HUNTINGTON - Just moments after Spring Valley stopped George Washington on a fourth and 11 with 41 seconds to play in the Patriots' 35-28 overtime win, a local radio announcer uttered the phrase "barring a miracle." Then, a miracle occurred.
The Timberwolves lined up to run out the clock, but the snap was bobbled and a GW defender fell on the ball to give the Patriots the ball back. On the ensuing play, Colten Rollyson connected with Druw Bowen on a halfback pass for the 68-yard equalizer.
The drama, however, was far from complete. Spring Valley proceeded to march to the 33-yard line, and Derek Johnson hit Kane Morrone on an out route to the 20. Morrone appeared to fall out of bounds, but the line judge ruled that Morrone was in bounds, leaving the Wolves just 1.2 seconds to get a snap off, which they were unable to do. All of that came after two furious GW rallies to knot the score on separate occasions.
Spring Valley won the overtime coin toss and elected to play defense first. The Patriots marched to the Wolves' 7, where they faced a fourth and goal. On that play, Kaleb Mackey connected with Rollyson on a slant for the go-ahead score.
Spring Valley appeared poised to send the game to a second overtime, but GW forced a Johnson fumble at the 4-yard line to end the game.
"Our kids decided to play after a while," George Washington coach Steve Edwards, Jr. said. "They're the ones who made the decision to play. To their credit, they never quit and they fought back. They outdid themselves tonight."
The fumble toward the end of regulation was a gut decision on behalf of the GW staff, as they elected to put their nose guard head up on the center to attempt to disrupt the snap. The move paid dividends, and changed the result of the game.
"Coach Anderson made a call. He said 'Let's try to make something happen here.' We gambled, and we were able to make it pay off," Edwards said. "It comes down to execution. We made one more play than them, but that's a good, well-coached football team. There's not much difference between anyone in this conference. They all play good ball, but our kids did a heck of a job tonight."
After a scoreless opening quarter, Spring Valley drew first blood just six seconds into the second quarter when Johnson found paydirt on a 4-yard quarterback rollout to the right side. That play capped a 13-play, 76-yard drive that chewed up just over seven minutes off the clock.
The Patriots quickly put themselves in position to respond after back-to-back receptions by Bowen and Darnell Brooks that covered 46 and 10 yards to set GW up inside the Wolves' 15-yard line. That would be as far as the Patriots would advance, however, as the Spring Valley defense thwarted a fourth down screen pass to Miller at their own 4-yard line.
George Washington penetrated deep into Spring Valley territory three times in the first half, only to be turned away each time. One the Patriots' next possession, Grant Wells was intercepted by Chandler Stacy at the 15-yard line to halt the drive. Perhaps the most disappointing result came with just over a minute to go in the second quarter. The Patriots, operating out of an up-tempo spread set, quickly advanced from their own 36-yard line to the Timberwolves 13. Once again, however, the Patriots failed to capitalize as Wells misfired on a corner route to Nathan Toney.
"We kind of bent but didn't break there," Spring Valley coach Brad Dingess said. "We played well on defense. They hit some big plays, and we knew that coming in. We had some mental mistakes, but our defense played well enough to win the ball game."
Just prior to that, Spring Valley padded its lead on a 66-yard pass from Johnson to Mason Brubeck. On the play, Brubeck lined up as a wingback and ran a seam route into open space that was vacated by two blitzing GW linebackers. The Patriots consistently sent linebackers through the A gaps in the first half in an attempt to take away Jakob Frye on fullback dives. By doing so, the Timberwolves were able to find some success by running Mason Brubeck off tackle on trap plays, as well as using the midline option for the first time this season.
"We've been kind of saving it [midline]. We didn't hand it to the second back through, but he [Johnson] read it well. We've been working on it and kept it in our back pocket. It worked well for us tonight," Dingess said.
Johnson, who is responsible for reading the defensive tackle on the midline option, led the Spring Valley ground game with 138 yards on 19 carries.
"He's a gamer. He makes things happen with the ball in his hands. He's just a tenth grader, but he's a heck of a ball player, and we're going to continue to put the ball in his hands," Dingess said.
Spring Valley extended the lead on its opening drive of the second half on a 53-yard scoring march that was capped by a five yard plunge off right guard by Jakob Frye. The Wolves were able to open up the GW defense off tackle a little more on the drive by moving tight end Skyler Ratcliff out three yards from tackle Riley Locklear and moving Brubeck in the gap between Locklear and Ratcliff. That move enabled Ratcliff to turnout the outside linebacker easier, which equated to big yardage off tackle.
At the 5:50 mark in the third quarter, Miller catalyzed the rally with a 50-yard scoring scamper off right guard. Prior to that run, Miller had been largely anonymous, tallying just 48 yards rushing to that point. From that point on, Miller hit another gear.
After a failed onside kick, the Patriot defense forced a Spring Valley punt. Moments later, Miller sliced the deficit to 21-14 on a bruising 59-yard scoring run off right tackle. The Patriots ran Miller exclusively out of the shotgun set with multiple receivers to draw defenders out of the box. Taking advantage, Miller consistently broke multiple tackles on each scoring run.
The Patriots, and Miller, evened the score with just over eight minutes left in the game when Miller raced in from 17 yards out to even the score at 21.
The Wolves (6-3) finish their season at Riverside next week, while George Washington (7-2) wraps up its regular season against cross-county rival South Charleston.