The talented toes of Chuck Wroblewski did it again — snatch victory from the jaws of a tie ballgame for the Wayland varsity football team.
Wroblewski, who kicked a game-winning field goal earlier this month in a 10-7 triumph over Middle Thornapple Kellogg as time expired, performed virtually the same feat Friday night in a 30-27 homecoming thriller over Forest Hills Eastern.
But the Wildcats had a lot of other heroes in a very bizarre contest that featured big mistakes, costly gambling, big plays, and most of all — rain.
All signs were pointing to overtime with just 22.9 seconds remaining when Hawks’ head coach Ben Sherman elected to “go for it” with fourth down and a yard to go at his own 24. His gamble went sour when a host of Wildcat linemen rose to the occasion to give the ‘Cats possession of the football with 19 seconds remaining and the clock stopped for the change of ownership.
Senior quarterback Kyle Jansen then tossed a pass to Devin Jakey, who came down with it within a yard of the end zone and a little more than 10 seconds left. It was the first time in the entire second half that Wayland had gained a first down other than by penalty.
After a pass incompletion, Wildcat coach Mike Doupe elected to bring in his unflappable field goal kicker to give his team its third victory of the season against three losses.
It was a very bizarre contest because the Wildcats did all of their scoring in the first 13 minutes.
Wayland took the opening kickoff at its own 26-yard line and went the necessary 74 yards to open the scoring with a variety of passes and rushing yardage by Jansen, using his hesitate, follow the blockers and sometimes try to beat the defense to turn the corner.
The six points came from a four-yard pass to Gage Stancell.
Forest Hills answered quickly, using the hard-charging runs by halfback Caden Peters, but nailed the TD on a nifty play-action pass over the middle to Caleb Biel. However, Logan Bishop who had a huge night on the defensive side, blocked the extra point attempt.
Jansen answered on the first play of Wayland’s next series, scrambling his way 38 yards to the Hawks’ 27 and then he went 11 yards around right end to the 16. With defense starting to key on the QB, Jansen deftly handed the ball to fullback-blocking back Brody Place, who refused to go down until he reached the end zone. So the home team suddenly was up by eight, 14-6.
Sophomore Ashton Ordway then came up with another of the big plays of the evening by crushing the Forest Hills runner on the kickoff back on his own 14. After Mike Velting had a big no-gain stop on first down, Lee Misak picked off a pass at the 25. He then hauled in an aeria
l at the four and Jansen raced to the end zone flag on the next play.
The ‘Cats weren’t done adding to the total on the scoreboard.
Bishop came up with a tipped pass and raced untouched 30 yards into the end zone with the interception. So Wayland has put up 27 points in 13 minutes and 19 seconds, but was destined to go scoreless until the last 6.9 seconds of time on the clock for the evening.
The Hawks went to work quickly to get back into the ballgame. Peters led the rushing attack and quarterback Bennett VanSolkema scored on a short scramble to bring the count to 27-13.
Not long afterward. Doupe made a gamble that went sour. He chose to run Jansen twice near midfield on third and one, but Cade Krueger stopped him short both times with 3:09 left in the half.
The Hawks were able to get the ball down to the nine on a pass to Ben Ambrester and Peters took it in from five yards out with 33 seconds showing on the clock.
The Wildcats made it interesting on the ensuing kicoff when Stancell raced all the way to the Forest Hills 30 and then caught a 27-yard pass from Jansen, but they were pushed back by a chop block penalty and Wroblewski’s field goal attempt failed.
Rain was the big story for most of the third period and into the fourth. Both teams slugged it out at the line of scrimmage, slipping and sliding and not getting much of anything going. Linemen Chad Stoepker and Ethan Mutschler led the defensive unit in keeping the Hawks at bay, but Armbrester came up with a huge interception at his own 45 with 4:40 left in the ballgame. Forest Hills, behind the elusive running of Peters, was able to go the needed 55 yards to score the tying TD and extra point with just 2:19 remaining.
That set the stage for the bizarre and satisfying ending.
Wayland was without the services of its leading tacker, linebacker Mason Miller, who was sidelines by a highly contagious illness.
Kyle Jansen rushed for 89 yards and threw for 95. Sophomore Devin Jakey caught 3 passes for 58 yards. Defensively, Logan Bishop had 5 tackles, an interception, and a defensive touchdown.
The Wildcats, now 3-3 overall and 2-2 in the O-K Gold Conference, will take on always tough East Grand Rapids next Friday.
PHOTO: The Wayland homecoming queen, Taryn Coughlin, and king, Jonathan Seymour, walk off the field after earning their honors before the ballgame.
Chuck Wroblewski
