Ohio rallies for 17 unanswered points, stuns Pennsylvania for fourth straight victory
Written by: Josh Funk on Sunday, June 17th, 2012. Follow Josh Funk on Twitter.
HERSHEY, Pa. – “Four-peat! Four-peat! Four-peat!”
That was the chant the 34 all-stars from Ohio bellowed from a midfield stage postgame after the trophy presentation from honorary game chairman Ben Roethlisberger.
But the Buckeye Staters’ four-peat wouldn’t have been possible without a “repeat” of a different sort – from defensive back Nana Kyeremeh (Thomas Worthington).
Kyeremeh bookended Pennsylvania’s six turnovers in the game by picking off a pair of passes, including what proved to be the game-winner in overtime, and plackicker Tyler Grassman (Gahanna Lincoln) converted a 39-yard field goal in overtime to seal a 17-point rally as Ohio defeated Pennsylvania, 24-21, in the 55th installment of the Big-33 Football Classic played Saturday at Hersheypark Stadium.
“I was looking for a fade to the back side,” Kyeremeh said of the winning play. “But the ball was tipped by the PA receiver, and I told myself, ‘I’ve got to get that ball. It means a lot (to win this game). We came out with intensity in the second half that we should have had in the first.”
The victory gave Ohio its fourth consecutive triumph and a 13-12 overall lead in the series between the two states, coming on the heels of a dominating 50-14 victory in the 2011 installment of the game. In a game that had started oh so well for the Keystone State stars, it all came undone in a 17-second span of the fourth quarter.
The overtime rules for the Big-33 Classic follow that of college football, where each team takes a possession
at the 25-yard line. If the score remains tied, the process is repeated until the start of the fourth overtime, when both sides would have had to begin attempting two-point conversions if touchdowns were scored.
Pennsylvania’s defense, a unit which put forth a stalwart effort all game long, had forced its only turnover of Ohio, a fumble, at the 9:06 mark of the fourth quarter. Staked to a 21-7 lead, Skyler Mornhinweg (St. Joseph’s Prep) lined up at the helm of Pennsylvania’s offense, looking to deliver the knockout blow.
But it never came.
Mornhinweg was intercepted by Ohio’s Andre Jones (Cincinnati Colerain), and just five plays later, Tyler O’Connor brought the scarlet and grey to within 21-14 on a 1-yard run. Just seventeen seconds later, the game was tied.
On the ensuing kickoff, Desmon Peoples (Archbishop Wood) fumbled the handle of the kickoff, then retreated into the end zone and took a knee. Under PIAA rules, that would have resulted in a safety, but the play was not blown dead. Peoples ventured out of the end zone, was hit at the 3 yard line and lost control of the ball, where Ohio’s E.J. Junior recovered the ball in the end zone.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Pennsylvania head coach Mike Brennan (Blue Mountain). “The guys played hard and we had a great week of practice. We made a lot of plays and I’m proud of the kids. But it hurts to leave here tonight because they played well enough to win.”
That Pennsylvania did, especially in the first half, as it outgained Ohio, 174-100, in total offense and led, 14-0 on the arms of Mornhinweg and Blake Rankin (Bloomsburg). The duo, bound for Florida and Rutgers, respectively, combined to throw for 165 yards and two touchdowns – Mornhinweg’s a 61-yard bomb to Kevin Gulyas (Allentown Central Catholic) and Rankin’s a 13-yard pass to Shakim Alonzo (Woodland Hills).
But it was the Keystone State’s defense that also stole the show. Linebackers Nyeem Wartman (Valley View), Mike Caprara (Woodland Hills), Bryton Barr (Mechanicsburg) and Jon Hicks (Palmyra) played with their hair on fire over the first 24 minutes. And defensive tackle Tyrique Jarrett (Taylor Allderdice) was clogging up space in the interior of the trenches.
“We went out and practiced hard, in full gear almost every day,” Jarrett said. “We made it into a competition in practice – OK, you did well this play, but on the next one, we’re going to beat you. It made everybody better. We were all from different schools, but in the end, we became brothers. This was a great experience and I had so much fun.”
