Hayden Lehmann keeps his cool, drives Ross for last-minute win over Lima

LIMA – At first he was angry. Then Hayden Lehmann realized the opportunity he and the Ross football were given Friday night.

Lima Senior had just kicked a 31-yard field goal with 58 seconds to play to take a three-point lead. While the situation looked dire for the Little Giants, the junior quarterback and the rest of the Ross offense weren’t about to let another winnable game slip away as it had in losses to Sandusky and Findlay earlier in the season.

Instead the Little Giants marched 80 yards in just three plays to mount an improbable rally for a 28-24 victory.

“I know (assistant coach Dustin) Patten came up to me before I went out there and said ‘Big time players make big time plays at big time moments,’ Lehmann said. “When he said that I kind of changed my demeanor, because I was kind of mad at first.”

On its own 20-yard line with 58 seconds to play, Ross wasted no time. Lehmann connected with Roger Burling for seven yards. The next play Noah Hotz made a juggling catch and took off down the Lima sideline for a 50-yard gain down to the Spartans’ 23-yard line.

The next play of the drive, Lehmann found himself under pressure. He escaped a sack, began to scramble, pulled up and threw the ball to Bryce McKinstry who was all alone in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds remaining.

“I think the DB lost focus on me, started focusing on Hayden when he was scrambling,” McKinstry said. “And he made a good throw and I was wide open.”

Lima had a last-ditch attempt to pull off a miracle of its own but the Spartans’ Hail Mary pass from Ross’ 48 fell incomplete, giving Ross the victory and improving its record to 4-2 overall, 2-1 in the TRAC.

“When Hayden threw that, I thought he was throwing it away,” coach Chad Long said. “I didn’t see Bryce there. But everyone sucked to Roger and they forgot about Bryce. (I saw him) like the last two seconds, before he caught it, about five yards away I saw he was wide open in the end zone.”

Lehmann finished the night 14-for-27 passing for 323 yards and a pair of touchdowns, both to McKinstry. McKinstry caught three balls for 66 yards while Roger Burling caught six passes for 165 yards and also caught two interceptions on defense.

As thrilling the final minute was, Ross could have jumped out to an early lead and made the late heroics unnecessary.

The Little Giants’ first two possessions of the game went inside the Spartans’ 2-yard line. But a missed field goal and a failed fourth-down conversion saw Ross fail to score points on either drive.

Ross missed out again on the last possession of the first half, driving inside the Lima 20 but another field attempt missed the mark as time expired before halftime.

“We missed two field goals that could have helped us, but when we’re down there we have to score,” Long said. “We’re inside the 5-yard line.”

Ross didn’t reach the end zone until 6:44 remained in the second quarter when Lehmann found McKinstry from 14 yards out, set up by a 37-yard pass from Lehmann to Hotz, whose long run after the catch was aided by terrific downfield blocking by Chrystjan Mancini.

Lima answered immediately with a 70-yard touchdown run by quarterback Adrine Mitchell to tie the game 7-7.

Then it was the Little Giants’ turn for a quick comeback. Hotz took the ensuing kickoff from his own 34 down to the Lima 3-yard line. Mancini scored one player later for a 14-7 lead with six minutes to play.

Like last week against St. John’s, Ross had trouble closing out the first half. Facing a fourth-down and 10 to go, Lima dipped into its bag of tricks for a halfback pass from Jaleel King to Jermaine Daniel streaking down the Ross sideline behind the Little Giant defender for a 46-yard touchdown with 29 seconds to go and a 14-14 tie.

The late touchdown infuriated Long.

“Especially when you have an individual who is going to do his own thing and get greedy,” Long said. “When we told him, and everyone else in the secondary, watch out for the double pass or reverse pass, specifically. We can’t take greedy kids and we can’t take individuals who do their own thing.”

Ross’ first possession of the second half was highlighted by a 58-yard pass from Lehmann to Burling to set up Mancini’s second touchdown of the night, this coming from two yards out and giving Ross a 21-14 lead.

Lima answered early in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard run by Mitchell to tie the game at 21, setting up the thrilling finish.

“It feels pretty good. We all came together and we played hard,” Mancini said. “Hayden is the leader of the offense. Once he steps up and makes the throws, the receivers make the play. We just make big plays.”

 

First quarter

No scoring

Second quarter

FR – Bryce McKinstry 14 pass from Hayden Lehmann (Mikey Contreras kick), 6:44

LS – Adrine Mitchell 70 run (Cole Mericle kick), 6:19

FR – Chrystjan Mancini 3 run (Contreras kick), 5:59

LS – Jermaine Daniel 46 pass from Jaleel, (Mericle kick), 0:28

Third quarter

FR – Mancini 2 run (Contreras kick), 8:40

Fourth quarter

LS – Mitchell 6 run (Mericle kick), 11:23

LS – Mericle 32 field goal, 0:58

FR – Bryce McKinstry 23 pass from Hayden Lehmann (Contreras kick), 0:21

 

INDIVIDUAL STATS:

RUSHING – FR: Shawn Newsome 14-15; Chystjan Mancini 5-2; Remey Bulger 2-1; Hayden Lehmann 6 -(-60). Total: 27-(-42). LS: Adrine Mitchell 20-61; Xavier Nichols 19-114. Total: 39-175.

PASSING – FR: Hayden Lehmann 14-27 323. LS: Adrien Mitchell 9-18 86; Jaleel King 1-1 46. Total: 10-19 132.

RECEIVING – FR Roger Burling 6-165; Noah Hotz 4-96; Bryce McKinstry 3-66; Devyn Jagodzinski 1-(-4). Total: 14-323.

Ross-Lima box score
Score by quarter
		1	2	3	4	Tot
	Ross	0	14	7	7	28
	Lima	0	14	0	10	24
	Ross	Lima
Total yards	281	307
Rush-yards	27- (-42)	39-175
Pass yards	323	132
Comp.-Att-TD-INT	14-27-2-1	10-19-1-2
Fumbles-lost	1-0	1-1
Penalties-yards	6-55	12-115