By BOB ETTINGER

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

The Struthers football team spent nearly 48 minutes trying to take the hill in a war with rival Poland at Dave Pavlansky field on Friday night. The Wildcats fell short in many of those skirmishes along the way. Carson Ryan, however, knew in the end that what truly mattered was whose flag was planted at the top when the smoke cleared.

“A football game is a war, not a battle,” Ryan said. “Every play is a battle. You lose some and you win some. In the end, we never gave up and played for each other. That’s what coach [Curt] Kuntz preaches.”

With 16 seconds remaining, the Wildcats took the hill behind one final rocket from quarterback J.D. Hall. Moments later, the war was won, 22-21, when Tyrese Hawkins crossed the goal line for a two-point conversion to plant the Struthers flag.

“The way we started, it would’ve been pretty easy to say, ‘Here we go,’ and pack it in,” Kuntz said. “We talked all week about how the last play of the game would make it meaningful. The kids believed in it. I can’t ask for anything more. Everyone stepped up and tried to do their jobs.”

With 16 seconds to play on a fourth-and-three from the Poland 10, J.D. Hall rolled left and, moments before being taken down on the sideline, launched a low rocket to brother Aiden Hall, who slid in for the catch in the end zone to get the Wildcats (4-2) to within a point, 21-20.

“That’s what we do,” Aiden Hall said. “I was running around and saw J.D. about to go down. I started screaming and luckily he looked up at me. At first, I was a little scared because it was low. But I knew I was going to catch it once I saw it coming. There was so much adrenaline, there was no doubt I would catch it.”

Ryan had a good view of the Hall brothers’ mastery.

“I was going deep,” Ryan said. “J.D. was supposed to find the open man. I saw him rolling and I thought he was going to run, so I came back and was going to block. That was a really special moment.”

Kuntz had already made the decision he wasn’t playing for the tie and a chance to fall short in overtime.

“When we crossed midfield, my mind was made up,” Kuntz said. “I was not going to be the reason we lost in overtime. I had a young guy, Mike Pape, on the sideline who played for us back in 2013. He helped change the program after 13 years without a winning season. He was part of a special class. I told him [Thursday] night to draw something up and I didn’t want to know what it was. These guys who built the program care and they want to give back. That’s what makes this special.”

Pape called on Hawkins on a quarterback run. Hawkins went in for the two-point conversion standing up and Struthers led, 22-21.

Poland (5-1) scored the first 14 points behind a 17-yard scamper by Jake Rutana and a quarterback sneak from the 1 by Cole Kosco.

The Wildcats answered with a 2-yard run from Hawkins to make 14-7, Poland, with 8:22 to play in the first half. The Bulldogs answered with a 1-yard run from Rutana to take a 21-7 lead into the intermission.

Struthers set up its charge with a 15-play, 70-yard march that took 5:44 off the game clock to start the second half. Hawkins finished the drive with a 4-yard run to make it 21-14 with 6:16 to play in the third quarter.

“That was everything,” Kuntz said. “I can’t say it was the entire game, but it’s what we were looking for. We wanted to win the toss and defer until the second half. That was the key to the game. We preached all week to make that drive meaningful. We had to capitalize.”

Poland head coach Ryan Williams was not available after the game.