Bangor edges Northwestern for EC title
A possible Eastern Conference Football championship literally went off the fingertips of Northwestern Friday night.
A two-point conversion pass attempt went off the fingertips of a Tiger receiver and fell to the ground, giving Bangor a 22-20 win and the Eastern Conference Class 4A gold medals.
“We have two or three two-point conversion plays and we used one earlier and this one worked in that they were coming hard and we slipped the back out and the play was there, but we just couldn’t finish it,” said coach Josh Snyder.
It was the second season in a row that Northwestern lost in the championship game, having lost last season at Blue Mountain. The loss put the Tigers at 4-7 overall on the season.
The Tigers took their first lead of the night on a six-yard TD run by Phil Dangello with 1:12 left in the first quarter. Hunter Miller’s extra point made it a 7-6 game, but later, Snyder lamented the fact that he didn’t go for the two-point conversion in that situation rather than needing one later in the game.
“I regret that now,” said Snyder. “I’d like to have that one back, because we might have had a better shot there, but that’s not the way that it works.”
Bangor looked to regain the lead on a drive that stretched into the second quarter of play, but Garrett DeBoer coughed up the football and Tyler Lobach recovered it on the Tigers 16-yard line. Northwestern went 84 yards on five plays, with a 53-yard run by Lobach capping off the drive and the Tigers were up 14-6.
The two teams would go to half-time tied 14-14 when Bangor took just over six-minutes off the clock with a 13-play drive that went 80 yards. DeBoer went in from a yard out and Myers then hit Dave Langdon with a short pass on the two-point conversion for the Slaters.
Northwestern was moving again on its first drive of the second half, but junior quarterback Josh Gronicz, starting in place of injured Deven Bollinger, was intercepted to give the Slaters the ball at their own 27-yard line. Bangor again put together a sustained drive and when it got in close, it was all DeBoer, who went in from a yard out to give Bangor a 22-14 edge with :28 left to play in the third quarter.
As the Tigers looked to tie the game, they converted two fourth-down plays and Lobach scored his second touchdown of the night with a one-yard run, putting the Tigers in position to tie the game with a two-point conversion. Gornicz’ pass to the goal line went just off the fingertips of Lobach to fall incomplete.
The Northwestern defense stopped Bangor on the ensuing drive, but the Tigers got the ball back with just :04 left in the game and completed a hook-and-lateral play, but the Slaters sniffed it out and cut it short before it could get too far, preserving the win and giving them the championship.
“This game was kind of like our whole season,” said Snyder. “A lot of ups-and-downs, but the guys never quit, they never got down on themselves.”
A SPIRITED START ... In the first 3:50 of the game, Bangor was called for two personal fouls and an unsportsmanlike conduct and Northwestern was called for a personal foul of their own. The only other penalty in the game was an encroachment call on the Slaters that gave Northwestern a first down on a third-and-five play from the Slaters 35-yard line.
THE LONGEST YARD ... Tyler Lobach’s 53-yard run on a bootleg was the first time this season that Northwestern had a run from scrimmage that went for more than 21 yards. Dangello’s 120 yards rushing was the first time that a Tigers back went over 100 yards in a game this season as well.
GOOD-BYE GUYS ... Northwestern graduates just six seniors – Caleb Clymer, Phil Dangello, Dylan Frantz, Hunter Miller, Cameron Sanchez and Peter Yablonski – from their roster. “These kids made it great to coach this team,” said Snyder. “They gave everything they could give and worked hard every time out for us and as a coach. You can’t ask for more than that.”
