Late touchdown sinks Eagles in 32-31 loss to Northmen

by Michael Smith


The Grain Valley offense was on fire.

In the first two games of the season, the football team averaged 47.5 points per game. The Eagles looked like they were on their way to matching or increasing that average in Friday’s game against Oak Park.

The Eagles scored on their first five possessions and took a 31-20 lead at the 9:08 mark in the third period.

From there, the offense sputtered as Grain Valley had two punts and two turnovers in its final four possessions and the defense couldn’t stop the Northmen’s rushing attack. The visitors went on a 12-0 run and scored a touchdown with 19 seconds left to take a 32-31 nailbiter at Moody Murray Memorial field.

“This was a total team loss that we need to bounce back from,” Grain Valley head coach David Allie said. We can’t beat ourselves. That one hurt. But we will grow from it.”

The Eagles (2-1) got their final touchdown on a run-pass option that resulted in senior wide receiver Jaxon Anderson wide open for a 19-yard touchdown reception on a throw from senior quarterback Sal Caldarella.

Up to that point, the Grain Valley offense was humming. Grain Valley led 24-20 at halftime. Senior wide receiver scored on a 47-yard run on a sweep play on the team’s first drive of the game.

Senior running back Ty Williams was breaking off big runs, breaking tackles and getting behind the Oak Park defense as he scored on TD runs of 32 and 22. He totaled 128 yards on 11 carries in the first half. Drinkwater also added a 21-yard field goal early in the second period.
Then in the second half, things didn’t go as well offensively. Following a big first half for Williams, Oak Park limited him to just 37 yards on nine carries in the second half, most of those coming on one 33-yard run.

“They have a heck of a scheme,” Oak Park head coach Ken Clemens said of Grain Valley. “Allie is really smart in his play selection and manipulating a defense with his formations. He had just had us lining up wrong a lot early there.”

“It took us a little while to figure out what he was doing. We got it figured out after a while.”
Added Allie: “We lost the edge. They took away our edge and that’s where we got our big runs before. Oak Park rallied to the football.”

After the Eagles went up by 11 points, Oak Park responded with a drive that lasted almost 6 minutes and ended with a 5-yard touchdown run on an option play from senior quarterback Aiden Hinkle that allowed Oak Park to pull within 31-26.

Grain Valley had to punt on its next two drives, which included a possession in which the Eagles had the ball at the Oak Park 40. On fourth-and-1, they were going to go for the first down, but a false start penalty quashed the drive.

After the Eagles forced a punt on defense, the offense tried to run the clock out and seal the win. On third-and-11 from Grain Valley’s 40-yard line, Caldarella tried to hit Olah along the left sideline on a long pass but Oak Park junior cornerback Donovan Ross jumped the route and intercepted the ball and returned it to the Grain Valley 29 with 2:31 left.

“They stopped a route that we hit earlier for a big gain,” Allie said. “(Ross) sat on it.”

Oak Park managed to burn a lot of clock from there, and with 19 seconds left, Hinkle scored on a 2-yard option run to the left side to put his team ahead and notch the eventual game winner.

With limited time remaining, Caldarella completed a 9-yard pass to junior Aaron Barr at the Grain Valley 31 to set up a desperation heave to Olah on the next play with 10 seconds left. However, Ross intercepted the pass and effectively ended the game.

The Eagles defense struggled to stop the Oak Park run game as the Northmen totaled 290 yards on the ground. Junior running back Travon Pankey ran the ball 34 times for 173 yards and a score, Hinkle ran the ball nine times for 54 yards and three TDs and senior wide receiver Evan Braxton had 56 yards on seven carries for Oak Park (3-0).

The Northmen had a lot of their success on their pitch rich option play. It’s an option run in which Hinkle could decide to keep the ball and run it himself or pitch it to Pankey. The play was effective against the Eagles as there were multiple moments in which Hinkle held onto the ball until he had a defender in his face before pitching it to Pankey for a big gain.

“That’s part of their base scheme, they did a good job with that,” Allie said of Oak Park. “You have to play assignment football and they did a great job of holding the ball until the last minute and then pitching it.

Williams led Grain Valley with 165 yards on 20 carries and two scores; Olah added 101 total yards, which included a rushing TD; and Caldarella completed 13 of 23 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions.

Photo credit; Clara Jaques