The Windham Bombers football team huddles up during Friday’s first half.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Windham has never wanted any sympathy for the way the 2022 season has unfolded, but facts are facts.

It has not been easy for the Bombers.

An already small roster at the start of the season began to dwindle after a series of season-ending injuries to starting players began to mount.

So much so that it forced the Bombers to cancel their Week 3 game against Jackson-Milton.

Each week has presented new roster challenges and on Friday night, for Homecoming, Windham finished the game with 14 players.

By the end of the night, though, all 14 had smiles on the faces from one ear to the other following a emotional 28-15 victory over Fairport Harding.

“We needed that tonight. Wow, did we need that tonight,” Windham head coach Jake Eye said as he let out an emotional sigh.

The Bombers had experienced tough losses in back-to-back weeks at Southeast (42-20) in Week 6 and at Pymatuning Valley (60-12) in Week 7.

Friday’s bounce-back win was the result of a dominating second half that featured some powerful, time-of-possession-style running to compliment a stellar defensive effort that kept the Skippers scoreless in the game’s final 27 minutes.

Bombers senior Chase Eye rushed for 185 yards in the team’s Homecoming victory on Friday at Ed Liddle Field in Windham.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

Fittingly, it was a pair of seniors leading the way on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, Chase Eye was electric.

He rushed for a total of 185 yards and scored two touchdowns on the ground. He completed 6-of-11 passes for 93 yards and threw for a touchdown on a 33-yard score to Carlos Bruton.

While Eye’s numbers speak for themselves, it was how he garnered them that was so impressive.

At 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, no other player was delving out as much punishment on runs as Eye was. His desire to win was indicative throughout, but most especially on a fourth-quarter run with 8:40 to play.

On a power run over the right tackle, Eye took on, quite literally, the entire Skippers defense running through arm tackles, through would-be tacklers, spinning out of grasping hands and very nearly would up breaking the run for a touchdown. It turned into a 24-yard gain, but was the type of soul-ripping runs that a coach dreams to deliver to an opponent in the fourth quarter.

“Two years ago, Chase would not have been able to make a run like that,” Jake Eye said. “He would not have been strong enough, but he put in so much work during the off-season because he wanted to return strong from his (hip) injury and also because he wanted to be that guy for us and for his team. He has turned himself into a very powerful runner, and he is a special kid.”

Eye’s third-quarter touchdown, a game-breaking 76-yarder that gave Windham the lead at 20-15, was every bit of special.

Eye took the ball over the left tackle for what was already going to be a 5- or 6-yard pickup, but a slippery jump cut left a pair of Fairport Harding defenders empty, then Eye bubbled his run out toward the left sideline before turning up and sprinting away from everyone.

Windham sophomore Jack Eye (left) prepares to catch a pitch sent his way by quarterback, and older brother, Chase Eye.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

Speedy sophomore Carlos Bruton (68 yards receiving, 30 yards rushing) had his fingerprint all over Friday’s win and he scored another game-breaking touchdown on Windham’s next possession when Eye found him through the air for a 33-yard score. Bruton caught the ball for about a 8-yard gain, then took care of the rest himself, using a pair of stutter-step fakes to freeze Skippers defenders before racing down the right seam for the touchdown and lift Windham’s lead to the eventual final of 25-18.

“Carlos is getting better every day and the sky is the limit for him,” Eye said. “He is athletic, very strong, and he is tough to defender in the open field.”

Defensively, the leader for the Bombers was Zack Turk, who initiated a number of big plays.

“We are young up front, so we have put a lot on Zack’s shoulders this year. He is a humble, great kid, who works hard,” Eye said. “He played a tremendous game tonight, and I am really proud of him. He deserved a game like this. I think our whole team deserved a game like this.”

The game shifted in the second half.

Fairport went from gaining chunk yards in its run game to creating no push in the trenches for second-half runs that Widham bottled up.

Windham head coach Jake Eye relays a play to quarterback Chase Eye during Friday’s game against Fairport Harding.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

In the first half, the Skippers had 78 yards rushing, but finished the game with 77. In the first half, the Skippers had 11 of their 16 runs go for four yards or more. In the second half, the Skippers ran the ball nine times and none of them gained more than two yards.

“We made some adjustments at halftime, and I think our guys responded well,” Eye said. “We stressed all week about tackling better. It really has been our nemesis all year. It is not that we have tackled poorly, but I am the type of coach that likes to be aggressive all the time, and we needed to get back to that.”

Windham got on the board with 5:52 left in the first quarter on a 1-yard quarterback-keeper by Chase Eye. Jack Eye kicked the point-after to give the Bombers a 7-0 lead.

Fairport answered back, just before the end of the first quarter with eight seconds remaining, on a 12-yard run by Kevin Castellano. The Skippers took the lead on the ensuing 2-point conversion and it appeared the game was heading directly to the second quarter.

However, the officials put eight seconds back on the clock and when Fairport kicked off, Jack Eye settled underneath a short kick that was poorly covered by Fairport, and he bumped his run to the left sideline and raced all 67 yards to the end zone for a 14-8 lead.

Fairport scored with 3 minutes to play in there second quarter to take the 15-14 lead into halftime.