ANSONIA – It was a Saturday night special between the top two undefeated football teams in the WOAC featuring the ground and pound Ansonia offense vs a wide-open Preble Shawnee offense.
Both teams were putting up over 40 points a game, but the Tigers physicality and ball control offense got the upper hand with Ansonia clinching at least a share of the conference championship with a 24-13 win over the Arrows.
The Tigers would rush for 317 yards in the game with Zane Henderson going for 120 yards and Jacob Schmitmeyer 119.
Ansonia was aided on their opening kickoff drive by two offside penalties by Preble Shawnee to keep the drive going scored and they would score on a four-yard TD run by Zane Henderson to go up 6-0 after failing on the two-point conversion at 5:26 of the first quarter.
The Tigers stopped Preble Shawnee on their first possession but coughed up the ball on a mis-handled hand-off in their own territory that was recovered by Brody Lynch.
It took the Arrows five plays scoring at 11:56 of the second quarter on TD run by Isaac Blankenship to go up 7-6 with the extra point kick.
Ansonia went back to work with their ground game scoring at 9:07 of the second quarter when quarterback Layne Bowman faked everybody out on the hand-off up the middle then ran around the end and up the sidelines for a 32-yard touchdown. Preble Shawnee again held off the Tigers two-point conversion something they would be successful at all night but trailed 12-7.
The Arrows were stopped on their third possession by Ansonia giving them one more opportunity to score before the end of the first half.
The Tigers had advanced the ball down to the five-yard line and with the Arrows back against the wall they stuffed a fourth down Tiger run denying a score with 46 seconds left in the half.
The good news for Preble Shawnee, who had only four possessions in the first half and the last with 95 yards to go and just 46 seconds, basically didn’t count … is that they would
receive the ball to start the second half.
Preble Shawnee would get in their own way on their first possession of the second half again plagued by penalties and forced to punt.
The Tigers knew what to do orchestrating a long 70-yard clock eating drive converting on fourth down twice along the way and Jacob Schmitmeyer hit paydirt from five yards out to go up 18-7 after the third failed two-point conversion.
With 3:29 left in the third quarter Preble Shawnee knew they had to respond and moved the ball out to midfield on a few quick plays setting up a Brody Morton pass that saw Reece Smith go up an over the defender and tip the ball back to himself with a spectacular catch and strolled into the endzone for a much-needed 60-yard score. Their two-point conversion attempt failed … but they had narrowed the lead to 18-13.
In classic Ansonia style they would break the arrows in more ways than one with a time-consuming drive that included two, fourth down conversions … but on the third fourth down attempt Shawnee held taking over on downs at their own 9-yard line with about 5 minutes left to play.
If anyone questioned Ansonia’s defense, they gave answers with Preble Shawnee facing a fourth and 1 on their own 24-yard line, and the Arrows, not sure if they would get the ball back if they punted, decided to go for it.
The Tigers stopped them short of the first down, and a few plays later, Zane Henderson scored his second TD of the night from five yards to go up 24-13 with a few minutes left in the contest.
Preble tried to respond quickly, and a pass from Morton to Blankenship near the five-yard line was tipped by the Tigers’ Cade Shellhaas. Jacob Schmitmeyer was able to snag the carom for his second interception, allowing the Tigers to do what they did all game long and run out the clock for a victory.
Preble Shawnee coach Dave Maddox was disappointed that his team didn’t play their best in what likely determined the league championship.
“We just made way too many mistakes. I don’t know how many penalties we had, there’s absolutely no way you can win, beat any team if you have that many penalties. We didn’t show up ready to go, not focused, and they punched us in the mouth. We waited too long to respond, and we still had opportunities throughout the game but didn’t take advantage and put ourselves in too big of a hole,” Maddox stated.
The Arrows won the first league championship back in 2021 and had hopes for a second title, but now needs help from Mississinawa Valley next week while they play Dixie.
Coach Hall knew his team was in for a good one with Preble Shawnee and saw his team steadily improved over the course of the year with many questioning if they would be up for the challenge.
“We know that Preble Shawnee is a good football team. We’ve seen the scores; we’ve seen them on film. We’ve seen them play in person. They’re good every year. They’re a physical football team. They’re an athletic football team and we knew we’d have our hands full coming in tonight. I think that they deserve a lot of credit for how they play, how they prepare, but our guys made plays tonight. And, you know, I think that our defense played as good as you could play, as good as we could ask them to play tonight, and offensively, holding onto the ball, doing what we do, it works out for us,” Hall said after the game.
It was a formula that has worked well for Ansonia over the years, and they have the results to prove it.
Hall who is in his third year at the helm for the Tigers saw his team clinch at least a share of the League Title and with a win at Mississinawa Valley next week will earn an outright championship and the third straight WOAC football championship for the Tigers who shared it with Tri-Village in 2022.
