Published: October 04, 2008 02:32 am            

FOOTBALL: Dogs do it with defense

JEFFERSONVILLE — It appeared late that New Albany was on the verge of giving up the lead late in its annual rivalry game against Jeffersonville on Friday.

Then its defense did exactly the same thing it had been doing to the Red Devils the entire night.

The New Albany defense forced four Jeffersonville turnovers, the final one a key fumble in the fourth quarter that helped set up Zack Litzelswope’s 27-yard game-winning field goal as the Bulldogs scored a dramatic 31-28 victory at Blair Field.

In a tie game, Jeff (3-4, 2-3 Hoosier Hills Conference) drove deep into New Albany territory late in the final quarter. But an Andrel Williams fumble — Jeff’s third of the night — was recovered by Simon Weber at the 14-yard line.

The play marked the fourth time in the game that Jeff had drives stall inside the New Albany 20 and set up a dramatic final drive for Bulldog senior quarterback Graham Brown.

Brown and the Bulldogs (5-2, 4-1) drove from their own 14 to Jeffersonville’s 10, twice converting third-down plays to set up Litzelswope’s game-winner.

“Typical Jeff-New Albany,” said a smirking Bulldog coach Kevin Roth on the field following the win. “It comes down to one or two plays. We just were lucky we were the ones who made it this time.”

Facing third-and-20 on their final possession, Brown hit New Albany wideout Brett Martin on a 27-yard completion. Then the Bulldogs melted seconds off the clock while driving deep into Red Devil territory before leaving the game on the leg of Litzelswope, its senior kicker who didn’t disappoint.

“We knew exactly what we were trying to do,” Roth said. “We were taking as much time as we could away from that offense. And we’ve got an awful good kicker for these kind of situations.”

New Albany held a 28-21 lead after three quarters thanks in large part to Brown. He threw four touchdowns in the second and third quarters, including two in the third quarter to keep his team in front. Trailing 21-14, he hit Pierre Blackmon on a 3-yard strike and later found Martin on a 22-yard pass that made it 28-21.

“The kid’s a senior who’s been in some tight games,” said Roth about Brown. “He knows this offense and he knows how to win in these kinds of games.”

After trailing 14-13 at halftime, Jeff had grabbed the lead on a 48-yard touchdown pass from Wright-Baker to Goldsmith earlier in the third.

“The offense was good, but we turned it over way too many times,” said Jeffersonville coach Steve Cooley. “We had yards, but shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times.”

The back-and-forth affair was not limited to the second half.

Two big connections from Brown to Trevor Gordon staked the Bulldogs to a second-quarter advantage after Jeff had opened a 7-0 cushion in the first quarter.

Brown hit Gordon deep for an 83-yard bomb to knot the contest early in the second and, following a Bulldog interception on Jeff’s next possession, the duo hooked up again on a 25-yard score that put New Albany ahead 14-7.

With Jeff driving for what looked like a potential tying score, the Bulldog defense forced their second turnover of the second quarter — forcing a Wright-Baker fumble 10 yards from the Jeffersonville goal line.

That only led to a big play by Jeff’s defense, though. Linebacker Caleb Browner picked off a pass from Brown and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown that made it 14-13 after the point-after-touchdown kick was blocked.

“Our defense did the things it needed to do for us to win,” said Cooley. “Our offense made too many mistakes for them to cover up.”

Jeff dominated the opening 12 minutes, with Goldsmith gaining 91 yards on the ground and also scoring on a 48-yard screen pass from Wright-Baker for the game’s initial score.

But the Bulldog defense also turned back two Jeff drives deep into its territory.

On the Devils’ first possession, they drove to the New Albany 10 before Wright-Baker was sacked on a fourth-down play to squash the threat. The Bulldogs repeated that feat in Jeff’s first drive of the second quarter, again sacking Baker on a fourth-down play to stop a potential scoring drive at the 17-yard line.

Still though, the game was knotted at 28 deep into the fourth and Jeff took possession in New Albany territory after Ryan Pierce picked off Brown at the 47-yard line.

Jeff drove inside the 20 again. Williams took a swing pass from Baker and looked like he had a path to the end zone before he was hit and fumbled the ball back to the New Albany offense.

It was those types of plays that had Roth beaming after the game.

“I can’t say enough about that defensive effort,” Roth said. “It was huge in getting us this win. We’re 5-2 now and second in the conference. We’ve got Senior Night next week to look forward to, but we’re real excited with the way we played here.”

Goldsmith finished the night with 160 yards on the ground and 131 yards receiving with two TDs. Wright-Baker ran for a touchdown and gained 78 yards on the ground in the loss.

“You’re not going to shut those two down,” Roth said. “We just had to limit what they did to us, and we did a good job of that.”

Jeff will travel to Class 4A No. 1 Columbus East next Friday. New Albany will host Seymour in its final home game at Buerk Field next Friday.



NEW ALBANY 0 14 14 3—31

JEFFERSONVILLE 7 6 8 7—28

1st quarter

J — Goldsmith 48 pass from Wright-Baker (Straight kick), 3:32.

2nd quarter

N — Gordon 83 pass from Brown (Litzelswope kick), 10:55.

N — Gordon 25 pass from Brown (Litzelswope kick), 7:12.

J — Browner 20 interception return (kick blocked), 1:09.

3rd quarter

J — Goldsmith 48 pass from Wright-Baker (Wright-Baker run), 8:59.

N — Blackmon 3 pass from Brown (Litzelswope kick), 5:21.

N — Martin 22 pass from Brown (Litzelswope kick), 1:45.

4th quarter

J — Wright-Baker 1 run (Straight kick), 8:10.

N — Litzelswope 27 FG, 0:43.

        

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