Gutsy 2-point conversion propels Eagles to 14-13 win over Colonel Richardson

By Victor Hensley

FEDERALSBURG, MD -

With the clock at triple zeroes, marking the end of the third quarter, Bo Manor had an untimed down. And a huge decision to make.

After scoring the potential game-tying touchdown on the final play of the third period, the Eagles — down 13-12 at the time — needed to choose between attempting either an extra point or a two-point conversion.

When it was all said and done, it was clear they’d made the right choice.

The Eagles went on to recycle the play they’d scored their final touchdown on – a quarterback keeper by senior quarterback Angel Granado – to score the eventual game-winning two-point conversion and stun the top-seeded Colonel Richardson Colonels (6-4) in the second round of the MPSSAA 1A state playoffs.

“We decided to go for two and got it there,” said Vince Ricci, the Eagles’ head coach, “just because we didn’t know if we were going to get the ball back. It was kind of crazy in that sense.”

Ricci’s worry about the Eagles getting another possession with an en- tire quarter left to play may seem like an exaggeration, but it isn’t.

Colonel Richardson spent most of the evening doing two things: running the ball and chewing clock.

“They took all 40 seconds of the play clock and kind of just grinded it out and were happy with just getting two yards, two yards, two yards,” Ricci said. “I mean, they’d literally break the huddle and walk to the line of scrimmage. It was frustrating, to say the least, but we stopped them pretty well.”

In the third quarter, the Colonels scored the then-go-ahead touchdown on a drive that lasted nearly the entire period, keeping the Eagles’ offense on the sideline as they could do nothing but watch and wait.

Fresh off of a momentum-killing possession like that, Ricci’s decision to go for two makes a little more sense. In his mind, if Colonel Richardson could chew up most of the third quarter with a go-ahead scoring drive, why couldn’t it do it again in the fourth quarter?

Luckily for the Eagles, their defense held up, keeping the Colonels off the board in the fourth quarter to secure the one-point, 14-13 victory to catapult them to the state quarterfinals.

Granado finished the day 7-for-15 for 96 yards, a touchdown and an interception – including a 40-plus-yard touchdown pass to Nate Fleming in the first half – while adding 11 carries for 72 yards and a score on the ground.

It wasn’t the flashiest day for the Eagles’ offense, but for the most part, despite getting no more than six possessions, it was an efficient performance once they found their rhythm.

“We really couldn’t, for whatever reason, get the offense going and it was just a mistake here and a mistake there,” Ricci said.

“It wasn’t anything big, just a dropped pass or a missed throw or a missed block here and there. But, once we got the offense going, I didn’t think they were going to stop us.”

That’s when the Eagles got the long touchdown catch from Fleming, who shined on both sides of the ball in the win, and tied things up at 6-6 headed into the locker room at halftime.

Ricci said the Colonels came out with a different defensive look than he’d seen on film, which the Ea- gles had taken advantage of with Fleming’s touchdown. At halftime, he said if they were going to stay in that defense, the coaching staff had figured out how to exploit it with Granado’s arm – but, instead, they reverted back to their normal defense in the third quarter, a blessing for Bo Manor’s run game. From there, it was all about establishing the run, which Bo Manor did just enough to pull off the upset victory.

“Our coaches have done a really good job adjusting all year,” Ricci said. “And our offensive coaching staff did a really great job in this game.” This week, the Eagles travel over 200 miles to Frostburg to face off against the unbeaten Mountain Ridge Miners (10-0) in the state quarterfinals.

“It’ll be a really cool experience,” Ricci said of his team’s date with Mountain Ridge. “We’re going out there and playing with house money. We’re going to go out there and play our hardest. … Our kids battle every single day for us and that’s all we can ask for.”