The National Trail Blazers hosted rival Preble Shawnee on Friday night and the visitors went home with a 28-13 victory.
The game started with the Arrows getting into the scoring zone but NT’s defense held tight and forced a missed field goal. After a scoreless 1st quarter, Shawnee opened the scoring with a TD early in the 2nd quarter. For the rest of the quarter, play went back and forth until the Blazers evened it up 7-7 with 47 seconds left on the clock. Jamison Watts hooked up with Joey Roberts on an 18 yard pass play and Jacob Farno kicked the extra point to even the score at halftime.
The 3rd quarter started with both defenses playing tough until an 8 minute span where NT made four mistakes in the punting game which allowed Shawnee to score 3 TDs and made the score 28-7 with 8 minutes left in the game. However the Blazers continued to battle and Watts and Roberts connected again on a 4 yard TD pass with 2:43 left in the game. Hope of a miracle comeback remained alive when Jacob Farno executed a perfect onside kick giving the ball back to the offense. But the Arrows defense held tough and ended the game at 28-13.
Individually Jamison Watts led NT in rushing with 72 yards on 16 carries and was 11 for 17 passing for 114 yards and 2 TDs. Chase Ruebush, Jody Wintrow and Joey Roberts all had 3 catches including the 2 TD receptions by Roberts.
On the defensive side of the ball, Watts had 13 tackles including 3 tackles for loss, Roberts had 9 tackles and a pass break up, Korbin Sullivan was on 6 tackles, Brady Thompson had 5 and Bryce Thompson and Cooper Lee combined on the only sack of the night. Jaxson Thacker was credited with causing a fumble that was recovered by Jonah Brinkley.
The Blazers hit the road for Middletown Madison in an unusual Thursday night game. Kickoff is a 7pm when NT looks to even its record at 2-2 with a win at Madison.
