DEFIANCE — With Wynford’s season on the line Friday night, senior Kaiden Blair was not going to let his team lose.
Blair forced a fumble in overtime, which Wynford recovered to cement a 31-28 victory for the No. 10-seeded Royals (7-4) over No. 7 seed Tinora (7-4) in the first round of the Division VI, Region 22 football playoffs at Tinora.
Wynford’s Victor Cazares had given the Royals a 31-28 lead with a 27-yard field goal on the opening possession of overtime. Tinora drove to the Wynford 2-yard line, but on third and goal, Blair stuffed Tinora running back Grady Gustwiller before he could reach the goal line, knocking the ball loose. The ball was recovered by Wynford’s Evan Wright, instantly winning the game for the Royals.
“Third down, overtime, I knew we’d only kicked a field goal so if they scored there, we lost,” Blair said. “They had 2 yards to go, I read the belly and just came over top and popped that ball with my helmet. ”
It was a game of wild swings of momentum. The Royals had the last laugh, however.
“At the very end, I told the kids, ‘This is why I grind you guys,'” Wynford coach Cyle Skidmore said. “All offseason, all winter, all spring, it’s for moments like that on the football field.”
Blair also was a standout on the offensive side of the field, rushing the ball 24 times for a game-high 213 yards and a touchdown.
“We had one play hitting really hard and that was trap,” Blair said. “I broke a few tackles and broke some big runs, a 50-yard run for a touchdown, a couple 30-yard runs. I was trying to make the most of everything I can.”
Blair had over half of Wynford’s 400 total yards of offense.
“That’s why (Blair’s) one of our captains,” Skidmore said. “He’s the speaking captain. He’s an awesome leader. He’s an awesome, amazing person and when it comes to the football field, he’s got all the talent in the world. He’s busting his butt from day one to get us in this position.”
Tinora drew first blood in the game on a 34-yard run by Joey Guisinger on its first possession in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead.
Wynford responded with a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 50-yard run from Blair to tie the game 7-7.
Neither team was able to move the ball well until late in the second quarter when Wynford drove 80 yards on 12 plays. Royals quarterback Ashton Warren had the biggest play of the drive with a 28-yard run, and he was rewarded with a 1-yard run for the score to give Wynford a 14-7 lead at halftime.
Wynford’s third quarter was one it would rather forget.
The Royals went three-and-out on their opening possession of the second half, and Tinora immediately responded to tie the game.
After only completing one of eight pass attempts in the first half, Tinora quarterback Dominic Graziani went 3-of-3 passing for 61 yards on the Rams’ ensuing drive, culminating with an 8-yard strike to Owen Ackerman to tie the game at 14-14.
Wynford drove the ball to midfield, but Warren was picked off. The Royals forced Tinora to punt, but the ball was downed on the Royals’ own 3-yard line.
On the first play of Wynford’s drive, the ball was fumbled and Tinora recovered it on Wynford’s 2-yard line. The Rams cashed in on the turnover the next play, a 2-yard run from Devon Luellen to give Tinora a 21-14 lead.
“We made some mistakes,” Skidmore said. “We try to key in on that. We have to get through adversity. I always tell the kids that adversity is gonna happen. You never can stop playing. The game’s never over and our kids understand that.”
Wynford’s next drive began in familiar territory on the Royals’ 12-yard line. This time, however, Wynford took care of the ball and marched 88 yards on 15 plays. Royals’ receiver James Rindfuss made his biggest plays of the game with a 17-yard reception on third-and-15 to keep the drive alive, and then a wild 29-yard touchdown catch on a fourth-and-17 play to tie the game.
A Tinora defender left the end zone with the ball, but the referees determined Rindfuss had caught the touchdown initially before the ball was taken out of his hands.
The Royals then forced a three-and-out and on the opening play of their next possession, Blair took off for 40 yards to enter the Rams’ red zone. Four plays later, Warren called his own number and ran the ball up the gut for a 3-yard run to give Wynford a 28-21 lead with less than five minutes remaining in regulation.
Tinora did not give in.
The Rams started their next drive on their own 42-yard line. A pair of costly Wynford penalties gave Tinora two first downs and the Rams eventually tied the game on a 3-yard run from Gustwiller with just 41 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to send the playoff battle into overtime.
“Coming into this game, I knew for sure Tindora’s a really good football team,” Skidmore said. “They’re extremely tough, extremely physical. I knew those dudes were gonna play from the start to the finish. I was extremely worried about how physical and violent they were up front and what they could do on the ground.”
Wynford outrushed Tinora 327-151, but Tinora had more passing yards 91-73.
“My kids played hard,” Tinora coach Eric Becker said. Becker declined to provide any further comment on the game.
Neither team was able to find the end zone in overtime, but the Royals did just enough to pull out the win.
“At the very end, it comes down to who wants it more,” Skidmore said. “We have an awesome group of kids, an amazing group of kids. I love each and every one of ’em.”
With the victory, the Royals advance to face No. 2-seed Bluffton at 7 p.m. Friday at Bluffton.
Box score
Score by quarters
Wynford 7 7 0 14 3 — 31
Tinora 7 0 14 7 0 — 28
Scoring summary
First quarter
T — Joey Guisinger 34 run (Jacob Bishop kick), 9:06.
W — Kaiden Blair 50 run (Victor Arrellano Cazares kick), 5:44.
Second quarter
W — Ashton Warren 1 run (Cazares kick), :55.
Third quarter
T — Owen Ackerman 8 pass from Dominic Graziani (Bishop kick), 6:14.
T — Devon Luellen 2 run (Bishop kick), 1:01.
Fourth quarter
W — James Rindfuss 29 pass from Warren (Cazares kick), 7:10.
W — Warren 3 run (Cazares kick), 4:28.
T — Grady Gustwiller 3 run (Bishop kick), :41.
W — Blair 4 run (pass failed), 2:22.
Overtime
W — Cazares 27 field goal.
Individual statistics
Passing
Wynford: Ashton Warren 4-9-1 73; Tinora: Joey Graziani 6-17-1 91.
Rushing
Wynford: Kaiden Blair 24-213, Anthony Evans 16-67, Ashton Warren 10-47; Tinora: Grady Gustwiller 17-72, Joey Guisinger 3-34, Dominic Graziani 16-31, Devon Luellen 4-14.
Receiving
Wynford: James Rindfuss 2-46, , Anthony Evans 1-41, Kaiden Blair 1-10; Tinora: Grady Gustwiller 4-66, Dylan Schaufele 1-17, Owen Ackerman 1-8.
Team statistics
W T
First downs 17 13
Rushing 50-327 40-151
Passes 4-9-1 6-17-1
Yards passing 73 91
Total yards 400 242
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties 8-60 6-46