The Pass
It became known as The Catch.
Since then, there’s also been The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot and countless others.
But as of Friday, Sept. 23, West Holmes High School has one of its own, that will live forever in the Knights football lexicon.
The Pass.
A 20-yarder from junior quarterback Gabe Snyder to sophomore receiver Brady Arnold in the back, right corner of the end zone, with only 0:07 showing on the clock, which capped a 21-point fourth quarter comeback and gave the Knights a 35-31 victory over Ashland – their first win against the Arrows since joining the Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) nine years ago.
“Everybody goes nuts, and you just say, ‘Don’t wake me up. Please tell me this isn’t a dream,’” said West Holmes junior linebacker Keaton Leppla, after watching the play unfold from the near sideline inside Knights Stadium.
“I saw 11 kids with no quit in them and the determination that we were going to win this ballgame,” added second-year Knights head coach Kevin Maltarich, whose team went 1-9 a year ago but perhaps accelerated the process of establishing itself as a legitimate contender in the OCC, as West Holmes walked off the field tied for first place with defending conference champion Clear Fork, at 2-0, while also improving to a league-leading 4-1 record overall.
Amazing, since the Knights looked pretty much dead just over two minutes into the third quarter, falling behind Ashland (1-1) (1-4) 31-7 when Arrows senior quarterback Zach Bernhard completed his third touchdown pass of the game, hitting Kozmo Krueger in the right crease, from 27 yards out, and watching the junior receiver take it across the goal line.
But just like the acclaimed swordsman, Westley, in The Princess Bride, the Knights were only mostly dead.
“It was nothing but fight and pure guts and glory for these kids,” said Maltarich, after watching the Arrows jump out to a 14-0 first quarter lead, when Bernhard connected with senior receiver Brandon Nardo for touchdown passes of 44 and 53 yards on Ashland’s first two offensive possessions. “They never quit.”
Even when Ashland made it 21-0 after West Holmes responded with a seven-play 60-yard drive down to the Ashland 13-yard-line, as the Arrows defense drilled senior tailback Joey Gonzalez in the backfield, on first-and-10, popping the ball straight up in the air as Gonzalez fell to the ground, allowing 210-lb. Ashland senior defensive tackle Adam Wolbert to scoop it up off the ground and ramble 83 yards for another touchdown.
“They had some unfortunate things happen to them in the first half,” said Maltarich. “A fumble and we got shut out of the end zone a couple times, but to these kids’ credit, they kept fighting and kept fighting and kept fighting.”
The Knights fought for 65 yards on 10 straight running plays during their next offensive possession, but their drive stalled at the Ashland five, when they failed to pick up another inch on second, third and fourth downs.
But after picking up two yards on their first play, following the change of possession, the Arrows couldn’t advance beyond the seven, going three-and-out and setting the Knights back up with first-and-10 from the Ashland 37-yard-line, following a Bernhard punt out of the end zone.
A 13-yard run down the near sideline by Snyder and two big bursts up the middle by junior fullback Garrett Mackey pushed the ball right back down to the seven, where Gonzalez finally put the Knights on the board as he went around the right side on third-and-three, broke through one attempted leg tackle, and made the score 21-7, following a successful PAT from senior kicker Sloan Le.
But the Arrows next drive covered 52 yards and resulted in a 25-yard field goal from Ashland senior kicker Greg Gallaway, which sent both teams into the locker rooms, with West Holmes trailing 24-7 at the half.
“I was worried coming in,” explained Maltarich. “These guys [Ashland] are fast. One mistake and they’re going to hurt you with it and they showed that right at the beginning. They put 21 points on us just from our mistakes. And you saw us march up and down the field and we came away empty a couple times.
“I was thinking this ought to be a different game.”
It looked pretty much like the same kind of game early in the second half, however, as the Knights committed another turnover during their opening possession, when Snyder’s pass to Grant Hay, out in the left flat, went off the junior running back’s hands and into the arms of diving Ashland defensive back Zach Thompson.
That interception set up Bernhard’s 27-yard strike to Krueger, which gave the Arrows a 24-point lead, at 31-7, with 9:58 remaining in the third quarter.
