North Ridgeville Beats North Royalton in a Thriller 20-17

North Royalton started the game early looking to put last week behind them by completing a long pass that landed them inside of the redzone. With a promising first drive, North Royalton was forced into a fourth down, and ended the drive with a field goal up 3-0. The Bears defense came out and gave North Ridgeville no room to breathe. Forced them into a three and out and had to punt the ball back to North Royalton.

REWATCH THE THRILLING ENDING HERE –

The Rangers came right back and forced the Bears into a three and out of their own. Zach Barnhart broke a huge run from North Ridgeville’s own twenty to put them into North Royalton’s territory for the first time. Cole Miller then threw a 34 yard touchdown to Austin Young to give them the lead 7-3. North Royalton came right back down and Cody Miller scored a 39 yard touchdown to regain the lead at 10-7.

The Rangers forced into a fourth and two was able to get North Royalton to jump offsides to continue their drives.  In yet another fourth and short, Andrew Ennis ran the ball to just convert and continue the drive. With a man wide open down the numbers, the Rangers threw an interception to end their long drive.

North Royalton fed off the energy of the interception and threw a wide-open touchdown to open the lead to ten. After punting the ball, North Ridgeville picked off the Bears to get the ball back. Down in the red zone, a slant bounced off the receiver’s hands and right into the defender’s hands to end the half.

To open the second half, Charlie Steinmetz took a run down the middle for a big gain. A couple of plays later Zach Barnhart also took a run down the middle for a nice gain. Immediately afterwards, Steinmetz took a run into North Royalton’s twenty yard line. The Rangers one two punch at running back drove them down to field for a field goal to cut the lead down to seven at 17-10. A couple of mishaps for North Royalton pinned them back deep into their territory and was forced to punt.

Once again, the running back duo of Barnhart and Steinmetz drove North Ridgeville down the field, but a fumble in the red zone ended yet another drive. North Ridgeville’s defense got a much needed stop in the fourth to keep the hopes of a comeback alive. After a first half of not getting much going on offense, the Rangers rushing attack started to show in the second half giving North Ridgeville something to lean on offensively.

After a long drive, Zach Barnhart scored a ten yard rushing touchdown to tie the game at 17. The Rangers defense forced a fumble off a sack to get the ball back and swing the momentum in their favor. With a minute left in the fourth quarter North Ridgeville had the ball deep in North Royalton’s territory. The duo for North Ridgeville once again drove the Rangers down the field to get the ball at the six yard line with one second left on the clock. Linebacker/Kicker Austin DeShazo walked off the game with a field goal to win 20-17 on the road and stay undefeated.

Despite a shaky game offensively, North Ridgeville made timely plays behind the running back duo of Zach Barnhart and Charlie Steinmetz. The offense was able to find a facet of the game to turn to and made timely plays that allowed them to come back into this game.

The Rangers defense played lights out in the second half to hold North Royalton to 17 points. Austin DeShazo was named player of the game going 2-2 on extra points and 2-2 on field goals including the game winner.

North Royalton started the game off well, holding North Ridgeville to Seven points at halftime. The Bears offense was able to make timely plays in the first half, but fell short in the second half. Defensively, North Royalton was able to force North Ridgeville to make mistakes, but they weren’t able to make plays down the stretch which allowed the Rangers to keep running the ball down the field.