| Ironton coach Bob Lutz is a man of his word. He makes a promise and he keeps it. And by keeping his vows, Lutz helped his team overcome a 6-0 halftime deficit to take an exciting 21-6 win over Hamilton Badin in Groveport Friday night in the semi-finals of the Class AA playoffs, thus earning a berth in the state finals against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary in the Akron Rubber Bowl. "The last time we were in the playoffs in 1975 against Cincinnati Wyoming, we spent the night backed inside our own 20 yard line.," reflected Lutz. "I said then if I ever got into them again {the playoffs} we were going to come at them with the guns blazing. In the first half, it looked like the Rams had the loaded pistols, and the Tigers were just shooting blanks. Badin had 95 yards rushing and 69 passing in the first half, while Ironton managed just four yards rushing and 18 through the air. Hamilton Badin ran well in the first period but the Tigers managed to shut them down in the second quarter. However the Rams took to the air as John Spoerl hit four of four passes for 62 yards, which moved the Rams into scoring position at the 16 yard line of the Tigers. Three running plays got the ball to the five, and with just 29 seconds left in the half, Jeff Black went over right tackle for the score. The extra point attempt failed as the Badin holder fumbled the snap and Tim Hodges made the save. The second half belonged to Ironton. With the offense finally coming to life, the defense got even better. And what did Lutz do at halftime to correct the problem? Not much, really. "We didn't really make any adjustments," said Lutz. "We just played aggressive. We got our linebackers to start dropping and cover the hook zone and the crossing pattern." Ironton came out in the second half and moved the ball 58 yards in ten plays, and were aided with a 15 yard face mask penalty. Contrary to not being able to run the ball in the first half, this drive was all on the ground. Senior Gabriel Lewis, who had one of his finest games ever defensively, got the call on third down at the four, and rammed over right tackle for the score at the 7:27 mark. On the important extra point, Joe Fletcher boomed the point after to give Ironton the lead at 7-6. Senior Craig Thomas, who has snapped for PAT's and field goals for the past three years, has not had one bad snap during that span. Badin ran for a first down on their first play of the next possession, but Ironton dug in and held them for the next three plays, or was it four? On third down, the Tigers' Tink Williams appeared to have intercepted a deflected Spoerl pass, but an inadvertant whistle nullified the play. Still, Ironton held. After an exchange of punts, Lewis came up with a big play, as he recovered a Ram fumble at the 38 with 3:02 left in the third period. Four plays later the Tigers had scored again. This time they did it through the air. Fletcher made a fine catch for 23 yards to the 15. Two plays later, quarterback Brent Wilcoxen hit Lewis with an 18 yard scoring strike at the 1:20 mark. With Fletcher's perfect kick, Ironton now led the 1978 runners-up 14-6. The Tigers defense continued to grow stronger and held the Rams once more. This time they were rewarded as Badin punter Mike Chaney shanked a short 16 yarder. A Ram penalty moved the ball to the 32 yard line. Wilcoxen again went to the air. Faced with a fourth down and nine, Lutz gambled and went for the first down. Bob Lutz wasn't going to sit on the ball. His guns were reloaded. With the luck of Brett Maverick, Lutz' gamble paid off as Wilcoxen threw a strike to Lewis for 20 yards to the eleven. Wilcoxen ran for one yard, and Hodges ran for eight more. On third down, Hodges got the call again and, as he has done so many times this season for the Tigers, went in for the score with 8:21 left in the game. Fletcher's kick was right down the middle, and now it was 21-6. Badin tried to move quickly by throwing the ball, but the success of the first half had been abolished. Darwin Conwell personally put an end to the Ram's hopes, as he intercepted a pass with 6:31 to play. After that, Ironton just ran the clock with the aid of two big first downs, one of them coming on a penalty. Lutz naturally was pleased with the performance of his charges. "The first drive of the second half, we became aggressive. We had four or five guys who were really sticking and they stood out. Badin was a lot bigger than we were, but we were a lot quicker. Speed was a big factor in the game," added Lutz. Ironton, now 9-0-1, was making its third playoff appearance. The first time was in 1973, when they beat Cincinnati reading 7-0, then lost to Cleveland Benedictine, 38-13 in the finals. In 1975, they lsot to Cincinnati Wyoming in the semi-finals, 27-6. This years opening round win propels them into the finals against powerful Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary who defeated Fostoria 27-7 in the other semi-final game Friday night. Ironton managed only 87 yards rushing for the game, but held highly touted Tony Farquis to just 43 yards in 3 periods before he was racked with an injury. "Our run defense was pretty good.," commented Lutz. "But their play action was screening our linebackers. In the second half, we told them not to go with the fake." "Offensively, we don't run anything in particular. Just whatever works," concluded Lutz. The Class AA finals will be Friday at 4:00 p.m. at the Rubber Bowl in Akron. |
| Ironton defeats Badin in semi-finals by Jimmy Walker Ironton Tribune |
| Tim Hodges: The thing I remember most about this game occurred off the field. There was a lot of confidence in the locker room at the half. I believe we could see that they thrown the best that they could at us and still only had 6 points.This clearly showed in the second half, cause once we got on a roll, they could not stop us, and we had already figured out how to stop them. Like I said before, we play the full 48 minutes. One of the players on the Badin team ended up being one of my roommates in college. |