The Garfield G-Men football team will learn a lot about just what kind of team they will be this season after a season-opening defeat. The G-Men lost 51-43 against Edgewood in double overtime last Friday evening at Corlew Stadium in Ashtabula.
“It was a tough one,” said Coach Mike Moser. “We buried ourselves but then put ourselves in a position to win it and just ultimately could not hang on at the end. We have been in a lot of those games and a lot of times we have come out on top and every once in a while you don’t but it still hurts.”
It was a bitter ending to what had been a remarkable Garfield (0-1, 0-0) comeback after they fell behind 28-14 in the third quarter when the Warriors scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half.
According to the 13-year coach, the G-Men were plagued by penalties and poor tackling, making it difficult for them to get off the field. Although they had been sustaining drives, they could not stop Edgewood’s offense.
From that point, the G-Men mounted a rally, outscoring Edgewood by a 21-7 margin to force a 35-35 tie in the fourth period.
“We got a couple of open-field tackles and got after the ball a little bit and created a negative play and got off of the field,” the 13-year coach added. “The was the frustrating part, we felt like we were in position to get off of the field a bunch of times and just did not get off of the field.”
Garfield had a chance to engineer a game-winning drive in the fourth period but stalled out and had to punt in the closing seconds of regulation.
In overtime, Garfield struck first as sophomore tailback/linebacker Ryder Cain scored on a 10-yard touchdown run and the G-Men executed a two-point conversion to take a 43-35 lead.
On the first play of Edgewood’s drive, the G-Men sacked junior quarterback JJ DuFour but the play was erased when Garfield was whistled for a defensive holding penalty.
The Warriors eventually scored the equalizing touchdown as the 6-foot DuFour delivered a 15-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver/defensive back Zar Triplin and the Warriors were successful on the two-point conversion to knot the score at 43-43.
Edgewood received the ball first in double overtime and once again scored, this time on a 10-yard touchdown run by senior running back/middle linebacker Jaiven Pope, pushing them ahead 51-43 after executing another two-point conversion. The G-Men advanced the ball to the three-yard line but on third-and-goal, the 5-foot-9 Cain was tackled behind the line of scrimmage for a big loss, and Garfield could not find the endzone on fourth-and-long.
“We just missed an assignment and one of their kids made a nice play and got us in the backfield,” noted Moser.
He acknowledged that it was a difficult loss for Garfield after rallying from being down by two touchdowns but added that the G-Men made too many self-inflicted errors at the beginning of the game, which put them in a deep hole.
“To their credit, they have some really nice skilled kids and their quarterback played really well and they were very elusive but we did not tackle very well so that is something we have to get back to work on,” he said.
Moser credited Garfield’s rushing attack for sparking the comeback, as Cain rushed for 244 yards while junior tailback/linebacker Devin Bates recorded 204 yards and three touchdowns.
“They both ran the ball really well,” Moser praised the G-Men duo. “The offensive line did a great job blocking and like I said, it is unfortunate we could not put a win together with some numbers like that.”
As difficult of a start as it was for Garfield, Moser also commended his team’s resiliency for battling back from what appeared to be insurmountable hole in the second half. Although the result was not what the G-Men sought, he said that it is now about seeing how the team can respond in the wake of a season-opening loss with such a short turnaround.
“We have a short week and have to turn around,” he said. “We don’t have time on Thursday night to sulk about it, we have to get better real quick.”
Following a home contest against Warren John F. Kennedy High School on Thursday night, Garfield will host Springfield for a non-conference clash at JAG Stadium on Sep. 5 at 7 p.m.
