TONTOGANY — Facing the same team three times in the span of a calendar year is no easy task. The same offensive and defensive schemes could be figured out, and anything can happen in high school football — right?
Otsego, ranked No.1 in Division V Region 18, said otherwise Saturday night, beating Wynford for the third time in a year with a 35-7 regional playoff victory. This was Otsego’s fifth playoff win in two years of post season play.
The Royals were able to draw first blood, with a Cobey Allen-to-Jaron Filliater strike over the middle for 84 yards. This would prove to be Wynford’s only score of the night.
“I thought our kids came over here with the idea that they could hang with Otsego and win a football game. Super proud of our seniors to maintain that motivation and have that mindset that we could compete with the number one seed in our region, a team that we struggled against the two times we have played them,” Wynford coach Gabe Helbert said. “Our kids came out and played hard.”
The effort from the Royals was surely noticed, as Otsego was never able to get a full offensive groove going all night.
Otsego (10-0) responded quickly after the Filliater score with a quick three-play drive, as Joseph Dzierwa found Chase Helberg on a 38-yard dime to tie things up.
The ensuing Wynford drive saw an interception by Blake Steele returned inside the five. Steele punched it in himself three plays later to give the Knights a 14-7 advantage in the first.
“Their kids are going to play hard, and we told our kids that,” Otsego coach Matt Dzierwa said. “I thought we started a little sloppy in the beginning, but we got on track and did some nice things up front.”
Otsego went up two scores following another Dzierwa-to-Helberg strike from 11-yards out. The Knights never looked back, as they took this lead into the locker room and finished the game out with 14 more unanswered to win 35-7.
The Royals were able to fight much harder than they had the previous two meetings, making Otsego work for every touchdown offensively and holding them to only one second half offensive touchdown.
“It means something to these guys. You put a lot of time and a lot of effort into this,” Helbert said. “There is a tremendous expectation that we want our kids to be bought in every single day.”
Wynford certainly appeared to have bought in. However, Otsego proved to be too much in the end for the Royals.
“It’s hard to beat anybody twice in a year,” Coach Dzierwa said. “You play them three teams in about a year, it is always tough to do that. They have some really nice skill kids over there.”
Allen finished 6-for-23 passing for 113 yards, one TD and two interceptions. Kendall Blair carried the ball 11 times for 42 yards, while Filliater hauled in three catches for 108 yards and a score. James Schiefer also had two catches for nine yards.
Safety Ashton Warren recorded six tackles on defense.
An emotional Blair walked off the field for the final time Saturday night and was commended by his coach.
“You can see how upset Kendall is right now, it means something to him. We want them to have an experience that when the window shuts, it sucks. It’s a thing you can’t get back,” Helbert said.
Otsego advances onto the regional quarterfinal to face No. 8 Eastwood, for the second time in three weeks. The Knights edged out the Eagles 38-35 in week 10 of the regular season.
Wynford falls to 4-7 on the year and will look to rebuild on a down year for the historic program.