By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

ANSONIA — For three straight seasons, the Ansonia football team will have at least a share of the WOAC title. The Tigers defended their home field against an undefeated Preble Shawnee team and won 24-13.

Head coach Adam Hall said they knew it was going to be a battle against the Arrows. His team stepped up to the challenge and played their best game of the season.

“They deserve a lot of credit for how they play and how they prepare. But, our guys made plays tonight. Our defense played as good as we could ask them tonight. Offensively, holding onto the ball and doing what we do. It worked out for us,” Hall said.

Ansonia started the game with a touchdown drive. After picking up a first down on two offside penalties on Preble Shawnee, senior Zane Henderson finished the drive with a four-yard touchdown to go up 6-0.

After getting a stop, Ansonia got the ball back. But on the first play of the drive, they fumbled and Preble Shawnee recovered on the Ansonia 26-yard line.

Preble Shawnee went down the field and senior Isaac Blankenship scored on a one-yard touchdown at the start of the second quarter to put the Arrows up 7-6.

The Tigers responded right away. On a fourth and three, senior quarterback Layne Bowman kept the ball and ran for a 32-yard touchdown to go up 12-7.

The Tigers had the opportunity to extend their lead, but they were stopped on a fourth and five from the Preble Shawnee seven-yard line with 46.3 seconds left in the first half. Ansonia settled for a 12-7 lead at halftime.

The defense stepped up big in at the start of the second half as they forced a Preble Shawnee punt. The Tigers then went down the field and scored on a six-yard touchdown by sophomore Jacob Schmitmeyer.

The Arrows got the ball back and quickly got back on the scoreboard. Junior Brody Morton found senior Reece Smith for a 60-yard touchdown pass. The ball bounced off an Ansonia defender and Smith made the play on the ball for the score.

With the Tigers up 18-13 with 2:33 left in the third quarter, they slowly went down the field and chewed up clock. Hall said it’s a big advantage when they can control the clock and get in their opponents heads about how many possessions they will have against them.

“I’ve been on the guys about this all week, long drive. Making them wonder how many times they’re going to get the ball again the rest of the game. That’s a huge thing. If there’s six minutes left, they’re not 100% sure they’re going to get the ball back,” Hall said.

After getting two fourth down conversions, the Arrows finally made a stand and stopped Ansonia on a fourth and three from the Preble Shawnee nine-yard line with six minutes left in the game.

But the Arrows found themselves with a fourth and one from their own 24-yard line. With the Arrows not sure when they would have the ball again, they went for it. The Tigers stuffed the run at the line of scrimmage to get the ball back.

Then with just over a minute left in the game, Henderson iced the game with a five-yard touchdown run. To top it off, Schmitmeyer got an interception on the next drive so the Tigers could kneel it out for the win.

Hall said this win wouldn’t be possible if the team didn’t buy into the team first mentality. To them, the win is more important than getting individual stats or worrying about how many touches they get.

It’s also a testament to this team and the senior class. Hall said his senior class has heard about the classes they’ve graduated and how big of shoes they had to fill in.

After that week one lost, everyone kept their head down and continued to get better. This win and this WOAC title was a result of that work.

“We lost the first game against Riverside. We weren’t ready to go, we did not play the way we thought we should have played that game. It could have went either way. Our seniors and the team just kept working. When we beat Tri-Village, that was the turning point of our season. We’ve played our best football since then,” Hall said.

The Tigers will look to grab a second straight outright title next week as they head to Mississinawa Valley on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].