It’s a short drive from Findlay to Tiffin. Ironically, it was long drive that the Oilers used that broke the Dragons’ back in Tiffin's 35-13 home opener loss against the University of Findlay.
The Dragons went into the half trailing 13-6 but looked to be in good shape when Boris Bede’s kick was fielded in the end zone and the Findlay kick returner fell down on the 1 yard line. However, the Oilers drove the ball 99 yards on the ground in 7 plays to take a 20-6 lead.
“We can’t give up big plays,” said Dragons coach Dave Walkosky. “They
had two plays over 20 yards (on the drive), and our D’s not designed to
give up big plays.”
The Dragons received the game’s opening kickoff,
and after a first down, Dragons quarterback David Singleton’s pass was
picked off. From there the two teams engaged in a pretty good
defensive battle for the rest of the first quarter. The only score
allowed in the 1st was an Oilers 40 yard field goal with 2:59
remaining.
Findlay then made it a 10-0 game with 12:28 remaining
in the second quarter after a four play drive that included a trick
play for 57 yards. The Dragons answered, however, with a 12 play drive
that ended with Singleton hooking up with Greg Raspberry on a 17 yard
pass in the end zone with 8:30 remaining in the 1st half. The Dragons
trailed 10-6 after Bede's extra point attempt was blocked. The Oilers
added to their lead on a field goal with 1:26 on the clock.
After
the 99 yard drive to start the half, the Oilers picked off another
Singleton pass and two plays later scored another touchdown when Mike
Beams completed a 57 yard pass to Mike Chambers. The Oilers would add
another touchdown and a two point conversion when a bad snap was run
in. In all, the Oilers scored 22 unanswered points in the third quarter.
The Dragons kept battling, however, and scored again in the
4th quarter when Nate Scully, the third quarterback used by the
Dragons, hooked up with Chris Bonner to make it 35-13. Neither team put
another score on the board.
Even with the loss, Coach Walkosky did see some positives. “We played hard and didn’t quit. We didn’t have that many penalties either.”
Trey Williams was the offensive leader for Tiffin, catching 13 passes for 124 yards while Greg Raspberry had 4 catches for 52 yards. Chris Ivory was the leading rusher with 52 yards on 10 carries. Singleton finished 21 for 30 for 193 yards and 2 interceptions.
Jackson Davis once again led the TU defense with 10.5 tackles (8 solo) while Moses Kato had 7 tackles. Overall the Oilers dominated offensively, outgaining TU 451-330. TU was held to just 58 total rushing yards. Findlay also had the ball for 7 more minutes despite running 11 fewer plays that TU.