Not quite enough

COLDWATER - If you strike at the king, you best not miss.

For Fort Recovery, going up against undefeated Coldwater, a blocked extra point in the third led to a failed two-point conversion in the fourth, and that was one mistake too many as the Cavaliers prevailed 28-26 in the Division VI Region 24 quarterfinals at Cavalier Stadium on Saturday.

"I told them that was a man-sized effort from every single one of them, and I appreciated it," Fort Recovery coach Brent Niekamp said. "I said, 'You can walk out of here with your heads held up.' "

With the win, Coldwater (8-0) will host West Jefferson in the regional semifinals this Saturday.

Fort Recovery (3-5) took a 14-7 lead with 1:27 left in the first half and seemed to be in command, but a personal foul penalty on a kickoff return set up the Cavaliers with strong field position. They responded with a blistering drive that brought them to the Indians' 3-yard line with less than 10 seconds to play. The Fort Recovery defense held firm, and the Cavaliers' 23-yard field goal try sailed wide right.

While Coldwater didn't capitalize, the momentum swing was a harbinger of things to come.

After punting three times in the first half, the Cavaliers punted just once the rest of the way, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives after halftime to wrest control of the game away from Fort Recovery.

"It was pretty much the same stuff, they just executed a little better in the second half than the first," Niekamp said. "They made a few mistakes the first half that they didn't make in the second half, and vice versa. There's not much to it besides that."

When Coldwater tied the game at 14 in the third quarter on Myles Blasingame's 2-yard dive, Fort Recovery responded with a slow, methodical drive to retake the lead on a 13-yard run by Derek Jutte. But Coldwater's Jesse Meyer got into the backfield and blocked the Indians' extra point to make the score 20-14.

The Cavaliers came right back with a 50-yard Blasingame run to take their first lead of the night, and then the Cavaliers blocked the Indians punt to set up deep in Indian territory.

"We knew they have the players that can beat anybody," Coldwater coach Chip Otten said. "It comes down to so many huge plays. A blocked extra point. On their two-point play, our corner, the quarterback throw-back, he happened to see it. There were so many big plays in there. Obviously a very evenly matched game, and I guess we made one more play than they did."

After allowing the final Coldwater touchdown with 10:43 remaining in the game, the Fort Recovery defense recovered enough to set up a comeback attempt. Quarterback Clay Schmitz hit Regan Martin on a deep shot down the middle from 37 yards out to set up a two-point conversion attempt to tie, but Jutte's pass attempt to Schmitz was sniffed out and stopped short of the goal line.

The Indians got the ball back with 5:48 left on a Meyer punt that trickled into the end zone for a touchback, but facing a 4th-and-4 from the 26, Schmitz dropped back to pass, but found nothing, and his attempt to run was stopped at the line, allowing Coldwater to run out the clock by kneeling near the goal line.

"That's a good football team, we had a tough time with some of the run stuff," Otten said. "You can keep trying different things, but if you can't get them stopped, it makes it tough. Finally we got a few stops."

Although they went into halftime up seven, the Indians left points on the board in the first half. Blasingame picked off a deep pass in the middle of the field on Fort Recovery's first drive, and the Indians fumbled near the Coldwater 20 early in the second quarter.

"Those were probably the difference in the game," Niekamp said of the turnovers. "But at halftime, despite all that, we were playing at a really high level and up by a touchdown. We knew it was going to be a war in the second half, we knew there were going to be plays made back and forth."

Jutte finished with 149 yards rushing and two touchdowns, while Schmitz threw for 179 yards. For Coldwater, Blasingame led the way on the ground and through the air, with 159 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns to go with 128 passing yards and a touchdown pass to Jay Muhlenkamp.

Coming into the game, Coldwater was 19-0 all-time against Fort Recovery, including a 51-37 win on Sept. 11. That was the only game all year for the Cavaliers that finished within two scores.

The second round proved even closer.

"We looked a lot different this time around," Niekamp said. "I don't think we really found ourselves yet, that first game. I think we have much more of an identity now, and we played that way. It just wasn't enough."