Frederick overcomes weather, Lindsay for crucial district win
By Glen Brockenbush
FREDERICK - With a potential home playoff game on the line, Friday’s contest between Lindsay and Frederick had plenty at stake.
And while the rain and mud (combined with penalties) made for a sloppy game at times, it certainly delivered the drama that one expects from a game with so much at stake.
Frederick head coach Bret Tyler dug into his bag of tricks and called a play his team seldom uses. On a tricky misdirection handoff, the diminutive Kellan Hicks, all 5-foot-7, 135 pounds of him, snuck through the line of scrimmage and through the entire Lindsay defense for a 49-yard touchdown run.
That score midway through the fourth quarter proved to be the decisive one, as Frederick held on for a 21-20 win at the rain-soaked Bomber Bowl on Friday night.
With a win next week, the Bombers secure the 2-seed in District 2A-3, and would host a playoff game in the first round.
After Lindsay took a 20-15 lead just before the midway point in the final quarter, Frederick found itself just past midfield.
Although Willie Cramer had been the team’s workhorse back for much of the night, and Alex Mathews had provided a spark when needed, the coaching staff turned to their junior receiver.
“Man, we almost never run (that play),” Hicks said. “Usually, we run a sweep, try to get (the defense) to go with the motion. And we just hit them with the back-side run.”
It worked perfectly. Hicks - who also intercepted a pass on defense - broke through the line of scrimmage and quickly found daylight to the end zone. However, the two-point conversion was no good.
And with more than five minutes left, there appeared to be plenty of time left for the Leopards to strike back.
But with the wet conditions and an aggressive Bomber defense, the Lindsay passing game was lacking, and quarterback Broty Ramming, for as hard to tackle in the run game as he was, couldn’t muster a game-winning drive.
“They came in and they were kind of a passing team, with a passing quarterback,” Tyler said after the game. “The weather conditions being what they were, they started running the ball with that quarterback.
"But I just like the fight of our team. They overcame some adversity and just made plays when we needed to, and got the big win.”
Despite the weather, each team's offense was actually able to move the ball quite well. Each team's first two drives of the game produced touchdowns.
Cramer had a 30-yard run to put the Bombers on top. The rest of the scoring came on short-yardage scores that capped long, methodical drives.
Jacob Vaughn snuck in for a Lindsay TD, with a two-point conversion putting the visitors ahead. A quarterback sneak by Adrian Gaytan at the beginning of the second quarter put Frederick back in front, with a Cramer run for two making the score 15-8.
Ramming proved hard to tackle all night, and his 4-yard touchdown run about midway through the second quarter put the Leopards in position to tie or lead the game. But the Bomber defense stiffened on the two-point conversion, giving the hosts a 15-14 lead at halftime.
There were some examples of the weather coming into play, with several dropped passes and poor footing. The sloppy and conservative style continued in the third quarter, with no points being registered by either team.
Gaytan, the Bombers’ senior quarterback, completed 5-of-6 passes in the first half, but didn’t complete any more after that, in part due to the slickness of the ball.
“It was a little bit of a factor, but our o-line was working hard and opened up holes for our running backs, and that really helped us (Friday),” Gaytan said.
The Leopards found themselves in a fourth-and-15 situation, and despite good pass rush and coverage by the secondary, Ramming was able to connect with Andon Register, setting up a first-and-goal. Three plays later, Vaughn punched it in for the Lindsay score.
But the two-point conversion pass was incomplete, leaving the score at 20-15 with 6:35 left in the game. A minute later, Frederick scored the go-ahead score.
Frederick (7-2, 5-1 in District 2A-3) ends the regular season at Community Christian in Norman on Friday, while Lindsay (6-3, 4-2) visits Crooked Oak.
