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Tuscola escapes Chester with 17-14 win

Posted November 14, 2014 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

CHESTER -- A second too early and a yard too far.

Wyatt Ruehling's pass, intended for 6-foot-5 tight end Jordan Berner, was intercepted by Josh Knight on the Tuscola 10-yard line with 51 seconds left, allowing the Warriors to preserve a 17-14 win over Chester on Saturday at W.O. Smith Field in the Class 2A Elite Eight.

Tuscola will face Maroa-Forsyth, a 44-6 winner over Athens on Saturday, in next week's semifinals.

"You've got a guy head up and you've got a guy inside leverage," said Chester coach Bryan Lee on what he liked on that play. "(Tuscola) is trying to take away the slant. We throw an out route there to Jordan, it's a great matchup.

"We probably needed a second more for Jordan to break to the corner, otherwise you throw that ball and either Jordan catches it or it sails out of bounds. (Ruehling) threw it a little bit early, but I'll tell you, our quarterback made some throws tonight."

On the other sideline, Tuscola coach Rick Reinhart had his opinion of the climactic play.

"I couldn't see it that well, but if it was the way we had it designed, we were going to get a good check on the line and make them forced to go outside and then the safety was going to come up and pick it off," Reinhart said. "We got fortunate that we did it."

Chester trailed 17-7 with 10:42 remaining after Tuscola's Evan Sutton booted a 33-yard field goal. The junior wide receiver/defensive back missed from 35 yards out in the second quarter when his kick hit the base of the right upright.

The Yellow Jackets cut the Warriors' lead to three when Charles Morefield scored on a 4-yard run, capping a drive that began after Chester's Jacob Golding recovered a fumble on the Tuscola 28 with 5:12 left.

"I'll tell you what else changed the whole game is when we fumbled that last time," Reinhart said. "That game was iced, we were up two scores, all we have to do is hang on to the ball...and we don't."

With momentum shifting, Chester wasn't able to recover the ensuing onside kick, but forced a three-and-out by Tuscola anyway.

The Yellow Jackets started on their own 26 with 1:47 remaining and got a huge 43-yard reception from Hunter Howie on third-and-10 that brought Chester to the Tuscola 31.

"Our quarterback made some throws tonight that without him, our offense would not have gone," Lee said. "He threw for 144 yards tonight, threw a great pass to Hunter Howie. Three plays before that, we're not looking at that kind of field position and (Ruehling) did a good job."

A pass interference penalty on the Warriors moved the ball to the Tuscola 16 with 1:07 left. Chester went back to Morefield again on a sweep, but this time the senior running back was only able to get one yard.

The next play, Ruehling tried to find Berner, but was picked off by Knight for the second time in the game.

"I know Wyatt's probably going to go home and re-think that pass and relive it and will be something he thinks about a lot," Lee said. "If it wasn't for Wyatt making some clutch throws, it would have never made a bit of difference anyway."

It was the second straight week that Tuscola had gotten a late-game interception to preserve a victory after the Warriors saw a 28-7 lead against Lawrenceville turn into a 28-21 thriller.

"Josh Knight has had the big interception in all three games where we've had to come back and win," Reinhart said. "Shelbyville, Lawrenceville and now tonight."

The game began nothing like how it ended, as Tuscola got touchdowns from Tyler Hale and Dalton Hoel 2:31 apart late in the first quarter to build its 14-0 lead.

Chester got into Warriors territory just once in the first half, on a 16-yard run by Issiac Wingerter as time ran out in the second quarter.

"If you watched the first quarter of this game and left after that, you would have thought it would be 42-nothing," Lee said.

Ruehling went 8-for-23 passing for Chester, while Blake Eggemeyer led the Yellow Jackets with 38 yards on 12 carries on the ground - including a 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter that put Chester on the scoreboard.

Wingerter had 22 yards on four carries in his final high school football game.

Ezekial Culp led all running backs with 81 yards on nine carries for Tuscola, while Hoel added 55 yards on five carries with a touchdown.

Quarterback Kaleb Williams, playing in place of injured starter Nick Bates, went 8-for-15 passing for 47 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Williams also ran for 36 yards on nine carries.

Chester finished its best season in program history at 10-2, while Tuscola improved to 10-2. The Yellow Jackets advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time and could return a significant chunk of their offense in 2015.

"We'll reload and this will hurt for a little while," Lee said. "Eventually, it will kind of sink in that we did something that nobody else has done before."

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