By John Bombatch, Staff Writer 1:33 AM Saturday, October 3, 2009
MONROE — In the words of Monroe High School football coach Ken Meibers, his Hornets were just a couple of plays better than visiting Carlisle on Friday night, Oct. 2. But that was good enough for a dramatic fourth-quarter rally and 21-17 win over the previously unbeaten Indians.
The Hornets (5-1, 2-0 Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division) needed 19 plays and more than nine minutes of the fourth-quarter game clock to do it, but it’ll be two trick plays that fans will be talking about for quite awhile.
Trailing 17-14 with their last-gasp drive seemingly stopped at midfield, the Hornets were flagged for a false-start penalty on fourth-and-1.
That set them back 5 yards for a fourth-and-6 situation. The penalty also caused Meibers to dust off the playbook a little bit.
“We didn’t think we’d have enough time to kick it away, stop them and then still score. So we went with the trick play,” Meibers said.
On a fake punt, the ball was snapped to slotback Ben Leahy. He went around the right side for a 9-yard gain and a huge first down. Four plays later, Leahy was involved in more trickery.
This time, on fourth-and-7 from the Indians’ 30, quarterback David Routson lateraled the ball to Leahy on the right side, but Leahy — a former QB himself — fired a pass back to the left side to Routson for an 18-yard gain. Five plays later, Devin King was in the end zone from 1-yard out with the clinching score with 2:19 left.
“We got a little bit banged up, but that was a great football game by two very good football teams,” said Carlisle coach Bill Jewell, whose team fell to 5-1, 2-1. “I’m proud of my players. We played our hearts out. Ken and I both said it would be close. They won the turnover battle; we won the penalty battle. This was a great football game. We’ll bounce back.”
“It’s indescribable,” Routson said in the rowdy Monroe locker room after the game. “We were going to use that play against Fenwick a few weeks ago, so we had been practicing it for a little while. We just had never used it though. I can’t describe what that game was like. Incredible.”
Leahy said he felt he had to respond in grand fashion when Meibers called the trick plays.
“I love it when my number is called, but I’ve gotta give credit to my teammates as well,” he said. “This is a great team win. Carlisle played their hearts out. We were just fortunate that we were the ones to come out on top.”
Carlisle’s Nick McGill rushed for 119 yards on 23 carries in the first half, but did not play in the second half. He was on the sideline with his left knee wrapped up.
King carried the ball nine times for 90 yards in the first half and finished with a game-high 138 and all three Hornet TDs.
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