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Photo by George Starks - Ansonia's Dusty Holcomb looks for a path to score Friday
against Twin Valley South. The Yigers won the CCC contest, topping the Panthers 48-40 in
a game that went to the final seconds before the Tigers pulled it out.
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A-Tigers rally late
to beat South
By George Starks
CNO Sports Editor
ANSONIA- If Ansonia coach Eugene Hoening could have scripted the Tigers
48-40 Cross County Conference win over, he wouldn’t have done it in the
fashion it was finished in.
In fact, defensive coach Nick Eifert and offensive coach Dennis Kiser
would have come up with a different script themselves.
With Ansonia driving and 11 seconds showing on the clock, it was all or
nothing for the Tigers. Junior quarterback Kaleb Earick didn’t have to
look at the scoreboard. Everyone knew the score was knotted at 40-40.
The ball rested at the Twin Valley South six.
Earick took the snap from center and called his own number, running the
ball in for the score, giving Ansonia the lead. With the two point
conversion being good, the Tigers held a 48-40 lead.
Problem was, the Panthers quick strike offense had one chance after the
ensuing kick-off. Running the ball back to the Panthers 40, six seconds
remained to be played. Just enough time for a Hail Mary. The pass fell
short from senior quarterback Cole Cottingim as time expired,
preserving the victory for Ansonia.
“We could have given up at the end when South had a nice easy field
goal to make but we blocked the kick,” said Eifert. “The kids did not
give up. We gave South a lot of opportunities. South brought it to us.
The quarterback over there has a great arm and they have a real nice
receiver (Michael Burke). We tried to double him up and he did a nice
job. We gave them the ball with a short field and you can’t do that
with a good team like South.”
Ansonia got off to a quick start in the opening frame. Taking the
opening kick and starting at the 46, it took the Tigers just five plays
to find pay dirt on a 10 yard scamper by senior Seth Keller.
Holding an 8-0 lead after one, the Tigers went up 16-0 with 10:42 left
in the half when Dusty Holcomb ran it in from the eight. At that point
South had seen enough.
Leaving the running game, for the pass, South got on the board just
over two minutes later as Cottingim found his brother Jacob on a
11-yard pass. At the 6:22 mark, after an Ansonia fumble, the South QB,
ran the ball in from four yards out and a 16-0 lead had quickly been
trimmed to 16-14. With 2:46 still left in the half, Ansonia would go up
24-14, thanks to a five yard run by Holcomb.
South would not be denied but this time it was the Panther defense that
would set the table for the offense when Earick would throw an
interception, giving South the ball at the Tigers 48 with 21 seconds
left. Ten seconds later, South was in the end zone and both teams hit
the half with Ansonia up 24-21 at the break.
“It was not a jovial scene at half-time,” Eifert admitted. “At best it
should have been 24-7 or something like that. We gave them the ball a
couple of times and we weren’t getting pressure on defense. We were up
by three and it was something we weren’t glad about. I give all the
credit to Twin Valley South. They did not lay down. They knew they were
going to score points and their offense is very, very good.”
Scoring points is exactly what the Panthers did, taking the lead at the
3:12 point of the third on a 10 yard pass from Cottingim to sophomore
Darren Brown. Down 28-24, Ansonia answered as time expired on a 26 yard
run by Keller.
“We knew early in the third quarter that the last team to score would
probably win the game,” said Kiser. “We had five turnovers and South is
a quality team but those turnovers killed us. We knew the last team to
score would win. We were fortunate. We made a ton of mistakes and still
won.”
Ansonia would take a 40-28 lead at the 5:53 mark of the fourth, only to
see South strike with 3:10 left to play, closing to 40-34. After
Ansonia fumbled the ball on the kick-off, South tied things at 40-40
when once again, Cottingim would hit Wes Cole on a 18 yard strike with
2:03 remaining.
“We were lucky tonight,” said Kiser. “We saw this coming and all we
wanted was to have the ball at the end. We kept plugging away and it
paid off.”
On the night, Keller would run the ball for 256 yards on 34 carries
while Holcomb would gain 120 yards on the ground on 24 rushes.
Cottingim would rack up 175 yards through the air on 12 of 16 passing.
Ansonia, 2-1 (1-1) will travel to National Trail next Friday.
Read the story on the Versailles Tigers win, plus other county scores, here
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