CONNEAUT – Most football coaches will shy away from talk of the football gods intervening in a close contest, but Conneaut coach Rocco Dobran didn’t hesitate to acknowledge his Spartans may have received a little divine intervention.
Down two touchdowns at halftime, the Spartans battled back to knot the score, but nearly fumbled away a chance to win in the waning seconds before pulling out an 18-12 overtime victory over Chagrin Falls in the opening round of the Division V, Region 17 OHSAA state playoffs at Joslin Field on Friday, Oct. 30.
Conneaut was pinned at its own 5-yard line following a Tigers punt with 25 seconds to play in regulation. On the first play from scrimmage, the Spartans attempted a short pass to a wide receiver hoping he might go the distance to end the game. Instead, he fumbled to give Chagrin Falls possession at the Conneaut eight with 16 seconds remaining.
Chagrin Falls missed a field goal sending the game to overtime.
“That was a terrible call on my end,” Rocco Dobran said. “I kind of told our guys. Hey, if they’re playing way off, let’s get it to the fastest kid on the team and see what happens.’ But, I said, if it doesn’t look good, just take a knee – quarterback just run it and get down. It was kind of iffy and then things don’t go our way. We fumble, which was 100 percent my fault, not that kid’s fault. He’s trying to make a play.”
“Then they come on and they kick a field goal and miss it, so it was like, ‘Hey, God’s on our side here.’ We feel blessed to win this game because there’s a lot of things we did wrong as a coaching staff and, obviously, the players didn’t execute at times. Definitely, we felt blessed to win that one.”
It was a roller coaster of emotions over those few brief moments between the fumble and the missed field goal.
“I honestly feel like some people might have got down, but I was over there trying to bring the team up saying that I know our defense could go get the ball back and win,” Kessler said. “I’m pretty sure everyone was very ecstatic (after the missed field goal). We all started to feel the hype knowing that that just gave us a second chance.”
“The defense held them all game, so I had confidence in them all season, really,” Wyant Dobran said.
“We were just really excited to get to keep playing and ultimately come out with a win.”
The Tigers (7-4) had the ball first in the extra period and, on second down and seven to go from the 17-yard line, quarterback Max Frankel fired a pass over the middle. A Spartan defender leaped into the air and tipped the ball away just before it reached its target and Alden Goudge came up with the interception to set up the Conneaut victory.
“That’s my first overtime game ever,” Rocco Dobran said. “Anytime they have the ball first and you get it second, you just want to get in a spot where maybe you can kick a field goal or, hopefully, score (to win the game). We put ourselves in a good spot there, scored on a screen pass, which I didn’t know if it would work, because it worked a couple times, but they shut it down the last time. We executed that real well, and Steven had a great run.”
“We’ve run that a couple times exactly the same way in the past five weeks, just a couple times here or there, and it’s worked every time, but they definitely executed very well,” Rocco Dobran continued.
Facing third down and seven from the 17, quarterback Wyant Dobran hit Steven Kessler with a screen pass. The blocking created a lane and Kessler raced in for the touchdown and a Spartans’ victory.
“We hit a couple screen passes on them a couple weeks ago and we liked it on film,” Wyant Dobran said.
“I was faking, too, and I see No. 4 drops, so that’s when I knew that it was going to be a touchdown,” Kessler said. “I love the blockers on the right at the sideline. I didn’t get touched and until I was in the end zone. The only thing I was thinking was getting in that end zone.”
The fifth-seeded Spartans (10-1) will play at fourth-seeded Garrettsville Garfield (10-0) in the Division V, Region 17 regional quarterfinals on Friday at 7 p.m.
“We haven’t really watched them yet,” Rocco Dobran said. “I know they’re 10-0, so they’re a great team. I haven’t watched film on them yet, but we’ll get to work (Sunday) morning.”
The Tigers held a 12-0 advantage and received the kickoff to open the second half. They drove all the way to the Conneaut three over the first 7:35 of the third quarter but turned it over on downs, which proved to be a turning point for the Spartans.
“They did drive the ball down and I think our kids still were kind of upset about the first half, but once we did stop them and they didn’t score, there was a little fire under us,” Rocco Dobran said. “Then, they started playing football at that point.”
“I think in the first half, when things weren’t going right, we were getting down on ourselves instead of just playing the next play, you can’t get down on yourselves,” Rocco Dobran continued. “You’ve just got to keep playing.”
The Spartans cut the halftime deficit in half as Wyant Dobra scored on a 3-yard run. After the kick failed, Chagrin Falls led, 12-6, with 11:21 to play in the fourth quarter.
This capped a 13-play, 92-yard drive that spanned just more than five minutes.
After forcing a punt, the Spartans went right back to work.
Wyant Dobran connected with Kessler on third and 14 from the Tigers’ 35. Kessler won the race to the end zone and, following a failed kick, the score was tied, 12-12, with 4:49 remaining in the contest.
Wyant Dobran paced the Conneaut offense with 82 rushing yards on 15 carries and 130 yards on 12-of-16 passing. Kessler finished with 62 yards rushing on 13 carries and added four receptions for 71 yards and touchdowns. Isaiah Boles added 62 yards rushing on 15 carries.
The Tigers took a 6-0 lead on a 39-yard completion from Frankel to Dylan Pribanic with 4:21 remaining in the first quarter. They pushed that advantage to 12-0 when Frankel scored on a 29-yard run with 9:58 to play in the first half. The Tigers failed on a pair of two-point conversion runs.
Frankel led the Tigers with 90 rushing yards on 11 carries and added 68 yards passing.
