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The Osbourn Eagles entered halftime trailing Osbourn Park, 14-13, in a game that they had to win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“If you want to be a playoff team and keep this season going, you are going to have to fix what was broken in the first half,” Osbourn head coach Steve Schultze told his team during the half of Friday night’s game at Osbourn Park.
What was broken, according to Schultze, was the Eagles’ ability to stop Osbourn Park standout quarterback Dominique Terrell, who rushed for a 25-yard touchdown and threw for a 10-yard score in the first half.
“He is a very elusive runner. Out in space, he was one of the best kids that we’ve played against this year,” said Schultze. “He was hurting us.”
On the other side of the ball, however, Schultze didn’t want to change a thing.
“If it’s not broke, you don’t have to fix it,” he said, in reference to giving the ball to Osbourn senior Jerell McFadden. “We put the ball in McFadden’s hands and he is one of the best ball players in my mind. The kid plays with so much heart and passion. He is a leader on this team.”
In the second half, the Eagles’ defense forced three turnovers and kept Terrell scoreless on the ground. On offense, the Eagles put the ball in McFadden’s hands 32 times and the senior scored twice to give the Eagles a 28-21 win and a trip to the Div. 6 Northwest Region tournament.
“We wanted this so bad,” said McFadden, who rushed for 238 yards and three touchdowns. “We knew that we had to come out here and get this victory.”
After a Tyler Schultze 25-yard field goal to start the scoring in the first quarter, the game turned into a showcase of Terrell and McFadden’s big-play ability. The Yellow Jackets’ star broke a 25-yard run in the second quarter to give OP a 7-3 lead. McFadden responded with a 33-yard run of his own. Terrell then found wide receiver Pat Derenda for a 10-yard touchdown pass and Schultze hit a 22-yard field goal to make the score 14-13 at the half.
After a scoreless third quarter, McFadden found the end zone twice in the fourth, on runs of 65-yard and 2-yards, to put the Eagles up for good. On Osbourn’s final scoring drive, McFadden ran the ball on 10 of the Eagles’ 11 plays.
“He is a good football player and we are going to get the ball in his hands,” said Schultze.
The win secured the No. 4 seed in the Northwest Region tournament this Friday against the undefeated Battlefield Bobcats. The Eagles lost to Battlefield, 17-14, on Oct. 17, in what was Battlefield’s closest contest of the year.
“We have to go back to reviewing film and see what they did against us. We feel like we played pretty well,” said Schultze. “We felt like we played pretty good football and had a chance to win but we didn’t finish the football game. We have to go out and play all four quarters.”
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