That would be the last time the Arrows would score.
As Bernhard was on his way to picking up 218 yards through the air – on 10-of-22 passing – the Knights continued to push their way toward 355 rushing yards, picking up 78 yards on 14 straight running plays during their next offensive possession (alternating carries between sophomore running back Layne Perone, Gonzalez, Hay and Snyder) but stalling again inside the five-yard-line when Perone was stuffed trying to go up the middle on fourth-and-goal from the two.
But with Mackey added into that mix, and eventually leading the Knights with 129 yards on 27 carries, the West Holmes ground game was starting to take its toll on the Arrows.
“There’s no doubt,” said Ashland head coach Scott Valentine. “And with us having to focus and read their offense that causes you some trouble, and they do a good job of executing their offense.”
They executed their defense first, however, holding Ashland to one yard and forcing Bernhard to punt out of his own end zone again, giving the Knights offense possession at the Ashland 35-yard-line, where Snyder was able to find 6’6” Brock Macaulay in the right crease on second down, and watched the junior tight end take it into the end zone to make it 31-14 with 0:28 left to play in the third quarter.
“That was a great ball by Gabe,” explained Macaulay afterward. “We’d been running that play a lot but they finally bit on Grant [Hay] because he had been open the whole time. I just found a seam, got open, caught it and scored.”
But the Knights still trailed by 17 entering the fourth quarter before the defense forced another Ashland punt and the offense went on a methodical 5:10, 80-yard march down the field, aided by a pass interference call against Ashland – when Snyder tried to hit Arnold streaking down the near sideline – and capped by a 13-yard reverse run to the right corner of the end zone by Arnold, on second-and-three.
“Coach [Maltarich] always preaches to us, ‘Don’t quit,’” said Arnold. “We play hard until the last second, and just keep going and going and going.”
A blocked extra point try left the Knights still trailing by 11 as the clock kept going and going and going – with only 5:47 left to play – but 40 seconds later West Holmes was back on offense after Bernhard fumbled the second down snap, out of the shotgun, and Mackey pounced on the ball at the Ashland 44.
“That’s West Holmes football,” said Leppla, after watching the Knights use four running plays to get down to the Ashland 20, before Snyder found Macaulay over the middle on fourth down, for a pickup of 16, down to the four-yard-line. “Don’t ever give up. You keep trying even if the game’s out of reach. We’re not going to fold over for anybody.”
Gonzalez went up the middle for the last four yards and Snyder dove across the goal line on a keeper to the left, to tack on two, as the Knights cut the Arrows lead to 31-28, but failed to recover an onside kick, leaving Bernhard and the Arrows at midfield with only 2:18 still showing on the scoreboard.
“I think in the first half we hadn’t faced that kind of speed or height,” explained Leppla as he and the rest of the Knights D sacked Bernhard, forced an incomplete pass and made the Arrows punt the ball right back with 1:58 remaining. “It’s hard to practice against speed, but I think we started gauging their speed, getting a little pressure on the quarterback, and the DBs played a great game.”
Laying the foundation for a great finish as three alternating runs by Mackey and Gonzalez got the Knights near midfield, before Snyder found Hay on the left side for a 21-yard gain and Mackey ran a little buck trap to the left side to setup…The Pass.
“We set it up and Brady ran a great route and I trusted him, threw it up there, hit him right in his hands and he caught it,” said Snyder, who finished with 98 yards on 6-of-14 passing. “We needed that win if we wanted a chance to go anywhere and everybody kept their composure and didn’t get down and we just kept fighting.
“We’re a team. We’re here to play. No one can underestimate us.”
“We knew what they were going to do,” added Maltarich. “They’re stacking eight or nine in the box and we’re still able to run it. When they start getting nosey we were going to hurt them with the pass.”
Which they finally did, with Arnold thinking, “Catch it. Don’t drop it,” as the ball was in the air.
“It’s what they put me out there for, to catch the ball and that was a perfect pass by Gabe. That was a nice pass.”
It was The Pass.
Published: September 23, 2011
