Miami RedHawks football
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Extreme Makeover: Home edition
HOMECOMING NIGHT IN SPRINGFIELD
Critical mistakes cost North a win
Corner's touchdown catch not enough for Panthers, who fall to 0-3 in GWOC.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
A different bounce here or a fumble recovery there, and North might have beat Kettering Fairmont on Friday night.
Instead, the Firebirds left Panther Valley with a 12-6 Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Division win.
Jamaal Everett (3) of Fairmont High School is tackled by Jordan Moore (2) of North High School during Friday night's game at North. The Panthers didn't turn the ball over and had 214 passing yards. But they were still one elusive play away from a win.
"We made critical mistakes at critical times," North head coach Jon Rommel said.
Two plays in the second half kept the Panthers from grabbing the momentum from the Firebirds.
Fairmont successfully converted a pooch kick after its first touchdown of the game and eventually added a field goal to go up 12-6. The Firebirds rolled over five minutes off the clock on back-to-back drives to keep the Panthers' offense off the field.
When North did get the ball back, a bad snap on an audible went 23 yards in the other direction, and the Panthers eventually had to punt.
The loss is North's (2-6, 0-3 GWOC Central) sixth in a row. Two of those losses came by a touchdown or less.
"It's devastating," Rommel said. "I feel the worst for our kids because it's their homecoming weekend. I don't want our kids to have bad experiences in this last year. I want them to be able to enjoy their homecoming, but we didn't get it done."
North quarterback Jeff Davis completed 14 of 27 passes for 214 yards and one touchdown pass to Victor Corner (4-121).
Julius Storey caught six passes for 52 yards.
"We thought we'd be able to get our receivers in space against these guys and utilize our speed. At times we did, and other times we didn't," Rommel said.
The Firebirds (4-4, 2-1) went up 2-0 when the defense sacked Davis in the end zone less than one minute into the game.
The Panthers recovered and kept the Firebirds out of the end zone until the third quarter.
"The defense played solid," Rommel said. "We didn't give up any big plays, and we did a good job of neutralizing their running game."
The score stayed 2-0 until Davis found a streaking Corner down the right sideline for a 66-yard touchdown pass.
The extra point failed, but the Panthers were able to keep the 6-2 lead into the half.
Fairmont controlled the line of scrimmage in the third quarter. It needed just five plays to go 46 yards and take a 9-6 lead. After recovering the ensuing kickoff, it pushed 13 yards in seven plays to set up a 29-yard field goal.
North's last two drives ended at the Fairmont 23 and 42, respectively, in the final four minutes of the game.
