Windham Bombers defeat Southern 50-35 earning their first playoff win in 7 years

Photo by Payton Justham

Windham, OH-

In the 14th century, Italian poet Dante, in his epic poem “Inferno,” had this sign above the Gates of Hell: “Abandon all HOPE, ye who enter here.”

On November 1, Coach Jake Eye left the word HOPE, weathered and faded from Breast Cancer Night the week before, in pink paint in the middle of Ed Liddle Field.

Was Jake, ever the clever strategist, presenting a subliminal message to the visiting Salineville Southern Indians, up from Columbiana County? That they had no hope, and that the Bombers were going to rain hellfire, a berserk lineman named Brandon Petrich, and two incomparable runners named Bruton and Eye, on them?

Well, Coach Eye, it didn’t work. And because it didn’t, Windham fans got to witness one of the most epic football games ever played on a Bomber gridiron.

Settle in for a long story, reader.

On a cold, windy night, the Bomber faithful were welcomed to the rare treat of November football as Windham entered the Division VII playoffs with the even rarer home game. A few fans even showed up in shorts, a tribute to the sort of genetics (or sanity) that Bomber parents pass on to their kids.

The Bombers were decked out in black jerseys and gold pants, and the numerals were so vivid that this writer, for the first time all season, nearly wept with joy.

Sadly, Black and Gold was not the predominant color that night. Before the game was even to halftime, a persnickety officiating crew had littered the field with more yellow than a Savannah Bananas’ baseball game.

Southern, which played a schedule of powerhouses and patsies not that different than Windham, brought in a sterling all-round game, with the running of Landen Heffner and the passing of Timmy Potts posing a double threat to the Bombers defense.

Jack Eye opened the contest with a kick out of bounds, a planned play to avoid a hefty runback from Heffner. Trouble immediately began with a 35 yard pass over diminutive defensive back Dejuan Ramsey, evidence that Southern had been watching a lot of Windham game film.

It was something they would learn to regret.

Grinding their way down the field, the Indians drove to the Windham 5. A bad snap fumble left them with a 4th and 5, but a staunch goal line stand was trumped by a jet sweep around left end for the first score of the night, and the extra points made the score 8-0.

But Fairport Harding had scored the first touchdown the week before, so it was a scenario with which the Bombers were familiar.

The ensuing kickoff revealed a game-long pattern. Southern pooched the ball to up receiver Austin Cales, fearing that a deep kick to Jack Eye or Carlos Bruton would probably be counter-productive.

Coach Eye commenced a dazzling display of every offense he had developed this season: Dylan McCune under Jacob Cody, direct snaps to Jack Eye and Carlos Bruton, motion plays that baffled the defense.

Ripping off huge first down gains on each play, Jack Eye ran his patented end sweeps on both sidelines, but Bruton, showing brute strength that heretofore had been Eye’s style, slammed 12 yards up the middle to near the goal.

Throwing in his showy unbalanced line shift, Coach Eye again plunged Bruton into the heart of the line, but the first of a maddening collection of holding calls brought the ball back to the 22.

To Jack Eye, that’s a gimme. When Jack kicks it into gear and his legs get pumping, he can break tacklers’ arms with his power. The touchdown was followed by an intercepted extra point, leaving the tally at 8-6 less than halfway through the first quarter.

Southern apparently had been eating Halloween Butterfingers before the game, because their next drive aborted with their second fumble and senior Nick Hopper curled around it at the Southern 27.

To Bomber runners, that looked like a hop, skip and a jump, and Carlos Bruton, tiptoeing down the sideline like a Wallenda tightrope walker to the 3, then went through an opening in the line smaller than a keyhole for the touchdown. A McCune pass to Hopper gave the Bombers a 14-8 lead.

A booming Eye kickoff turned into a 44-yard return down the visitor’s sideline. Matt Kolaczek, Azeon Davis, and Brandon Petrich tackling, combined with a Southern holding call, led to a fourth down pass that would have been caught if Carlos Bruton did not have kangaroo legs to break it up, ending the first quarter.

Taking over the ball on their own 35, a Bomber double reverse moved the ball 15 yards, which was immediately reclaimed by one of the many holding calls. Sitting at their own 45, Coach Eye called the least likely play in his book: a 55-yard McCune pass to Bruton that left the Indians gasping for breath. A failed extra point effort left the score 20-8, and visions of Easy Street, even the oft-gained Mercy Rule, danced in the heads of Windham fans.

But Pride and Greed are two of the Seven Deadly Sins, so Southern commenced stomping on the Bomber dreams.

A grinding Indian drive took three minutes to arrive at paydirt, despite an Omar Duran-Gonzalez bearhug tackle that showcased his defensive skills. A two-pointer after the TD brought Southern to 20-15.

And then Windham fumbled the kickoff. Fumbled it right back to Southern at midfield. And that led to the finest defensive stand since the St. John game by the staunch Bomber line.

On the first play, Jack Eye and Matt Kolaczek planted Landen Heffner after a five-yard gain, followed by a short gain for a third and three. A gang tackle left Southern two yards short, and on the subsequent gut plunge, the runner was squeezed so high by 11 Bombers that he popped out the top like a squeezed tube of toothpaste.

