Piper football pulls out the victory on final play of game against Eudora

Piper and Eudora played with the hunger of not getting their first loss of the season and that made for a dramatic fourth quarter on Friday evening at Piper.

My oh my, did Piper give its home fans something to talk about for years to come in the Pirates’ first home football game in two years.

Scintillating is the only way to describe Piper’s 26-23 victory.

With the clocking ticking down to 8 seconds, 7, seconds, 6 seconds, Piper junior quarterback Logan Ladish dropped back for the final play of the game at the 50.

“That last play I felt pressure behind me, I rolled out and saw the receiver downfield,” Ladish said. “I was just in a moment. I was hoping it was going to connect.”

It was senior wide receiver Ethan Walker breaking open near the 20. Ladish lofted a high spiral that dropped in Walker’s hands.

“I knew I had him beat,” Walker said. “Logan threw a perfect pass. Give credit to the O-line. They gave our quarterback a lot of time back there. They made it easy for us. We took advantage of it.”

Walker sprinted to the end zone for the game-winning touchdown as the clock wound down to 0:00. Piper improved to 2-0 in the Frontier League. Eudora dropped to 1-1.

In the last minute, it appeared Eudora was going to have a sparkling win. The Cardinals trailed 20-16 with 2:15 left. They started on their 35, but two long pass completions thrown by senior quarterback Gage Hayden put the ball at Piper’s 5 with more than a minute left.

The Pirates defense got stingy. Eudora faced fourth and less than a yard for the touchdown with just under a minute left. Behind a strong line push, senior running back Brayden Beerbower barreled in with 53 seconds left in the game.

Even though Piper needed to go 65 yards in under a minute and no timeouts left, Eudora coach Sean Hayden figured the game wasn’t over. These two teams have had classic battles before.

“It was going to end like that,” Hayden said. “It ended like that last year. That doesn’t define us. We played tough. They played tough. We lost. They aren’t going to have very many experiences like that in life.”

Piper put itself in a precarious spot several times throughout the game because of fumbles, a botched punt, a safety and untimely penalties.

“What’s funny about that is we have a theme of the week,” Piper coach Rick Pollard said. “Our theme this week was overcoming adversity. We did everything we could to lose that game, but we knew we could come back and fight through adversity.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Piper trailed until 5:29 was left in the game. The go-ahead touchdown came when Ladish briefly juggled the snap, scrambled and then hit senior Divante Herrig-Brittian in the end zone, making it 20-16.

As impressive as that play was, the game changer from this pair came 5 minutes earlier. The Pirates trailed 16-8. They faced fourth and 15 yards to go at Eudora’s 30.

Seemingly out of desperation, Ladish hit Herrig-Brittian in the back of the end zone for a crucial touchdown that pulled the Pirates to within two at 16-14.

An opportunistic defense and a long pass play sent Eudora into halftime with a 9-0 lead.

Early on, Piper was the dominant team, stopping Eudora on three plays in the game’s opening drive. The Pirates then methodically marched down the field, mixing the run with a couple of timely passes.

When Piper moved to Eudora’s 11 that’s when the Cardinals defense was in the right place at the right time, scooping up a fumble.

Midway through the second quarter, the Cardinals defense struck again, sacking Ladish in the end zone for a safety for the first points of the game with 7:19 left in the first half.

An interception by junior defensive back Kale Hammerschmidt set up the next score for Eudora. Hayden needed only one play to go 35 yards. He tossed a perfect pass over the middle to junior wide receiver Adrion Seals for a touchdown.

Hayden had a big first half for Eudora. He carried the ball five times for 75 yards. Beerbower also ran the ball well in the first half, carrying it 12 times for 60 yards.