Mercer County sneaks one out against Storm

Bureau Valley’s Michael Weidner breaks through to block a Mercer County punt in the first half. Alex Franklin recovered and scored a TD to tie the game at 7. (BCR photo/Shawn Doubet)

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ALEDO – Aledo Mercer County’s Brett Anderson scored on a quarterback sneak with :17.6 seconds left to play and completed the two-point conversion pass to give the home team a 22-19 lead over the Bureau Valley Storm.

The Storm was unable to answer on two plays as time ran out on the game, and its season.

“I thought that we played hard the whole game,” BV coach Jeff Ohlson said. “We had some penalties and turnovers that cost us. When you do that, sooner or later, they catch up with you, and they caught up with us here today.”

The Storm (7-3) fumbled on its first possession of each half. The Golden Eagles were able to capitalize on the second, following the kick to start the second half, to take a 14-13 lead. The third-quarter drive was kept alive by a fourth-and-long face-masking penalty on the Storm.

The Storm took advantage of a short MC punt that gave it the ball at the Golden Eagles’ 25 with 2:00 to play in the third quarter.

In a drive that included an exchange of penalties, the Storm reclaimed the lead on a Weidner one-yard run with 11:16 to play in the game. The failed conversion attempt left the game within reach for the Golden Eagles at 19-14.

The Storm managed two stops in the fourth quarter to keep the Golden Eagles at bay before giving up the winning score.

The first drive ended at the BV three on MC’s only fumble of the game. After being forced to punt, the Storm held the Golden Eagles on fourth-and-eight when Adam Weidner batted Anderson’s pass causing it to fall harmlessly to the ground.

The Storm offense was only able to manage one first down before turning the ball back over to the Golden Eagles with 2:07 left to play.

“They made a couple of good plays,” Ohlson said of the Golden Eagles late in the game, “and we might have slipped on a cut-back when we had a lane, but that was the story all day, people slipping and sliding, they just happened to slip less than we did on that play and we didn’t get the first down. I wondered if they didn’t have too much time, and they did. They executed and got into the end zone there at the very end. We made some mistakes and didn’t keep the ball in our hands, and that hurt us.”

Michael Weidner got a hand on the Luke Boucher punt which Alex Franklin picked up and carried into the end zone for the Storm’s first score. Logan Barnas kicked the extra point to tie the game at 7-7.

The Storm took the lead with :53 to play in the first half as Weidner capped-off a 52-yard drive, highlighted by two passes from John King to Austin Peterson of 15 and 10 yards, with a one-yard scoring run. The Barnas kick was off-line, but the Storm went into the intermission up 13-7.

Despite ending early, Ohlson was pleased with the way this year’s Storm prepared to play the game.

“It’s been another good season,” he said. “I know that they are going to be disappointed in how it ended, but we can’t be disappointed about that. (This group of seniors has) done an awful lot. When they were sophomores, we were 3-6. Last year we were 10-2, and this year we went 7-3. To lose five games in a varsity career is pretty solid. These guys put in a lot of work and a lot of effort. If these guys continue to do that the rest of their lives, they are going to be successful.”