By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Field’s 19-play game-winning drive during Friday’s third quarter carried a lot of parallels to the team’s regular season.

Field senior Victor Brown leaves his feet to try to avoid a teammate on the ground.
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It looked good at times and failed other times, introduced some adversity throughout, but ultimately never broke the Falcons.

When the perseverance paid off on Friday, it resulted in a 1-yard touchdown run by Mason Fulst on the first play of the fourth quarter that lifted the Falcons’ lead to 14-7 and capped a drive that chewed up nearly 10 minutes of game clock.

The drive also featured a pair of fourth-down conversions on receptions of eight and 12 yards by Victor Brown and Blake Dunderman, respectively.

The culmination of it all was a score that held up by the game’s end, despite the Ravens (3-7, 2-5 MAC) nearly writing a different story when they pulled to within one on a touchdown reception by Isaac McGuigan (with 8:22 to play), but failed to convert on the extra point because of a low snap. The Ravens’ final possession, which began on their own 13 with 1:23 to play, moved all the way down to the Falcons’ 27 with 4 seconds remaining when a Ravenna 44-yard field goal fell just a few yards short of winning the game, allowing Field to hold on for the 14-13 victory at Kenneth Lohr Stadium in Brimfield.

The Falcons’ Blaise Common keeps both feet in bounds to pull in a reception.
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“Tonight was a good cap to the season,” Field head coach James Dutched said. “We had so many injuries early in the season, we had some adversity in the middle of our season, but we never stopped fighting. We never stopped playing and that is something to be proud of. This group wanted to go out winners, and they did that tonight.”

The win came with a blend of underclassmen showcasing the future of the Falcons, while also relying on seniors to deliver in clutch moments as the experienced leaders.

Freshman quarterback Mason Fulst rushed for 92 yards, while sophomore Alex Williams took on an expanded role in the run game to total 52 yards on the ground.

Williams also scored the Falcons’ first touchdown, a 13-yard run to the end zone in the first quarter that gave the Falcons (3-7, 3-4 MAC) an 8-0 lead, with the help of a 2-point conversion run by Andrew Phillip.

Field sophomore Alex Williams tries to break a tackle.
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Two veterans, seniors Brown and Dunderman, among others, including lineman Daniel Hudson,  were important pieces throughout the game, but most certainly during the 19-play drive that scored what became the winning touchdown.

“There were a lot of important plays on that drive, but Blake and Victor made two huge plays,” Dutched said. “I trust seniors in those situations. Victor, we just wanted to get the ball in his hands and let him do what he does. For Blake, very rarely has he been a pass-catcher for us, but we trusted the play call and we trusted him.”

Like any 19-play drive, there were not many gamebreaking gains.

“It was a slow drive, with us methodically moving the ball down the field,” Dutched said. “Our guys did a nice job of just making the next play. That whole drive was based off of halftime adjustments we made. We felt that (RavennaP was flying wide on our jet motion, so we wanted to hit everything underneath.”

When it came time to punch in the score, Dutched turned his trust to his offensive line and quarterback.

Field quarterback Mason Fulst breaks into the second level of Ravenna’s defense on a first-half run.
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“I don’t teach math, but I am a numbers guy,” Dutched said with a smile. “In our formation, my quarterback always gets me a plus one. I looked at (quarterback) Mason (Fulst) and asked him, ‘If I give you the ball one more time, are you going to score?’ He said, ‘coach, I got you’.”

Ravenna had two more drives to try to regain the lead.

The first of those drives featured a critical fourth-and-1 play on the Ravenna 28 with 4:30 on the clock. Unfortunately for the Ravens, the play never had a chance to materialize because miscommunication on the snap that resulted in a fumble that was recovered by the Falcons.

Despite the great field possession on the turnover, the Falcons eventually turned the ball over on downs, which set up Ravenna’s second chance.

Isaac McGuigan runs toward the end zone for a 35-yard fourth-quarter touchdown reception from Curtis Ross.
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Playing without any timeouts — Ravenna called all three on Field’s prior possession to stop the clock — Ravens quarterback Curtis Ross had the biggest play of the drive with a 30-yard run that he canvassed from one hash line to the other running away and through tackles. Ross finished the game with 47 yards rushing and 82 yards passing.

Ravenna’s first touchdown of the game came in the second quarter on a 7-yard run by LaDarion Askew, which cut the team’s deficit to 8-7 at halftime.