GRAY – After a huge win over previously unbeaten Yarmouth, the Greely football team wanted to make another statement in its eight-man regular-season finale Friday at Gray-New Gloucester.
Instead, the Rangers got a wake-up call.
Greely won, 22-16, but had to overcome three turnovers in Gray-New Gloucester territory, as well as eight penalties.
“Coming off the big Yarmouth win, we came in here and thought we would roll over them,” Greely senior running back/linebacker Brayden Van Pembrook said. “Obviously, that wasn’t the case.”
This game came down to the final play. After Greely (4-3) turned the ball over on downs at the Patriots 47 with 9.6 seconds left, Gray-New Gloucester (1-6) had one last chance for a miracle finish. Quarterback Kobi Conant already had touchdown passes of 77 and 69 yards, but the snap was errant, and the clock ran to zero without a pass.
“We’ve been in every single game this year. Every single game,” Patriots Coach Mike Caiazzo said. “We seem to run out of gas in the fourth.”
The Rangers took the first drive of the game 63 yards in 10 plays, grabbing an 8-0 lead on Van Penbrook’s 2-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion run.
Greely had chances to add to that lead throughout the first half, but turnovers on three consecutive drives into Patriots territory stalled them, along with numerous penalties.
“I told them we had a decision to make. We can either turn it around and play Greely football, or we can lose,” Greely Coach Caleb King said. “Penalties and turnovers are a killer.”
Midway through the third quarter, the Patriots still were at minus-10 yards of offense for the game when they finally struck for a big play. Isaac Ormberg got behind his defender for a 77-yard touchdown catch from Conant, and Ben Powell caught the 2-point conversion to tie the game.
Greely took the lead back, 14-8, when Ben Kyles caught a 51-yard pass from Andrew Padgett on the final play of the third quarter. Kyles came across the middle, left to right, to make the catch, then outran everybody to the end zone, tiptoeing down the right sideline to stay inbounds.
With 10:24 left, Conant connected with freshman Kody Tracy for a 69-yard touchdown pass and a 16-14 lead. Greely then took the lead back with 6:36 to play on a 1-yard keeper by Padgett.
With Gray-New Gloucester facing fourth-and-15 from its 1 with just under six minutes to play, Caiazzo had Conant run out of the back of the end zone for an intentional safety. The move kept the Patriots within a touchdown, 22-16, and the defense got a pair of stops in the final five minutes, but Gray-New Gloucester couldn’t capitalize offensively.
Both teams now move on to the eight-man Large School South playoffs.
“It was kind of a sloppy football game. Not the kind of game you like to see,” King said. “We’ve got to be more disciplined. That starts Monday for us.”
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