LeRoy-Ostrander’s nearly perfect first half leads to a title

The Fertile-Beltrami Falcons came into the 9-Man state title game as the only perfect 9-Man program in the state. In the first half, their opponent – LeRoy-Ostrander - was nearly perfect. The Cardinals scored on all six of their first-half possessions to sprint out to a 41-8 halftime lead. Because of injuries, the Cardinals only dressed seventeen players, but it is not quantity that matters – it was the quality. They would cruise to a 58-8 victory and a state title. After forcing a three and out, the Leroy-Ostrander offense moved right down the field and capped off the drive with a thirty-yard touchdown pass from Chase Johnson to Tristan Lewiston. Lewiston made a great adjustment to the ball as he hauled in the pass. Early in the game, the Cardinals' defensive lineman Tanner Olson completely wrecked the Fertile-Beltrami offense. He made tackles at the line of scrimmage on the Falcons' first two drives. After another punt, Johnson used his legs instead of his arm. In the first of his multiple highlight-reel runs, he ran around the right side, cut across to the left sideline, and then cut back to the right sideline before scoring a 55-yard touchdown. The Falcons started to get going on offense and moved into the red zone. But because of a tackle for loss by Gavin Sweeny, the Falcons were facing a third and long from the fifteen. The Falcons tried to throw a screen, but Olson read it and picked off the pass. Johnson then used his legs to get into scoring range and then his arm to hit another big play. The quarterback threw deep for a second time to Lewiston – this time for a thirty-two-yard touchdown. Lewiston then made an impact on the defensive side of the ball. A tipped ball fell into the defensive back's hands to give the ball right back to the Cardinals offense. Johnson made another highlight-reel run to get inside the five-yard line. Two plays later, Olson – who was a starting offensive lineman until the final week of the regular season when the coaching staff moved him to runningback - plunged over the goal line for the Cardinals' fourth first-half touchdown. After forcing another punt, the Cardinals faced some offensive adversity for the first time. After a penalty, they faced a first and goal at the twenty-yard line. That didn't phase Johnson; with an incomplete pass sandwiched in between, Johnson ran for ten yards, and then on third and goal, he broke a tackle in the backfield and threw a touchdown pass to Sweeny. The only blemish on the first half was the failed two-point conversion. The LeRoy-Ostrander defense finally blinked – allowing Fertile-Beltrami to put together a touchdown drive. The short touchdown run and two-point conversion with just over a minute to play in the half looked like it would be the last score of the half, but the Cardinals had other ideas. It took about twenty seconds for the Cardinals to score again. Johnson rolled to the right and threw deep to the middle of the field to Layne Bird, who was running a deep post. The Cardinals had another touchdown and a 41-8 lead sixty yards later. Olson would add two more touchdowns in the third quarter to set up a running time, fourth quarter. Without enough guys for a backup at every position, the Cardinals could only sub down so much, but they did what they could and won the first football state title by a final score of 58-8.