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Brother Rice hangs on in double OT
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Updated: September 30, 2011 11:37PM
Brother Rice didn’t want to let another one get away, and Cody Stull made sure the Crusaders didn’t.
Stull’s second interception of the game clinched a 38-31 double-overtime win for Rice over Providence Friday night in New Lenox. He picked off Celtics quarterback Chris Salazar on second-and-six after Martez Walker went one yard for his third touchdown of the night to put the Crusaders on top.
No. 24 Rice (4-2, 1-2 Catholic League Blue) won after letting a two-touchdown lead slip away in the final 7:04 of regulation. That brought back bad memories of a late loss to St. Rita two weeks ago.
“That’s how we lost the Rita game, in that fashion,” Rice coach Steve Nye said. “We were up and playing well and all of a sudden they had a play that turned it around.”
This time, it was a 29-yard pass from Salazar to Chad Weaver that set up the Celtics’ game-tying score, an eight-yard run by Andrew Hoffmeister that made it 31-31 with 3:45 left in the fourth quarter.
“They hit the long pass, the guys were back on their heels,” Nye said. “We’re [thinking], ‘Oh no, not again.’”
But the Crusaders’ defense came up with some big stops down the stretch. First, it stopped Hoffmeister on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line in the first overtime. After Rice’s backup kicker Dan Tieman missed a 20-yard field goal that would have won the game, Martez Walker (28 carries, 206 yards) scored from a yard out on third
down. Then Stull ended it with his second pick.
His first set up Andrew Walker’s nine-yard touchdown run that put Rice up 31-17 with 9:08 left in the fourth quarter. Jason Flagg’s interception came one play before Martez Walker’s first score, a 64-yarder late in the first quarter.
Martez Walker also had a 69-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Rich Mayer ran two yards for a score and Tieman kicked a 23-yard field goal.
Providence (3-3, 0-3) had a 48-yard interception return for a score by Troy Sheppard, a 42-yard scoring pass from Salazar (14-of-26, 252 yards) to Sean Fitzgerald and a 17-yard touchdown pass from Salazar to Brandon Price along with a 24-yard field goal by Nick Beller.
“You can’t win in this conference making some of the key mistakes we did,” Providence coach Mark Coglianese said. “Our defense let up a couple long runs and we can’t have that.”
Like Nye, Coglianese thought the Celtics might have things going its way late in the game.
“The momentum was in our favor,” Coglianese said. “That’s why we went for it on fourth-and-one [in the first overtime]. You’ve got to be able to get a yard or less than a yard down there.”
Hoffmeister finished with 77 yards on 17 carries.
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