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SHADYSIDE - Friday night's battle of the Tigers at Fleming Field turned into a defensive struggle in the first half before miscues and big plays took over in a wild second half.
Shadyside built a 15-0 third quarter lead, watched it evaporate, then turned a late turnover into a touchdown that led to a thrilling 22-19 victory over previously unbeaten Strasburg on the local Tigers' turf.
The victory moves coach Mike Kernik's now battle-tested team to a perfect 5-0 on the campaign with Shenandoah paying a visit next Friday night to help the Tigers celebrate Homecoming.
"That is a very well-coached team and we knew this was going to be a fight coming in," Kernik commented.
With the host Tigers leading 15-0 early in the third on a one-yard Ace Nelson run and Bryce Sloan's two-point pass to Kolton Wallace, Strasburg went to the air with great results. The visiting Tigers scored on three consecutive touchdown passes from junior quarterback Brody Baughman to put Strasburg up by a 19-15 count.
First, Baughman found Braxton Goehring down the middle of the field for a 76-yard catch-and-run at 9:06 of the third with the pass for two failing. Less than five minutes later Baughman hit passes of 32 and 25 yards before finding Tanner Tucker from seven yards out, with a missed PAT the score stood at 15-12. Early in the fourth Goehring hauled in his second scoring pass, this one from 34 yards away with Goehring's point-after giving the visitors their first lead of the night at 19-15.
On Shadyside's next possession it looked like disaster when a fumble gave the ball to Strasburg at their own 41. However, the visitors handed it right back on the very next play. That led to an eight-play, 57-yard drive, paced by the hard-nosed Nelson, with Johnson going in from 12 yards away with 4:30 to go and a 22-19 lead.
Strasburg's next possession ended in a Michael Hendershot interception that put the hosts deep in enemy territory, but they could not take advantage. The visitors had one more shot, getting the ball with just under three minutes to play at its own 33 with no timeouts, but a quick four-and-out allowed the hosts to run out the clock.
Both teams turned the ball over with Strasburg's all coming in the second half at crucial times.
"That doesn't usually happen to us," Jimm Morris commented. "Our first team offense had not turned the ball over a single time this season before (Friday). But they were very good and were able to cause some against us."
Shadyside's hard-nosed, quick-off-the-ball defense was the story early on with the visiting Tigers (4-1) struggling to get anything going. Strasburg actually finished the first half with 35 total yards, including negative 18 on the ground.
However, the hosts struggled to get anything going as well and with just 56 seconds remaining in the first half of a scoreless game and Shadyside sitting at their own 22 after a turnover on downs, it appeared that would be the story at the half.
But senior quarterback Jayden Johnson, who accounted for 237 of his team's 294 yards with two touchdowns, had other ideas. Johnson took his team on a 78-yard, eight-play drive that needed only 41 seconds of clock time. The hosts capped off the score with a 39-yard Johnson to Colt Cook pass deep down the middle. Hunter Ramsey's point-after made it 7-0 at the break.
"Turnovers create momentum, and we were able to bounce back from ours," Kernik added. "We were able to fight through everything, but you also have to give Strasburg a lot of credit, they did a great job."
Shadyside got some hard-nosed running from Nelson late, helping him to finish with 68 yards. Johnson led all rushers with 127 yards.
"Ace was running straight ahead, and he is so fast and strong and when he gets going he can be tough to stop," Kernik said. That was also a huge momentum shift at the end of the first half, but we had no consistency on any drive before that."
While the host Tigers were able to get through the line quickly early on, Strasburg changed their count, got three offsides calls and slowed the hosts down.
"We got some good advice from up top, changed our count and got some good results."
Shadyside finished with 184 yards on the ground and 110 through the air for 294 while Strasburg had 210 through the air and 32 on the ground for 242, with 207 of that coming in the second half.