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Falcons lose to Polar Bears in double overtime
By BRANDON JUDEH
AUSTINTOWN
Perhaps it’s fitting that Austintown Fitch is no longer in the Federal League. Because the Falcons and Jackson sure didn’t play one of those old-fashioned, Fed ground wars.
The Polar Bears (4-2) overcame a 21-point deficit, and held off Fitch, 42-41, on Friday night at Falcon Stadium.
Jackson trailed 28-7 at halftime, mainly because of Fitch junior running back Billy Aaron, who rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, including a 50-yard score.
He finished the game with 214 yards and three touchdowns.
Jackson coach Beau Balderson said he didn’t make any adjustments at halftime.
“We yelled a lot at the half,” said Balderson. “Our guys were missing tackles and when we would miss a single tackle we didn’t have enough guys to recover and make the stop.
“We weren’t making any blocks, either, it was a rough half, but we found out what we were made of in the second half.”
Jackson scored on its first drive of the second half when running back Jimmy Dehnke ran in from 8 yards out.
Dehnke led the way for Jackson with 167 yards rushing on 30 attempts and he also scored three TDs.
“This is a big win for us, our offensive line opened up a ton of holes for me all night long and we made a huge comeback and were able to pull this one off,” said Dehnke.
Quarterback Cooper Merrill had 128 yards rushing and also passed for 151 yards and a touchdown.
Jackson tied the game on Merrill’s 13-yard pass to Elan Elesass with 8:28 remaining.
Fitch only mustered up three first downs in the second half and most of their damage was done on the ground with Aaron and quarterback Matt Futkos, who also rushed for more than 100 yards.
In overtime both teams scored on short touchdown runs sending it into a second overtime.
Jackson scored on a 2-yard touchdown run from Dehnke and then Fitch converted on a big fourth down and 9 play, followed by a score on an 8-yard run from Aaron.
The Falcons (3-3) then attempted the extra point, but the Polar Bears got a hand on it to seal the improbable comeback.