Team

East Palestine

Record	Div.	Conf.
5/5	Div. V	Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference

Team

South Range

Record	Div.	Conf.
4/6	Div. V	Independents

By Greg Gulas

sports@vindy.com

NORTH LIMA

Parker Sherry’s 31-yard scoring strike to Jarrod Figley with 1:11 remaining helped lift East Palestine to a 26-25, come-from-behind victory South Range on Friday night,

The Bulldogs clinched the outright Inter-Tri County League Red Tier championship.

Sherry, a freshman, rushed for 125 yards — including a 76-yard touchdown — and passed for 77 more yards as he registered 202 of his team’s 285 total offensive yards.

The Bulldogs then survived a last second, 42-yard field goal attempt by Raiders placekicker Levi Taylor with three seconds remaining, which was blocked by Mike Wood at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s crazy. At the beginning of the season coach [Tony] Foster told us that this was going to be the game for the ITCL and any playoff hopes, and he was right,” Sherry said. “The plan was to control the line of scrimmage and just play our game. After they scored, personally I was excited. I was like, here’s my chance, let’s just go down the field and score. My line has been great all season and they were tremendous on that last drive. I knew it was on me, but we all knew that we were going to go down and score.”

Wood said he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“They kicked it twice because there was a penalty on the first attempt. I didn’t think anything of it, went right through the line like I am coached and got my hand on the ball,” Wood added. “You do things right on every play and things go your way. We knew that they had a solid field goal kicker and we don’t underestimate anybody.”

After a scoreless opening frame, South Range took a 6-0 lead 89 seconds into the second quarter on Nathan Daniszewski’s four-yard run.

It was the first of two tallies for Daniszewski on the night.

Joshua Pickett’s 11-yard scamper at 4:29 of the period knotted the game at 6-6 and when Taylor notched the first of his two field goals, a 27-yarder as time ran out, the Raiders built a 9-6 halftime advantage.

Pickett, who rushed for 77 yards in the game, said it was a special feeling to win, not just the game but the league title after some lean years for the program.

“After they scored to take the lead in the fourth quarter, we all knew what we had to do and we just kept on going. We did what we could do and knew that we would come out on top,’ Pickett stated.

Sherry’s 76 yard run at the 8:25 mark of the third period helped the Bulldogs regain the lead at 12-9, but it was short lived after Raiders quarterback Greg Dunham found Nick Stanton from 80-yards 20 seconds later as South Range (6-4, 2-2) regained the lead, 16-12.

When Sherry found Ryan Ross from 15-yards away and after they connected on the two-point conversion attempt, the Bulldogs (7-3, 4-0) regained the lead, 20-16 with 12 minutes remaining.

Taylor’s second field goal, this time from 30-yards out cut the East Palestine margin to 20-19 and when Daniszewski added his second score on a 32-yard scamper, the Raiders regained the lead once again, 25-20 with 2:26 left.

That would set up Sherry’s and Figley’s heroics and the game-winning connection with 71 seconds remaining.

“Hats off to South Range. They’ve got a great program as coach [Dan] Yeagley and his staff do an excellent job,” Foster said.

Yeagley added that the game was well-played by both teams.

“They [our players] rallied around each other, pulled together and got us into position to win. East Palestine is a great team and they played very good tonight. Coach Foster does a super job. He’s a great coach and I knew that when we lost him.”