CAMDEN — The schedule has shifted to November, and Preble Shawnee (11-0) is still playing football.
The Arrows, ranked No. 3 in Division V, Region 20, moved on to the second round of the football playoff tournament with a 21-13 win over No. 14 Greenon on Saturday, Oct. 27, and will host No. 11 Williamsburg this Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner will go on to face either No. 2 Roger Bacon or No. 7 Cincinnati Mariemont.
While Preble Shawnee won its first ever playoff game last season, Saturday marked the first time the Arrows won a playoff game having qualified for the postseason. In 2020, every team was included in the playoffs.
“We’re headed in the direction we want to go, for sure,” Preble Shawnee coach Dave Maddox said. “We’ve talked all offseason about this being a special group of guys, and I think they just showed that on the field tonight. First half was sloppy. It was ugly. Too many penalties, and we talked in the in the locker room there and said, ‘That’s not who we are. We’re fighters.’ Those guys are fighters. They keep coming back and that’s what they did tonight and kept playing hard and played their game the second half and then it went went the right direction for us.”
The teams began the game by trading punts, large in part due to slippery field conditions that made it difficult to move the ball.
On Preble Shawnee’s second drive of the game, the Arrows were backed up to third-and-22 after a series of penalties and short gains. With the running game slow at the time, junior quarterback Brayden Doran took to the skies and found junior Cooper Roell for a 44-yard gain down to Greenon’s 28-yard line. On the next play, Doran launched the ball downfield and connected with junior Dylan Zornes on a 28-yard touchdown pass to give the Arrows a 7-0 lead.
The next four drives all ended in turnovers, with Preble Shawnee junior Malechai Stephenson intercepting a pass before the Arrows turned the ball over on downs. From there, freshman Isaac Blankenship intercepted the Knights once again, but Greenon responded with a pick off Doran that was taken down to Shawnee’s one-yard line, where they scored three plays later to tie it up 7-7.
With a chance to respond and retake the lead, the Arrows fumbled the ensuing kickoff back to the Knights who received the ball at Shawnee’s 26-yard line. Despite the positive field position, Greenon struggled to move the ball, having to convert two third downs before facing a third-and-goal from the five-yard line. Preble Shawnee junior Grady Hutchinson intercepted the ensuing pass to give the ball back to the Arrows, but Preble Shawnee went three-and-out.
With less than a minute to go in the half, Greenon began driving from their own 41-yard line, but Hutchinson again intercepted a pass at the Arrows’ 22-yard line. The Arrows would then kneel out the half, still tied 7-7.
On the first drive of the second half, the Knights embarked on a 12-play, 83-yard drive, capped off by a rushing touchdown on fourth-and-one from Shawnee’s one-yard line. After a missed extra point, Greenon led 13-7 after taking over nine minutes off the clock.
This was the first time the Arrows had trailed since the second quarter against Ansonia on Friday, Oct. 15, and the first time all season that Preble Shawnee trailed in the second half.
“Just another obstacle to overcome,” Maddox said. “Facing adversity, we talk about it all the time. Just gotta keep your head up and keep fighting ahead. We control our effort and a lot of other things are out of our control. So, all we do is make sure we’re playing hard and doing our job.”
The Arrows punted on their ensuing drive after a sack on third-and-10, but a fumble by Greenon gave the Arrows the ball right back at the Knights’ 22-yard line. Three plays later, now in the fourth quarter, senior Hunter Crockett scored from 13 yards out to make it 14-13 in favor of the Arrows.
After a punt by Greenon, a good return by the Arrows set them up at the Knights’ 40-yard line. A 17-yard rush by Doran, in addition to a late hit penalty assessed to the Knights, put Preble Shawnee at Greenon’s five-yard line, and three plays later, Doran found the endzone on a one-yard rush to make it 21-13.
The teams then traded punts, and with 2:35 left in the game, the Arrows turned Greenon over on downs. Preble Shawnee, however, then turned the ball over on downs after a sack on fourth-and-sixth, setting Greenon up at their own 45-yard line with under a minute remaining and a chance to tie the game.
On the first play of the drive, however, Stephenson once again picked off Greenon, this time to end the game and send the Arrows to the next round of the playoffs.
“They played good,” Maddox said. “It’s sloppy – all the rain we’ve had, that field is a mess, and I think it took everybody a little bit of time to get the feel of playing on that sloppy mess. But once we kind of locked in a little bit and our defensive line stepped up a little bit there in the second half. [The defensive backs] played well, broke on the ball. Very happy and proud of them.”