Bringing out the sticks seldom happens any more. But that rare event showed the Indians were millimeters short. The Bombers line had held strong.

The next drive saw Bomber Ball at its finest. A 20-yard power run by Jack Eye, a left end sweep by Bruton for another 20, a direct snap to the six, Bruton to the one…

And then Bomber Ball turn into a Ringling Brother circus.

An illegal substitution penalty moved the ball back to the seven. Bruton slipped on the increasingly dewy field trying to go around end. On third and seven, McCune tossed an ill-timed pass into the waiting arms of a Southern defensive back. And with 1:27 left in the half, the smell of paydirt slowly drifted from the Bombers’ sinuses as Southern took over at the 20.

A completely unnecessary Bomber personal foul moved the ball out to the 35, but an illegal pass by Southern stymied them at the 42. Expected to punt, they took a cue from gambling Jake Eye and once again picked on the shorter Bomber pass defense to get a first down on the Windham 44.

Brandon Petrich, playing the defensive game of his life, broke up the next pass play. Southern went to an all-passing game to end the half, and it backfired badly, as a bad hike sailed deep into the night until finally nestling in the arms of Bomber Jacob Cody with 31 seconds left.

The most spectacular play of the half followed, with Nick Hopper, laying flat on his back, managing to reel in a McCune pass for a 24-yard gain. Bruton hauled in a pass at the five, but two ridiculous penalty calls negated an obvious touchdown to close the half at 20-15.

Windham had racked up seven disastrous penalties of all varieties in that half. Many more were to come.

Austin Cales took the second half kickoff to the Bomber 38. The drive ended at the 13. The Windham 13. Four penalties, including back-to-back holding calls, another personal foul, and a false start produced the most negative drive this year. Jack Eye had to punt from the back of the end zone.

A nice roll to the Southern 46 bode well, but the Indians took less than 90 seconds to scamper their way to a quick six that captured the lead at 23-20.

That lead lasted 13 seconds, because Coach Jake Eye is a strategic genius.

Figuring Southern would short kick to Cales again, Eye scripted a Cales to Bruton handoff that saw Bruton in the Indians end zone 70 yards and 13 seconds later, and the Bomber bleachers shaking as the fans danced and screamed. Windham 28-23.

Scarcely had the fans settled into their seats before Southern began another crushing drive. Despite Brandon Petrich making nearly every tackle, Potts passing and Heffner runs piled up the yards as they moved down the field like a machine, punching in the score at 6:24 to regain a one-point lead at 29-28.

This is the point where a season is made or lost. And our Bombers had come too far to fold.

Jack Eye and Carlos Bruton sliced and diced their way from the Windham 39, and the last play was a 32 yard McCune toss to Eye that saw Jack run as angry as he had since his junior year hip injury, an undeniable force that ripped past the entire Indian defense and left them shaking their heads. 34-29 Windham.

On the next drive, Southern, unable to power past the brilliant Brandon Petrich, picked on Dejuan Ramsey one time too many, as he defiantly broke up a long Potts pass, forcing a short punt to the Windham 40.

On the second play from scrimmage, Carlos Bruton delivered a new record to Bomber history, now 107 years long. Carlos joined Jack Eye in the 1000-yard club, marking the first time, in this writer’s memory, that dual runners have reached that tantalizing goal in the same year.

(If these two do not make All-State as a tandem, there is no justice in Division VII this year!)

As the fourth quarter began, the fireworks show was not over. Bruton continued to slither and glide for double digit gains, and despite a Jack Eye injury that held him out for a series, he recovered for the last play, a wildcat dive from the one to up the score to 42-29.

But tonight, no lead was safe. Southern took only three minutes to drive the field with a tempo offense, aided by a dubious facemask penalty, and a Potts to Heffner pass tightened the score to 42-35 – a touchdown and extra point away from a tie.

The most terrifying play of the season – and there always must be one – arrived on the kickoff. Southern attempted an onside kick that only went eight yards. It should have been Windham ball at the midfield stripe, but an overeager Bomber fell on the ball, and it squirted out like a fish escaping an angler’s net, right into the hands of an astonished Indian.

Thankfully, the penalty flags flew at Southern on this drive, Zack Porter pancaked a third down runner, and, for the first time all night, a desperation 50-yard Potts pass overshot the receiver, turning the ball over to the Bombers at their 45 with 4:39 left.

Only 10 seconds and 55 yards later, a weary but jubilant Jack Eye stood in the end zone, the culmination of one of the greatest performances this reader has seen in 70 years of watching Bomber Ball, and the scoreboard blazed the final tally of 50-35.

A final Southern drive was denied, and a sportsmanlike Windham kneel-down, disdaining to run up the score, ended the game after 10 PM.

High school games don’t usually last that long, but this was a night where neither team was willing to cede an inch.

It was a night for records. It was a night for heartbreak and jubilation.

It was a night to remember.

(The Bombers travel to Jeromesville next Friday to meet Hillsdale, 9-1 and ranked #5 in Ohio by the Associated Press in the final poll. In a Rodney Dangerfield-like twist, Windham, with an identical 9-1 record, did not receive a single vote…)