North Olmsted Stuns Amherst 23-17

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North Olmsted, OH – The North Olmsted Eagles shocked the Amherst Comets 23-17.  The Eagles kept Amherst Runningback Khennedy Scagliozzo in check for the majority of the evening en route to the victory.

After the teams traded punts, Amherst Quarterback Jimmy Schill threw an interception to North Olmsted Cornerback Sam Roach.  It looked like the North Olmsted drive stalled out, but a Comet roughed North Olmsted Punter Darren Anders to give the Eagles a first down.  North Olmsted ultimately turned it over on downs. After an Amherst turnover on downs and a North Olmsted punt, Amherst was driving and had the ball at the Eagles’ 35-yard line.  Jimmy Schill rolled out to his right and threw an interception to North Olmsted DB Sean Elbin at the 10-yard line. Elbin returned it to the 19.

The very next play, Darren Anders took the handoff and took it 81 yards for a North Olmsted touchdown halfway through the second quarter.  Amherst came right back with a touchdown drive of their own. The Comets drove 57 yards in three and a half minutes capped off by a Khennedy Scagliozzo one-yard touchdown run.  After trading punts, North Olmsted faced a fourth and four on the Amherst 38 yard line with less than a minute in the half. North Olmsted Quarterback Liam Fay threw the ball deep.  The ball was tipped around by Amherst defenders and ended up being caught by North Olmsted Wide Receiver Avery Jones in the end zone to give the Eagles a 14-7 lead heading into the half.

On the opening drive of the second half, Stockton Tarbush came up big with an interception for the Comets.  As Amherst was driving it was third and ten. Sean Elbin sacked Schill for a loss of five yards and the Comets were forced to punt.  North Olmsted couldn’t put anything together and had to punt. The Comets got their best field position at that point in the evening.  The Comets gained two yards and on third and eight, Schill’s pass was batted away by Sean Elbin. The Comets punted and pinned North Olmsted at their four-yard line with four minutes left in the third quarter.  The Eagles punted to Amherst and the Comets started at North Olmsted’s 49. An interception by North Olmsted was wiped away because the refs said a personal foul after the play gives Amherst the ball back. On third and 21, Schill completed a pass for 23 yards and an Amherst first down.  The next play, Khennedy Scagliozzo ran it in for a 10-yard touchdown.

Scagliozzo finished the night with 184 yards on 40 carries and ran in two touchdowns.

Avery Jones returned the ensuing kickoff 52 yards to the Amherst 45 yard line.  The Eagles got a chance to kick a 32-yard field goal. Shane Cairns kick was good giving North Olmsted a 17-14 lead with 7:33 left in the game.  With two minutes and 15 seconds left on the clock, Amherst faced a third and 15. They tried a halfback pass and was sacked by Collin Strong. The Comets lined up to kick a 45-yard field goal and Eric Henderson was successful tying the score at 17 with just 1:24 left in the game.

North Olmsted started with the ball at their 25-yard line and three timeouts with a chance to win the game.  Darren Anders ran it 25 yards and added another 15 yards after a personal foul to give the Eagles first and ten at the Amherst 35.  Liam Fay connected with Sean Elbin at the 18-yard line followed by a 17 yard run by Anders to give North Olmsted first and goal at the one-yard line with 32 seconds left.  A penalty backed them up to the 6. Darren Anders ran in a touchdown from six yards out with just six seconds left on the clock to give North Olmsted a 23-17 lead after the PAT was no good.  The ensuing kickoff was the final play of the game.

“We had six spots that were out tonight,” said North Olmsted Head Coach Tim Brediger referencing injuries coming into tonight’s game.

“Obviously losing Evan [Grablovic] hurt us tonight.  That’s a really good football team. They have one of the top two backs in the conference I’d say and our defense played lights out.”

North Olmsted improves to 4-4 and will play Berea-Midpark next week.  Amherst falls to 5-3 and will play Avon next week.

Player of the game: Darren Anders is the player of the game.  Anders ran for 190 yards on 22 carries and scored two touchdowns.