Vandals edge Greenville in OT thriller

After Vandalia scored and added the extra-point kick in overtime, Ian Whitehead knocked a way a two-point conversion attempt to secure the Vandals win over Greenville.
The 35-34 win puts the Vandals in a three-way tie with the Comets and Pana atop the South Central Conference.
“It’s a big win, but come Monday, we move on,” Vandals coach Jason Clay said. “We enjoy the heck out of it this weekend.
“Games like this are hard to win, and we did it. We’re going to love it this weekend, and Monday, we’ll get after it and get better,” he said.
After one quarter, Friday’s contest at Mark Greer Field looked like an easy win for the Vandals, but they relied on their defense as the offense stalled still late in the fourth quarter.
Vandalia scored with a little more than five minutes gone in the game on a 23-yard run by quarterback Qwentyn Stombaugh.
The Vandals then converted two Greenville turnovers into touchdowns, a 41-yard pass play by Stombaugh and Kohnor Depew, and a 2-yard score by Jordan Colburn on a pass play in the red zone.
Those two scores, along with Issac Sachan’s extra points, put the Vandals up 21-0 by the end of the first quarter.
They thought they would be able to take advantage of another Comet turnover when Cole Yarbrough intercepted a Ben Hutchinson pass.
But as Yarbrough was returning the interception, a flag came out and the Vandals were penalized for roughing the passer.
That penalty along with a 5-yard scoring pass from Hutchinson to Eli Shadowens early in the second quarter seemed to shift the momentum over to the Comets’ side.
Greenville would tack on a 21-yard run by Trey Melton to narrow the Vandals’ lead to seven, 21-14.
Both teams were held scoreless in the third quarter, and then came a wild fourth quarter.
Greenville tied the game on a 27-yard pass play with 4:02 left in the game, but the Vandals responded with a 1-yard run by Stombaugh to make it 28-21 in favor of the Vandals with 2:31 left.
But, on their first play after the kickoff, Hutchinson and Gavin Doll connected on a 67-yard pass play to again knot the score with 2:15 left on the clock.
The Vandals’ defense shut down Greenville, giving them a chance to try for a score with less than a minute left in the game.
But Clay decided that their best option was to take the game to overtime.
That worked out well for the Vandals, who won the OT coin toss and got the first chance to score from the 10-yard line.
After a pass play netted only 2 yards, the took the lead on an 8-yard pass from Stombaugh to Depew. Sachan’s kick gave the Vandals a 35-28 lead.
The Vandalia defense shut down three running plays on Greenville’s OT attempt before Whitehead ended the Comets’ chances.
“This is what high school sports is all about,” Clay said.
“Kids on both teams played hard,” he said. “As they say, it’s a shame that somebody has to lose, but I’m glad it was them, not us.
“Just a whale of a game, and I’m so proud of our kids.
“We got out fast and got them down 21-0. Obviously, the roughing the passer hurt us, because we had another pick, and that kind of killed our momentum and then turned (the game) around there,” he said.
“We just had a hard time getting them back,” Clay said. “They are a good team and they took advantage of it.
“They started moving (the ball) and got us tired,” he said. “They went fast on the ball and got us tired.
“They are a good team and give them some credit. They had a good game plan, but I was so proud of our kids for how hard they played,” Clay said.
The Vandals relied on their defense to stay in the game, with its big moment stopping the Comets inside the 5-yard line on four plays in the third quarter.
“Our defense just stood up and carried us the whole second quarter, the whole third quarter and most of the fourth quarter.
“We made a huge goal-line stand there in their third quarter. We had great run defense. I thought that was a huge point.
“We were able to get a first down and punt it out of there and kind of catch our breath,” Clay said.
Left with only about 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Clay decided to it was better to try for the win in OT.
“At that point, nothing good is going to happen, so you just go to overtime and see what you can do,” he said.
After the Stombaugh-to-Depew score, the Vandals had the option of going for two points, which would force Greenville to do the same if they scored in OT.
But, Clay said, a two-point try wasn’t considered.
“Not when you go first,” he said. “We have confidence in our kicker (Sachan) and I think you just put the point on the board and take your chance, obviously, with them being on the road, going second, knowing what they needed (two points).
“I knew they were going to go for it, and I probably would have, too, on the road,” he said.
The 4-1 Vandals entered the game as the underdog against the 5-0 Comets.
“Anybody picking (the game) would probably pick them, but, hopefully, we’ve improved,” he said.
“I think they’re a good football team, and, obviously, they were missing their good running back.
“They ran the ball pretty well at time, but our defense did what it had to do and made the plays,” he said.
“I was excited for our kids and our fans,” Clay said.
The Vandals now work to finishing out the regular season, facing Hillsboro this Friday on the heels of a big win.
“I think that a lot of teams will say, after an emotional game like this, you’re ripe for an upset.
“But I think our kids will stay focused.
“I’m starting to trust them a lot on that stuff, and I think it’s important to them,” Clay said.
“They put in a lot of work and time. I know that they care and they’re going to give it their all every day,” he said.