NEW PARIS – Mississinawa Valley held on for a 20-13 win at National Trail. It marks their first win over the Blazers since 2019, when the Blackhawks made the football playoffs.
Their 3-0 start in WOAC play is the best since the league started 5 years ago, and the most wins in the league in a single season.
If you were a spectator and arrived late, no worries, most of the action took place at the end of the first half and late in the game.
Both teams traded long possessions in the first quarter without scoring as National Trail on 4th down at the 37-yard line had a bad snap to the QB that gave the Blackhawks good field position to start their second drive.
They would capitalize on advancing the ball to the 11-yard line just before the 1st quarter ended. Senior running back Bryce Watson started the 2nd quarter off scoring on a 2-yard run with extra effort, and junior kicker Ian Tojosemito kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
National Trail was able to answer the score with one of their own. After a couple of nice plays, including converting on fourth down twice on their next possession. A pass over the middle for a first down to Talon Bousman to 21, then again on fourth down, sitting in at quarterback was Aiden Martin, who faked a pass, then sprinted to his right and cut back to the middle for a 15-yard TD. The extra point kick from senior Jacob Farno tied the game 7-7.
Both teams would trade a possession before the Blackhawks got the ball near their own 40-yard line with time dwindling down in the first half. They dodged a bullet on a near interception by Grady Ott as Bryce Watson moved the Hawks into the red zone on a 55-yard run down to the 10-yard line.
The run gave them a couple of shots of getting into the endzone and with 12.5 second to go Spradling threw one up into the corner for Kyle Wehrkamp who was triple covered, he won the jump ball somehow coming away with it for a 10-yard TD giving Mississinawa a 14-7 lead heading into the break.
Mississinawa Valley 1st year coach Brandon Williams wanted to get the ball to his senior playmaker in that situation and made the call on the scoring TD just before the half ended.
“The play call was just getting Kyle wide and throw it up to him. You know, he’s a great athlete and we just like to get the ball in his hands as much as possible,”
There was no score in the third quarter, but Mississinawa was on the move early in the 4th quarter into the red zone looking to score again.
With the Blazers back against the wall, they thwarted multiple passes thrown into the end zone, denying a back-breaking score, and took over on downs, where they would quickly turn the tables on Mississinawa.
On the next play, Trail was ignited on a 55-yard run from Jody Wintrow, and then a few short plays later, he culminated their climactic response on a five-yard TD run.
The Blazers weren’t looking for the tie and decided to go for a two-point conversion, but Colton Hiestand and Ty Houser came up with a big stop to keep the Hawks in front 14-13 with 8:55 to go in the 4th quarter
Mississinawa looked like they had the perfect response as Spradling hit Wehrkamp in the flat and he went for what appeared to be an 80-yard touchdown only to see it called back on an illegal shift.
National Trail would get their shot for a possible go-ahead score … but Mississinawa held strong and nearly intercepted a pass on 4th down at midfield, instead they took over on downs at the 31-yard line with 3:35 to go in the game.
The Hawks tried milking each play to run clock but eventually scored on an 11-yard run by Caleb Spradling with 1:17 to go but they would miss the extra point and the score was 20-13.
The question then was did they score to early and after missing the extra point did they leave the door open for National Trail?
Mississinawa squib kicked the ball to midfield and Trail would strike on the first play a 35-yard shoestring catch by Josh Brinkley had them in Blackhawk territory.
If it worked once do it again, and this time Brinkley had to go up high and he pulled it down with defenders on him for another great catch at the 15-yard line with 43 seconds left to play.
But the Blazers went to the well one too many times this time throwing to the opposite sideline and the jump ball was picked off by Ashton Amspaugh for his second interception of the game at the 2-yard line squashing the exciting comeback by the Blazers.
Mississinawa ran out the clock to preserve the hard-fought road win 20-13 and their first 3-0 start in the WOAC.
Mississinawa coach Brandon Williams was pleased about how his team responded to the adversity in the game.
“This team is playing with a lot of confidence, and they persevered tonight, they fought through a lot. It was tough sledding both ways from Trail and for us,” Williams said.
“Although there wasn’t a lot going on, until towards the end of the half and the end of the game, these boys kept fighting through all the adversity, they’ve been believing, so the credit goes to them, they wanted this,” William added.
“That was a huge play by Ashton at the end of the game, he’s probably one of our best, him and Cole McLaughlin, just great respect, both are good cover guys,” Willams praised.
“Bryce Watson’s big run late and then the big catch by Kyle Wehrkamp were all big plays in the game,’ Williams added.
“We’ve got athletes and as coaches, we try to put these kids in the best position possible to be successful. So far, I think we’ve done a good job of that,” Williams concluded with a big smile on his face.
Bryce Watson led the Blackhawks on the ground rushing for 123 yards on 13 carries and a TD and Michael Bell had 46-yards on 11 carries. Caleb Spradling was 6-for-10 passing for 69 yards including the 10-yard TD throw to Kyle Wehrkamp.
Mississinawa improves to 3-1 overall and 3-0 in the WOAC, and they will host Twin Valley South next Friday.
National Trail falls to 0-4, 0-3, and they will play at Dixie next Friday.