Pennsylvania’s defense had also made Ohio pretty one-dimensional offensively. Until late in the fourth quarter, Ohio had only attempted a trio of passes in the second half – two from scrappy quarterback Adam Wallace (Norwayne), who led his team to an Ohio Division-IV state championship in December. Wallace finished with 38 total yards of offense, leading a single-wing-esque offensive attack which churned out 120 hard-earned rushing yards.
Ohio got its initial touchdown on an 85-yard pass from O’Connor (161 pass yards, 13 rush yards, 2 total TD) to Najee Murray (Steubenville) with 4:35 left in the third quarter, but Pennsylvania countered when Rankin found tight end J.P. Holtz (Shaler) on a 4-yard pass to make it 21-7 with 47 seconds left in the third quarter.
O’Connor was named the Ohio MVP and Rankin the PA MVP.
“It was an amazing feeling getting selected to play (in the game) and coming out here and playing well,” Rankin said. “But we just made a few mistakes. You have to be able to finish (in this game), and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Both Kyeremeh and Jones intercepted a pair of passes for Ohio, which forced six total Pennsylvania turnovers in the game (five interceptions, one fumble).
During its four-game winning streak, Ohio has outscored Pennsylvania, 130-81.
NOTES: Saturday’s Big-33 Football Classic marked the 25th all-time meeting between the Pennsylvania and Ohio squads, and the series was tied, 12-12, entering the game….Pennsylvania and Ohio had traded three-game winning streaks in the series since 2000; PA claimed victories from 2000-02 and 2006-08, while Ohio claimed victories from 2003-05 and 2009-11….Ohio’s four-game winning streak is a first in the 25-meeting series, as neither Pennsylvania or Ohio has ever won four consecutive games in the entirity of the series, which was resumed annually in 1993…..Pennsylvania’s all-stars raised their helmets in the air as a moment of silence was held prior to the start of the game to honor the late Joe Paterno, who passed away in January after a battle with lung cancer…..Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger served as the game’s honorary chairman and posed for pictures and signed autographs prior to the start of the game.
55TH BIG-33 FOOTBALL CLASSIC
BOX SCORE
OH 0 0 7 14 3 – 24
PA 7 7 7 0 0 – 21
1st Quarter
PA – Kevin Gulyas 61 pass from Skyler Morhninweg (Bryant Myer PAT), 7:14
2nd Quarter
PA – Shakim Alonzo 13 pass from Blake Rankin (Myer PAT), 2:49
3rd Quarter
OH – Najee Murray 85 pass from Tyler O’Connor (Tyler Grassman PAT), 4:35
PA – J.P. Holtz 4 pass from Rankin (Myer PAT), 0:47
4th Quarter
OH – O’Connor 1 run (Grassman PAT), 6:27
OH – E.J. Junior 0 fumble return (Grassman PAT), 6:10
OT
OH – FG, Grassman 39
OHIO PA
1st downs 15 12
Rushes-yds 40-121 16-35
Passing 9-24-0 16-28-5
Passing yds 176 253
Total yards 297 288
Penalties 6-54 5-55
Individual statistics
RUSHING: OHIO: Warren Ball, 13-41; Jack Snowball, 7-43; Adam Wallace, 6-23; E.J. Junior 6-13; Tyler O’Connor 3-13 TD; TEAM 1-minus-8. PA: Rushel Shell, 5-24; Julian Durden, 5-2; Blake Rankin, 3-minus-1; Skyler Mornhinweg, 2-9; Corey Jones, 1-minus-4.
PASSING: OHIO: O’Connor, 8-19-0-161 TD; Wallace, 1-2-0-15; Derik Swinderman, 0-3-0-0. PA: Rankin, 11-17-2-145 2 TD; Mornhinweg, 5-11-3-108 TD.
RECEIVING: OHIO: Ball, 2-15; Anthony Melchiori, 1-2; Matt Eckhardt, 1-17; Quincy Jones, 1-8; Malcolm Robinson, 1-12; Brice Fackler, 1-7; Najee Murray, 1-85 TD. PA: Shell, 3-18; Durden, 3-24; Shakim Alonzo, 3-56 TD; Eugene Lewis, 2-54; Jones, 2-43; Kevin Gulyas, 2-58 TD, J.P. Holtz, 1-4 TD.
