Story by: Tim Kellis

Photo by: Terry Marshall

The Monroe Hornets entered the fourth and final quarter Friday night nursing a 7-0 lead, only to see the home standing Rams, from Ross, roar back with 12 unanswered 4th quarter points to defeat the Hornets by a score of 12-7. The first half was a defensive battle as neither team was able to dent the scoreboard. Ross controlled the ball and the clock for the first eight minutes of the game but came away with no points on the board. Monroe’s junior back, Chris Wilson took the opening kickoff of the 2nd half and after some key blocks and a nifty cutback, Wilson raced 95 yards, and unlike last week’s Kickoff return for an apparent TD, there were no flags this time around, and the Hornets grabbed a 7-0 lead after the PAT by Andrew Shaffer. Ross finally got on the board with only 5:11 left in the game on a 6 yard run up the middle by Codey Lotton. The PAT was no good , thanks to the finger tips of the Hornets Ben Klaiber. Monroe 7 – Ross 6. Monroe took possession of the ball at their own 35, after the Ram kickoff sailed out of bounds. Monroe was able to earn one first down before they had to punt the ball away to the Rams. On 3rd and 5, ball resting on their own 40, Ram quarterback Tyler Noonan rolled to his left, saw no one open, cut back and raced 60 yards for the game winning TD. Ross 2 point attempt was no good, giving Ross their eventual winning margin of 12-7. Once again Travis Rice turned in another good defensive effort for Monroe with 9, tackles. Jarron Teegarten had 8.5 tackles followed by Max Agee with 7. Noonan led all rushers with 128 yards on 23 carries. Monroe will be home next week as they host Talawanda.