Bulldogs take out Cougars in two OTs

BEDFORD – Jordan Garron had been bottled up since halftime.

After rushing for 64 yards in the first half Saturday, the Bedford High School junior had just 19 through the second half and the first overtime against Con-Val. As a team, the Bulldogs’ yards-per-carry average dropped almost five yards from one half to the other.

But with his team needing two yards, Garron got them.

On Bedford’s second play after Con-Val had taken a 16-13 lead in the second overtime, Garron danced through the Cougars defense and went into the end zone standing up to give the Bulldogs a 19-16 victory in double overtime in Bedford’s homecoming game.

Garron, who had 85 yards and two scores on 16 carries, was just trying to get it done for his team.

“I was just thinking that my team needs me and I want to get it in,” he said. “We’ve never really been in a game that was that close. To come out victorious was good.”

The win, which felt like a foregone conclusion for Bedford early in the second half, was very much in doubt late.

[For more photos from this game, go here.]

At the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs (4-0 in Division III, 5-0 overall) were looking at second-and-1 from the Con-Val 12. But an illegal formation moved the ball back to the 17 as the quarter came to an end.

After a 1-yard run by Garron, Mike Gardiner fumbled on a reverse, and the Cougars (1-3, 1-4) recovered at their own 23-yard line with 11:13 left in the game.

Despite three penalties on Con-Val and two sacks by Bedford, the second of which knocked Cougars’ quarterback Jon Queen out for a play, Con-Val ran 18 plays and held the ball for 10 minutes, 38 seconds

The Cougars got as deep as the Bedford 16, but an illegal motion penalty and a Sam McClain sack of Queen, who had 89 yards rushing on 28 carries, pushed Con-Val back to the 24-yard line, where Jeremy Doubleday hit a 41-yard field goal to tie the game at 13 with 35.7 seconds left.

“We knew we were going to be able to put a drive together,” Con-Val coach Greg Leonard said. “On the sideline, we were saying we just need to hang on to the football and drive down the field. We knew we could do that. We want to punch it into the end zone to make it happen.”

Not content to run out the clock, Bedford went to the air. Quarterback James Caparell connected with Kindell Benton and Gardiner on 26- and 29-yard pass completions, respectively, to get the Bulldogs a first down at the Con-Val 23 with 13.2 seconds left.

Con-Val’s Tom Hughes nearly ended the drive there, but had a potential interception hit off his hands, his left foot and then a hand again before hitting the turf.

With eight seconds left, Justin Walsh came out to attempt a 40-yard field goal, but before the snap, Con-Val jumped offsides, moving the ball in five yards. Walsh lined up for a 35-yard kick, and drilled it, but again, Con-Val was offsides and the play was blown dead.

This time, Walsh attempted from 30 yards, but Con-Val flooded the line and blocked the kick, sending the game to overtime.

“Walsh has a strong leg and he’s good in practice on a regular basis,” Bedford coach Kurt Hines said. “We felt very confident in him. When they jumped the first time, I thought we’ve got this. They jumped the second time, and I thought it was in the bag. And then they brought the house and were successful.”

Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal on Bedford’s drive in the first overtime and Leonard sent Doubleday, who also made a 22-yard field goal in the second quarter, out to attempt a kick from 27 yards on second down of Con-Val’s drive. Bedford’s Nate Harrington busted through the line and blocked the kick, sending the game to a second overtime.

Con-Val’s Rob Cyr ran for seven yards on the first play of the second overtime, but another penalty on the Cougars moved them back to the 7, where Doubleday made a 24-yard field goal to put Con-Val up 16-13.

“I’ve got the finest kicking coach in the state and my guy proved he could kick the ball anywhere,” Leonard said. “At least our guys never quit and never gave up on it.”

The Cougars started the scoring on their first drive, using just four plays to go 81 yards, ending on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Queen to Luke Mosher.

Bedford answer with an 80-yard drive of its own, lasting seven plays and culminating on Caparell’s 9-yard touchdown completion to Brian Collins.

Doubleday put Con-Val on top with his first field with 10:02 left in the first half, but Bedford took the lead on Garron’s 2-yard scoring run with 2:49 left in the half. Con-Val got down to the Bulldogs’ 16 in the final minute, but Gardiner intercepted a Queen pass in the end zone to quash the threat.

“They came out a lot tougher than we expected,” Hines said of Con-Val. We made too many mistakes. The turnovers are unacceptable. Some blown assignments. Some missed blocks offensively. But the positives are we bent but didn’t break.

“We’re a young team, starting seven sophomores. To be in a tight game like this and have the guys not fold … something was on our side.”