Ottawa-Glandorf’s Logan Kaufman (41) looks for running room after a second half interception during the Titans regional quarterfinal game with Wooster Triway Saturday night. The Titan defense picked off three passes in the contest and came up five turnovers overall.
O-G wins 'Battle of the Titans' By Charlie Warnimont
Sentinel Sports Editor
WOOSTER - Ottawa-Glandorf made an early statement on both sides of the ball Saturday in their Division IV regional quarterfinal with Wooster Triway.
The defense snuffed out an early Triway drive. The offense then took over and drove down the field to put points on the scoreboard. The early statements were enough to power O-G to a 28-14 win in the Battle of Titans at Triway High School.
The win sends O-G (9-2) into the regional semi-finals this Saturday night against Pemberville Eastwood (9-2) at Donnell Stadium in Findlay. Eastwood advanced with a win over unbeaten Galion.
Triway took the opening kickoff Saturday and were moving down field behind the passing of quarterback Derek Carmichael. Wooster reached the O-G 33 before a running play lost two yards, then a pair of incomplete passes turned the ball over on downs to O-G.
Ottawa-Glandorf marched down field behind as Craig Rieman rushed four times and caught an 18 yard pass. Nathan Kahle had a run of 17 yards before the drive fizzled out at the 10 yard line. Mike Bendele came on and put O-G on top with a 27 yard field goal with 4:54 left in the opening quarter.
The early play by the Titan defense and offense helped set the tone for the evening.
"Those two drives helped with our confidence," O-G coach Ken Schriner said. "They (Triway) were driving and our defense came up with two plays to stuff it, then our offense came up with a couple of big plays as we went down and scored. This helped set an early tone for our kids and gave them the confidence they needed."
Ottawa-Glandorf's defense played well the first half as a dangerous Triway defense was able to move the football, but were shutout as the O-G defense stiffened at the right times to frustrate this high power offense.
The visiting Titans did this as they went with a three man front dropping an extra player into coverage against the spread offense of Wooster. O-G also came with the occasional blitz that forced Carmichael to rush a few throws that fell short of his intended receivers.
"We knew their quarterback threw so many timing routes which is why we decided to get more guys into coverage," Schriner said. "Coach (Brian) Heebsh did an outstanding job again tonight scheming things. Our defense has played well all year. Our defense runs to the football. We hit and run to the ball very well. Defense has been our forte all season."
"We couldn't get anything going offensively the first half," Triway coach Tony Lee said. "A lot of that had to do with them. They showed us a lot of different schemes (defensively) with the cover 4 , man and two deep. They ran a little bit of everything to take our short passing game away and that is our bread and butter. They did a nice job. They are a well coached team."
While the Titan defense was throwing a first half shutout, the offense was scoring twice more.
After opening the contest with a scoring drive, O-G punted on their second possession before taking the ball to the endzone on their third possession.
On this drive, the Titans went 76 yards in 11 plays as Logan Kaufman bulled over from a yard out. A 23 yard run by Nathan Kahle opened the drive and he hit Ryan Kuhlman with a 14 yard pass play later in the drive. Runs by Brandon Kuhlman and Rieman helped keep the drive going.
O-G went up 13-0 late in the half as Bendele finished off an 80 yard drive with a 35 yard field goal. The key play was a 20 yard pass to Ryan Kuhlman that took the ball to the Triway 13. Brian Laubenthal also caught a pass for 14 yards.
Despite the three scoring drives, the Titans were hoping to get into the endzone on more drives.
"It was an outstanding night on both sides of the ball," Schriner said. "We played well. We moved the ball, but the bottom line is we have to put more points on the scoreboard, especially when you are playing an offense like that. We did what we needed to do to win the ball game."
Both teams saw their offenses heat up in the third quarter as O-G scored twice around a Triway score.
Kaufman reached the endzone for the second time on a one yard run with 7:34 left in the third quarter and Kahle ran in the two point conversion for a 21-0 lead. Triway came right back with a score as Carmichael found Zach Houmard with a 25 yard scoring strike. O-G came right back as Kaufman scored on a seven yard run.
Triway had a pair of potential scoring drives in the second half snuffed out by the O-G defense as they forced five turnovers on the night, three interceptions and two fumbles. Kaufman intercepted a pass at the goalline to end a drive. Kaufman also had a fumble recovery in the game.
Laubenthal intercepted his eighth pass of the season to set a new school record and Kahle had a pick inside the five yard line in the second half.
For the most part, O-G had a balanced attack with 210 yards rushing and 129 passing. Kahle led the ground game with 99 yards on 17 carries, while Rieman had 38 yards and Brandon Kuhlman 35 yards. Kahle was 9-of-18 passing as Matt Peck caught three passes for 52 yards.
Carmichael was 26-of-52 passing for 312 yards, but he was picked off three times in addition to throwing two touchdown passes. Sawyer Polen caught a three yard scoring strike with 3:07 left.
* * *
O-G Triway
20 First Downs 17
339 Total yards 318
210 Rushing Yards 6
129 Passing Yards 312
18-9 Pass atts-comp. 52-26
0 Intercepted 3
1-1 Fumbles-lost 2-2
2-10 Penalties-yards 5-29
5-25.2 Punts-Avg. 4-35.8
Score by quarters:
Ottawa-Glandorf 3 10 15 0 - 28
Triway 0 0 7 7 - 14
OG - Bendele 27 field goal
OG - Kaufman one run (Bendele kick)
OG - Bendele 35 field goal
OG - Kaufman one run (Kahle run)
WT - Houmard from Carmichael (Raber kick)
OG - Kaufman seven run (Bendele kick)
WT - Polen three pass from Carmichael (Raber kick)
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