Steve Fields
Tribune-Star Correspondent
ROCKVILLE —
With 51 seconds left on the clock and Rockville holding a 20-19 edge because of a fumble just 45 seconds earlier, South Putnam coach Troy Burgess called a timeout and drew up a plan. The old hook-and-ladder.
South Putnam quarterback Grant Zimmerman fired a pass to Dean Varvel, who flipped it to Rob Gibson for a 43-yard touchdown that gave the Eagles a 27-20 come from behind victory over the host Rockville Rox.
“I’d like to say we practice that every day, but we’ve never worked on it. That was a timeout. Let’s try it. But that says a lot about these kids. Zimmerman, Varvel, Gibson. It says a lot [about these kids] that we can do something on the fly about those kids. Their football mentality, their heart. And they executed it as good as they can be,” Burgess said.
This game was loaded with twists turns and questionable whistles than greased pig contest. The two teams combined for 11 penalties, most being holding and most on South Putnam.
“To [South Putnam’s] credit they made the play at the end of the ballgame to win it. I thought our kids battled hard, played hard all the way to the end,” Rockville coach Herb King said.
Rockville quarterback Clint White, playing his first game this season due to an injury was intercepted four times.
“I thought we threw ball better not well. We just turned the ball over too much that way. I thought we shot ourselves in the foot about three occasions,” King said.
Rockville, playing with quarterback Clint White for the first time this season, led 12-0 at halftime. Rockville used its quickness to counter South Putnam’s size advantage on line. The Rox still led 12-6 going into the fourth quarter.
“The first half I thought [Rockville] did a nice job. They beat us up front. They’ve got good speed there. We kind of put a challenge out there for our offense line and our backs and they did a great job. They executed our offense about as well as they could [the second half],” Burgess said.
But the second half, South Putnam started straight ahead with Brayden Freeman gaining 86 of his 99 total yards in the second half. Freeman scored on runs of 11 and 1 yard. After Freeman’s one-yard score, Jake Gould kicked the point after to put the Eagles up 13-12.
South Putnam extended its lead to 19-12 when Zimmerman hooked up with Varvel for a 58-yard touchdown play with 7:11 left to play.
But with 2:52 on the clock Rockville’s Jon Pierce recovered a fumble at the South Putnam 14-yard line. Three plays later, White scored on a four-yard run. White then hit Joel Wittenmyer with a dart in the front of the end zone for two points and a 20-19 Rockville lead with 1:36 to play.
“We got the turnover and we stuck it in the end zone and we went for two and got it,” King said.
On Rockville’s next play, South Putnam’s Gibson made an interception to end a potential score by the Rox.
