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plung. The Heralds elected to go for two, and that decision went wrong when the conversion pass fell harmlessly to the ground. Not being able or choosing not to would cost St. John in the most devasting way late in the game. With 3:00 left in the quarter, this one was all tied at six.

St. John would make the last big play of the opening quarter when Carlo Fasano sacked Bombers quarterback Dylan McCune for a loss of three. After one quarter, it was easy to see that the Bombers had a gigantic advantage with their speed game while St. John could counter with the power run game.

Just 14 seconds into the second quarter, a nice little reverse type play by the Bombers would go for a 74-yard score with Eye taking the rock to the house. Will Anderson stopped Bruton on the two-point conversion. Try to keep this a 12-6 game.

Williams, who is listed at 5-10, 217 pounds with the power of John Riggins, was able to run for 17 and 29 yards, as he showed his power and some speed on the two runs. He would close out the 9-play, 77-yard drive with a 3-yard power run to lock this one up twelve as another two-point conversion run was stopped.

After St. John used a big stop on fourth down when Carlo Fasano leveled the ball carrier short of the first down marker, the offense would go 58 yards to take the lead at 20-12. The touchdown came on a 2-yard run by Narducci, and the two-point conversion came from a Will Anderson run to end the exciting opening half.

Midway through the third quarter, Williams was stopped by Omar Duran on fourth down to get the Bombers offense back on the field. One play later, Eye would dash 75 yards for the score, and then Bruton locked things up at twenty with the two-point conversion run.

The rest of the third quarter would bring three nice plays. For the Bombers, it was a 28-yard run by Eye. And for the home team, Narducci would hit Anderson for 44 yards, and then it was a 17-yard run by Williams, who went straight up the gut of the Bombers defense.

The fourth quarter was all about bad luck for the home team. Williams would be out for some plays, as would Narducci, then the inability to kick point after kicks all but cause them to drop the game. Along with a nice touchdown by Chase Newsome, he called back.

With 10:41 left in the game, Gus Petros would make a nice catch only to fumble the ball where Bombers Jacob Cody came up with it. Eye busted loose for 15 yards at the 9:55 mark. St. John would end the threat when Eye was pushed out of bounds short of the first down marker on fourth down.

On the ensuing drive, Cody would get a pick and take it 15 yards for a Bombers score, giving them a 26-20 lead with 4:40 left. With 3:21 left, Jayquon Smith recovered a St. John fumble on a poorly run option play.

After getting the ball back, St. John would get a 74-yard touchdown pass to Newsome, who used another gear to outrun the defense with 2:12 left in the game. Opting not to kick the game-winning point after kick, St. John was stopped on their two-point attempt, and we would end up going to overtime.

St. would get the ball first, and with their kicking warming up, the fans thought maybe they would kick a point after if they scored or a field goal if they did not find the end zone. Neither happened as the drive ended on the Bombers four, setting up the game-winning score from Eye on a 4 yard run, making the final score 32-26.

My stats

Windham

43 plays

366 yards

Passing, 1-6

St. John

68 plays

351 yards

Passing 5-11, 1 TD, 1 INT

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