Photo’s provided by Matt Topper
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June 20th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
@Brian why because people think Blake Rankin pkayed bad? The kid is a good Quarterback but not an Elite QB. HE was equally bad to the other Kid. He is NOT the top QB or in the top 2 QB’s in PA.
June 19th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
The amount of ignorance in these comments is saddening.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Alas, you will never see Skyler throw a football again. He will never get behind a center in college. He may show up in the defensive backfield somewhere (not at Florida of course) I never understood the hype. Saw him many times and he was a good HS QB. Never projected him in the college ranks though. I think daddy was his agent.
June 18th, 2012 at 9:46 pm
Not jealous at all of Nos. I think he’s great and will be a star for Spurrier at SC. I definitely think he’d have been way better than either Morninhweg or Rankin. (I was upset initially. Now, so glad Skyler decommited from PSU.) I was commenting purely on the posters. Like the guy commenting on Gulyas below. Gulyas is going to Villanova and will probably a successful businessman someday…probably will be our boss. Eugene Lewis will likely be in the NFL someday…barring injury of course. The coaches only went to Lewis once or twice more than Gulyas. What the heck do you want? Go to him every play?
June 18th, 2012 at 6:48 pm
I did not see the game so i can’t comment on it however..throwing the ball only 2 times to Guylas is a LARGE coaching error. Best receiver in Pa history and really overlooked by Major colleges, many of them will be sorry in the future.
Brendan Nosovitch is still recovering from shoulder surgery on his none throwing arm and could not play. Isn’t the other QB an “Eagles coaches son ” ? Hmmmm.
June 18th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Did Desmon Peoples make a mistake yes he did, but really at the end of the day if PA took care of business like Josh said it would not have mattered as much that was just 1 of 6 turnovers they had, I do think they should have at least attempted to get the ball to peoples a little bit more, but I think the other little back they had was better than Desmon. Nyeem Wartman and Nate Smith really really stood out to me.
I have to agree with most on here, the QB play was equally bad and it was very very obvious that niether QB is an elite QB. Mr. Hater Rollie down there used the word jock sniffer but I have to agree if the ACC kid played PA would have won, I think Nosovitch and Hills are the 2 best QB’s in PA. The prep kid has never been good, and Rankin play against bad competition. You could make a case that Manny Stocker, and Matt johns belonged in this game over the 2 that played but Big 33 is very political.
May have been the Offensive Line but I really came away unimpressed with Rushel Shell. I think overall this game is becoming more and more meaningless to the players as someone stated below 4 or 5 of the best players in the state did not play and that would not have been the case 10-15 years ago.
June 18th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
@Rollie or I guess we should say “RCIF” from pennlive, what jock sniffers? I think it’s pretty safe to say that any QB who did not throw as many picks. It’s funny that your jealous of an 18 year old kid and when his name come sup you call them jock sniffers
June 18th, 2012 at 8:35 am
PA QB play was pretty horrible. 5 picks. Yikes. That said, I was talking to my bro at the end of the game and knew the Nos jock sniffers would be crawl out of the woodwork. “If only our Nos were there,” they’d sigh. “Yeah, Nos’d have used Thor’s mighty hammer to smite Ohio”.
June 17th, 2012 at 11:29 pm
You guys must’ve been watching a different game than everyone else. Mornhinweg WAS awful, but Rankin was not. I don’t know if you guys are anti-small school or anti-D4, but you don’t seem to be the most objective people in the world.
June 17th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Decent game compared to last years. Why didnt Nostivitch and Colin Thompson play?
June 17th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Joe – The only reason I say the blame shouldn’t be squarely placed on Peoples’ shoulders is because, following the 6:10 mark of the 4th quarter when Ohio tied the game, PA’s offensive unit had 3 possessions in regulation to try to get a score (plus the one play in overtime) – and PA’s average starting field position was its own 36 yard line on its last three chances in regulation. PA began consecutive drives at its own 41 and 42 yard line (the second following a personal foul on a punt return). The entire offense didn’t execute and went away from what was working for it in the first half – the short and intermediate spread passing attack mixed with draws and counters. Instead, they seemed to be trying to hit the home run every play instead of sticking with what worked. Had the offense executed better, Peoples’ error would have been less magnified. Instead, PA wasted some golden opportunities and threw three picks in its final four possessions. The lack of offensive execution, in my eyes, should bear the brunt of the burden if anybody wants to try to play the blame game for the loss, given the number of chances they had to get one score.
