HOPEWELL-LOUDON 27, GIBSONBURG 14
By Kyle Holsinger
BASCOM — Hopewell-Loudon was up by six points late in the fourth quarter against Gibsonburg in their Sandusky Bay Conference, River Division opener. The Chieftains needed only a couple of first downs, and they could’ve ran out the clock.
On a fourth-and-one, Braylon Martinez took a handoff up the middle, found an opening, and then raced to the right sideline for a 42-yard Chieftain touchdown to put the game out of reach with 3:29 remaining. Gibsonburg turned the ball over on downs on their final drive to end the game with a 27-14 loss to Hopewell.
“We executed well again. We’re up and down the field the first half and just like we were last week, we didn’t finish some drives,” Hopewell-Loudon coach Brian Colatruglio said. “I made some really dumb calls, and you know, those two things along with the huge play they made in the pass game…everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
We went into halftime. We regrouped. We didn’t really change anything. We just came out and executed.”
Martinez had 182 all-purpose yards to lead the way for the Chieftains with 133 rushing yards and two TDs on 18 attempts, two receptions for 27 receiving yards and a TD, and 22 kick return yards.
“Braylon Martinez is the best football player in this league, and he has been for a couple of years,” Colatruglio stated. “He completely took over the game.”
Gibsonburg (2-2 overall, 0-1 SBC River Division) turned the ball over on downs on their first drive of the game as well. The Golden Bears drove 36 yards on eight plays before senior QB Camden Mooney was sacked on fourth-and-12 by Chieftain defensive linemen Will Nutter and Aiden Ewald.
The following drive for Hopewell-Loudon (4-0, 1-0) saw them pick up a couple first downs on an 11-yard Martinez run and a four-yard pass from sophomore QB Jacoby Ellis to Jack Colatruglio. Chieftain sophomore QB Kellen Frankart, who shares snaps with Ellis, threw a pass over the middle to Gibsonburg’s safety Chuy Rodriguez for an interception that ended any progress Hopewell had made.
After the teams traded punts, the Golden Bears were able to get the ball back just after the start of the second quarter.
On the second play of the drive, Mooney threw a screen to the right to wingback Aiden Morant who sprinted down the sideline for 61 yards before being knocked out of bounds at the Chieftain 20-yard line. Three plays later, Mooney hit Rodriguez wide open towards the left sideline. Rodriguez walked it in from there for a 19-yard TD reception.
The Golden Bears were up, 7-0, with 9:17 left in the first half.
Martinez had his 22-yard kickoff return to get the Chieftains to their own 48. Back-to-back QB keepers by Frankart that gained 11- and 12-yards respectively got the Scarlet & Gray further into enemy territory before Ellis fumbled on a scramble that left them in a third-and-17 situation. Hopewell-Loudon turned the ball over on downs after Ellis threw an incompletion two plays later.
A 35-yard punt by Gibsonburg’s Spencer Waugaman was downed at the Chieftain 9-yard line with 2:32 remaining in the half.
Hopewell-Loudon collected six first downs on the drive with Ellis completing a 10-yard strike to Jack Colatruglio to start it off. Ellis threw a screen pass to Martinez for a 12-yard gain and then passed over the middle to Frankart for a 16-yard completion. Two plays later, Ellis tossed a short pass left to Evan Eilrich that turned into a 10-yard catch. Another Ellis screen pass to Martinez, this time for 15 yards, got the Chieftains down to the Gibsonburg 7 with under 30 seconds left in the second quarter.
On first-and-goal, Ellis threw an interception to Gibsonburg sophomore Reese Walby near the goal line that Walby returned to the house for a pick-six. Gibsonburg was up 14-0 with only two seconds left in the half.
Hopewell-Loudon came out from the halftime break and marched 86 yards on an 11-play scoring drive highlighted by runs of 13, 11, and 11 yards by Martinez, and a 26-yard wildcat sweep to the right by Frankart. Martinez leaped into the end zone after catching a screen pass for a four-yard score. H-L was down, 14-7, to the Golden Bears with 6:43 to go in the third quarter.
On Gibsonburg’s first play of their next drive, Morant took the ball on an end around and fumbled after contact. Hopewell-Loudon recovered the ball at the Gibsonburg 14.
Four plays later, Hopewell’s Frankart scored from four yards out on a wildcat sweep to the left. The game was tied with 4:54 left in the third.
Hopewell-Loudon was able to force Gibsonburg into punting the ball on fourth-and-17 from their own 26. Colatruglio caught the ball at his own 23 and returned it 33 yards to give the Chieftains the ball at midfield with a chance to take the lead.
The Scarlet & Gray were able to capitalize off of that great field position with a one-yard touchdown run by Martinez with 9:08 to go in the game. The drive took 5:45 off of the clock as the Chieftains converted on a fourth-and-one and two third downs to keep the drive alive. Hopewell missed the PAT so the score was 20-14 at this point.
Gibsonburg was able to move the ball on their next drive before a delay-of-game penalty set them back to a second-and-14 scenario. Two incompletions forced the Golden Bears to punt the ball back to Hopewell-Loudon.
That’s when the Chieftains just needed a few first downs to finish out the game clock.
Hopewell-Loudon’s Martinez ran it up the middle for a 15-yard run to start the scoring drive. Frankart kept it up the middle on the following play for a 10-yard rush to set up the game-clinching TD.
Hopewell-Loudon had 102 yards passing with Ellis completing 13-of-16 passes for 102 yards, one TD, and one INT. Frankart was 0-of-2 with one INT for the Chieftains.
Aside from Martinez’s 133 rushing yards, Frankart had 119 yards on 15 carries and a TD. The Scarlet & Gray had 287 rushing yards on the evening.
Jack Colatruglio had three catches for 23 yards to lead his team in receiving Friday night.
Gibsonburg had 101 yards passing and 50 yards rushing for 151 total offensive yards. Mooney threw 3-of-4 completions for 92 yards and a TD while Walby was 2-of-5 for nine yards.
The Chieftains only gave up 12 total yards in the second half.
Antonio Salazar led the Golden Bears in rushing with 30 yards on five carries, and Morant had two receptions for 73 yards.
Hopewell-Loudon will be at home against Lakota (1-3), and Gibsonburg hosts Calvert (3-1) next Friday.
Hopewell-Loudon 0 0 14 13 - 27
Gibsonburg 0 14 0 0 - 14
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