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ROSSVILLE 28, SILVER LAKE 27 (OT)
For the 3rd time in the past 4 meetings, four quarters of football wasn’t enough to decide who would win the War on 24 between Silver Lake & Rossville.
The 112th meeting between the two schools started 30 minutes later than scheduled due to a scoreboard outage at Rossville. Unfortunately, the scoreboard never did come back on as time had to be kept on the field by the officials for the entire game, but that didn’t stop the two schools from renewing their fierce rivalry.
Rossville scored first thanks to their defense as sophomore Landen Lewis scooped up a dropped snap and took the fumble recovery 48 yards to paydirt to give the Bulldawgs a 7-0 lead with 9:30 to play in the first quarter.
Freshman QB Kipton Kruger came on in relief for Silver Lake’s second possession and the Eagles, with the help of two completions of 29 and 24 yards to Dayne Johnson, promptly marched down the field 85 yards on 8 plays to tie the game at 7 on a Paxton Willett two yard run with 4:19 left in the 1st stanza.
Silver Lake had two more scoring opportunities in the first half, but one drive was halted by an interception by Rossville’s Conner Bush in the end zone and the other was ended by an Eagle fumble inside the Bulldawg 5 yard line a few seconds before halftime.
The Eagles outgained Rossville by over 200 total yards in the first half and despite that and no offensive points, the Bulldawgs went into the locker room tied with Silver Lake at 7-7.
Rossville came out firing in the 3rd quarter as senior QB Canann Mitchell threw a dime on the far sideline to wide receiver Cameron Miller for a 35 yard score to give the Dawgs a 14-7 lead.
Silver Lake responded to tie the game early in the 4th quarter at 14-14 with a 95 yard drive capped by a one yard plunge by sophomore Dom Monhollon.
The Bulldawgs regained the lead on a crazy special teams play as the Eagles sent a player late onto the field and before he could get set, the ball was snapped over the punter’s head. Brady Hogle, the Silver Lake punter, retreated to the 10, grabbed the ball and was able to punt the ball away, however Cameron Miller charged the short punt, caught it and returned the pigskin 35 yards for the touchdown, giving Rossville a 21-14 advantage.
Once again, Silver Lake had an answer, this time a 77 yard drive that began with 4:32 to play in the game and ended with Bryson Burgos scoring from the 1 yard line with :06 remaining. Mason VanVactor drilled the PAT to tie the contest at 21-21, and for the 3rd time in 4 years and for the 2nd straight season, the War on 24 went to overtime.
In the extra session, the Eagles struck first on a 10 yard td pass from Kipton Kruger to Dayne Johnson to give Silver Lake their first lead of the night at 27-21. After a procedure penalty moved the Eagles back 5 yards for the extra point attempt, the Bulldawgs were able to get penetration into the backfield, deflecting the kick, causing it to miss wide left.
Rossville tied the game at 27-27 on a 5 yard run by Canann Mitchell setting up more drama as sophomore Austin Dohrman came on to attempt the game winning PAT. He knocked it straight through the uprights to give the Bulldawgs their first win over Silver Lake since 2021, breaking a three game skid to the Eagles, including two agonizing overtime losses.
Silver Lake outgained Rossville by 265 yards (460-195), but three turnovers by the Eagle offense and the punt return for a touchdown by Miller offset those numbers, propelling Rossville to the 28-27 overtime victory.
Dayne Johnson paced the Eagle offense with 12 receptions for 195 yards and a TD while Cameron Miller led Rossville with 6 catches for 99 yards and a score.
Rossville (1-0) will now head to St. Marys (1-0) next Friday while Silver Lake (0-1) travels to Seneca to face Nemaha Central (1-0), a game you can watch via the NEW Silver Lake Channel!
https://team1sports.com/mscrsn/silverlake/
You can go back and watch the Archive of the latest installment of the War on 24 on the New Silver Lake Channel. https://team1sports.com/mscrsn/silverlake/?B=2528100
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