I do agree with you about the defense. Nate Smith played outstanding, and the entire PA linebacking corps was flying all arounf the field, play after play after play. DT Tyrique Jarrett also played well. But it was definitely the LBs who set the tone. Any defensive unit which forces an opponent to average 3 yards per carry and a 9-for-24 passing day in a game is definitely worthy of recognition for a job well done.
June 17th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
@Josh don’t you think somebody is at fault be it the coaches or Peoples? They either should have explained any differences in rules. If they did not than it is on the coaches. If the coaches did explain it than yes the mistake NOT the game is on peoples. These kids are going to major division one schools if critizing them is bad because they are kids than they certainly won’t be able the intense fan bases at major college football programs or the media.
Not only Gulyas but Lewis too did not get the ball enough. The QB play was absolutely horrible. I don’t know if these were the best 2 QB’s Pennsylvania had to offer I know some people say Nosovitch, Hills, Johns, should’ve played but it was very obvious that these 2 did not belong playing at a level this high.
The play calling was terrible they attacked the middle of the field only a handful of time, which the result was an early TD and they never did it again. They tried to get #5 on some QB draws he looked way too slow to even attempt those plays.
I think LB’s were exceptional, for the most part the DB’s played really well. I thought Ohio tried to pick on Nate Smith a bit which was stupid as he may have been by far the best cover guy PA had and he played like it.
There has got to be a way to get the best players in this game. Add Colin Thompson, Noah Spence, Brendan Nosovitch, Greg Garmon, and Chris Muller to that game and it is a very different game. I would have to assume some enrolled early in college or it simply isn’t worth it to most of the top guys to play, which is understandable.
June 17th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Pa should have won but sloppy quarterback play got rid of any chance at winning. If that was nosovitch the score would have been completely diffrent. Rankin got the mvp even though he was the main reason they lost. Those last turnovers killed
June 17th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Yes Dan, the MVP of the PA team (Rankin) was totally at fault for the loss…give me a break. He again showed why he’s one of the two best quarterbacks in the state. Mornhinweg on the other hand was a huge disappointment.
June 17th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Brian,
Peoples lost control of the ball outside of the end zone, then retreated into the end zone and took a knee. He had lost initial possession at the 1 or 2 yard line before going back into the end zone and kneeling down. By rule, that should have been a safety – 2 points and Ohio possession. But the ref in the end zone did not signal that play was dead, so Peoples then advanced out of the end zone to return the ball. In my eyes, it was simply a a fluky play all the way around and it’s unfortunate it went negatively for PA and for Peoples.
Dan – it wasn’t just that singular play that lost it – PA had several chances to retake the lead and threw three interceptions in critical situations. The whole offense sputtered after the third quarter. So if you’re going to play the blame game, don’t just shoulder the load squarely on Peoples. That, in my eyes, is both wrong and irresponsible.
June 17th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Nice going Peoples! Way to blow the game for the state. Typical of Wood’s recruits though. And where did these two quarterbacks come from? Throwing the ball to Gulyas only twice. That was a disgrace how he got froze out of the offense. The greatest receiver in PA history. Too bad Nosovitch couldn’t play. It would have been a much different outcome. Guaranteed!!!!
June 17th, 2012 at 9:59 am
PA was the physically dominant team for most of that game. However, they capitalized on nothing. Conversely, Ohio capitalized to the tune of 14 points on the 2 really big mistakes PA made. Frustrating.
June 17th, 2012 at 8:39 am
we was the muffed kickoff by peoples that went into the end zone not placed at the 20. I know they play by college rules in the particular situation, which means the returner can pick the ball up and still run. In high school, the ball is automatically ruled dead in the end zone. It also says Peoples took a knee in the end zone, which means ball on the 20. So why did they call it a fumble at the 3 yd line then?