Knights thwarted, 28-21, by Comets’ defense

GENOA— In a pivotal Northern Buckeye Conference game at Jim Firestone Field Friday, it was neither offense that made the difference-making play. It was Genoa’s defense.

Genoa forced Otsego to turn the ball over on downs three times in the Comets’ territory in the second half, and the Comets went on to win, 28-21.

Otsego first-year coach Craig Rutherford would like to have those drives back.

“Maybe we didn’t stay on blocks as long as we could have,” Rutherford said. “There are a lot of things, but it’s not just one person. We all must do a better job of finishing those drives.”

On the final drive, facing a fourth down and three at the Comets’ 34-yard line, Genoa sophomore linebacker Alex Materni stuck Otsego junior running back Keeghan Hutton before he could reach the first down marker, and the Comets were celebrating a hard-fought win with less than one minute remaining.

In a hard-fought game played in winds reaching 40 mile-per-hour gushes from the remnants of hurricane Helene, six of seven touchdowns were scored by teams that had the wind to their back.

Punts were at times, going backward when kicking against the wind, but both kickers were putting punts and kickoffs into the end zone when kicking with the wind.

“Obviously, the wind was frustrating at times, for both teams,” Rutherford said. “You could see when you had to punt, you knew it was not going to go well.”

Both teams were primarily reduced to running the football, but both teams had relied mostly on their ground attacks all year, anyways.

“It was definitely smash-mouth football,” Genoa coach Bill Fisher said. “The message going into this game, and even more so at halftime with a tie ballgame (14-14), is that it is going to come down to three things — lack of mistakes, who can make the least amount of mistakes, line assignments, and penalties.”

The game saw 667 total yards, but 594 came on the ground — 300 from Otsego and 294 from Genoa. Both coaches knew it was going to be that type of game, and they don’t mind.

“From a physicality standpoint, though, we are OK playing in physical games,” Rutherford said. “If it turns into something where you can’t do a whole lot throwing the ball one way, then we had to hang onto the ball and get some yards, and we did. We were close to finishing, but we just needed some more things to go our way.”

Rutheford said if a few mistakes here or there did not happen, things could have been different.

“You go back, it is going to be a number of things,” Rutherford said. “Sometimes it was not the perfect play call for the defense that we were in on that play, sometimes we were offsides, and in a night like tonight every yard matters.”

Otsego falls to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the NBC, while Genoa improves to 5-1 and stays unbeaten at 3-0 in the league. For the Comets, it was key getting a leg up in the league standings.

“We knew that it was two undefeated teams in the conference and there was only going to be one after today between us, obviously,” Fisher said. “We wanted it to be us. We worked hard for this opportunity to be here, to put ourselves in a scenario that we are in, so we wanted it to be us. The seven seniors are a gritty, tough bunch, they lead by example, and it was a total team victory.”

It was a no-brainer for Otsego coach Craig Rutherford to choose Keeghan Hutton to get the yardage needed on the final drive because he had already run for 200 yards on 34 carries, including a 58-yard touchdown run to open the game’s scoring in the first quarter.

But Genoa responded with two TD runs from junior back Luke Clement, one from four yards and the other from 55 yards, to take a 14-6 lead with 2:38 remaining in the first half.

Otsego closed the half on an eight-play, 58-yard drive, culminated by a four-yard TD run by Keeghan Hutton, and sophomore back Mason Kramer ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14 just before halftime.

On Genoa’s first play from scrimmage in the second half, Alex Spencer took the handoff on a reverse counter, then cut back against the grain to score on an 82-yard run, putting the Comets back in front 21-14 midway through the third quarter.

After Otsego was held to a three-and-out, a 12-yard punt against the wind gave the Comets possession at the Knights’ 31-yard line, and Genoa took advantage.

Genoa sophomore quarterback Myles Mollenhauer went right and then threw a screen pass left to sophomore receiver Jaxson Magnone, who was originally caught in the backfield, but broke several tackles and scored from 19 yards out to put the Comets up by two touchdowns.

Otsego drove 75 yards on their next drive to the Genoa 5-yard line, but Hutton was stopped by Materni and junior defensive end Evan Millner one yard short of a first down, turning the ball over on downs for the second time deep in Genoa territory.

After Otsego’s defense forced a three-and-out, Genoa punter Cam Agler managed a 24-yard punt against the wind, and the Knights took over at the Comets 30. This time, the Knights converted.

Otsego senior quarterback Kaidyn Hutton found Kramer wide open in the flats and tossed a 19-yard TD pass, with the wind, bringing the Knights back to within a score with 3:55 left to play.

Otsego’s defense forced another three-and-out, but the Knights, taking over on the Genoa 41, could not convert, thanks to Materni’s fourth down tackle of Keeghan Hutton.

For Otsego, Kramer ran for 59 yards on 12 carries and senior Jake Limes had seven carries for 40 yards. Kaidyn Hutton completed 4-of-7 passes for 54 yards, including three to Keeghan Hutton for 34 yards. The Otsego QB was sacked just once, and the game saw no turnovers on interceptions or fumbles.

Clement led Genoa’s ground game with 162 yards on 21 carries, Spencer garnered 102 yards on seven carries, and Mollenhauer and junior Ryan Routson each ran the ball four times for 15 yards. Mollenhauer completed 3-of-4 passes for 25 yards.

Materni led Genoa’s defense with 14 tackles, including 11 solo tackles, and Ryan Routson and senior linebacker Dom Lindenberger had 12 tackles apiece.

Limes, senior linebacker Carter Lampe and junior defensive lineman Landon Wanless led Otsego with six tackles apiece.