Romshek a load for Titans

KEWANEE – With under a minute to play in the third quarter, the Annawan/Wethersfield Titans had the ball at the Gibson City Falcons’ 28-yard line, looking to take the lead in class 2A quarterfinal football action Saturday. The tide turned, however when Stephan Birt picked off a Sean Walker pass at the two to stop the Titans, then led his team 98 yards down the field to retake the lead 26-20 with 6:40 to play in the game.

The Titans turned the ball over again on their next drive on a lateral pass that was ruled a fumble. The Falcons took advantage again using six plays to go up by two scores and seal the 32-20 win.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate all year getting some breaks to go our way, that of course was a big one that didn’t,” A/W coach Brandon Johnston said of the lateral. “We had a lot of chances. We made some plays, and a lot of times we didn’t. A lot of credit to that Gibson City team. They are tough. That’s a heck of a squad they’ve got over there.”

Key to the Gibson City offensive attack, which held the ball for nearly 32 minutes of the game, was the running of Michael Romshek. He rushed for 252 yards on 35 carries and scored four touchdowns, and, until the Titans’ final drive of the game, had more touches than A/W had run offensive plays.

“We tried to game-plan to stop him,” Johnston said. “You can’t stop a kid like that completely. We were just hoping to contain him a little bit better, obviously. He’s a phenomenal back. We thought that he would be the best that we have seen all year, and he was. Give credit to the guys up front too. Their whole line is a big part of that as well.”

The Falcons’ defense, however did a better job of containing A-W’s offensive key, as it held Sean Walker to 104 yards (76 on one carry) on 8 rushes.

Gibson City took a 6-0 lead on its first drive of the game, driving 83 yards, largely on the back of Romshek who carried the ball 31 yards on four carries before finishing the drive with a 13-yard scoring run.