Penalties lay Hawks low and good defense seals Falcons’ win
Despite the fact that the Olathe East Hawks had thrown the ball a grand total of two times in the first 46 minutes of the game, Olathe South’s Devin Hall was pretty sure a pass was coming.
He was right.
Hall, a senior defensive back, broke up a pass on the goal line with just over a minute remaining to help the Falcons hold on for a 14-6 win over the Hawks on Friday night at the College Boulevard Activity Center.
“It’s the last play. You don’t want to give anything up,” Hall said. “We practiced a lot of pass coverages all week because we didn’t want to get beat deep. And we knew we couldn’t let anything behind us on that last play.”
The ill-fated fourth-down attempt came immediately after an Olathe East touchdown run was wiped off the board thanks to offsetting personal foul penalties and a holding flag.
It was the second touchdown called back on the night for the Hawks (0-2). Zac Cahill’s 59-yard punt return was negated in the first quarter thanks to a flag. The Hawks also lost two fumbles and were plagued by penalties, especially in the first half.
“The offense has to generate more points, but you can’t do that when you’re turning the ball over or killing drives with penalties,” Olathe East coach Jesse Owen said. “I give Olathe South a lot of credit. … They won the game, but we’ve got to force teams to beat us. We can’t beat ourselves. It’s the worst kind of defeat you’ll ever experience, and that’s kind of what it feels like we’re doing right now.”
Olathe South (1-1) looked like it might run away with the game early. The Falcons recovered an East fumble on the seventh play of the game, and DaeVonte’ Nance promptly broke loose a 45-yard touchdown run. Two plays later, the Hawks fumbled it back to South on their own 12. Nance scored again, this time from 5 yards out, and the Falcons had a 14-0 lead with 6:31 to play in the first quarter.
But East buckled down defensively and pulled within eight points in the second quarter after an eight-play drive — highlighted by big Cahill runs — was capped by Brett Kelsh’s 1-yard touchdown.
Neither team scored again, but Olathe South’s 21-play drive that spanned parts of the third and fourth quarters was perhaps the biggest of the game.
East pinned the Falcons at their own 2 with 7:26 left on the clock. South then marched nearly the whole field, converting three third downs and a fourth down, before a 23-yard field goal clanked off the right goal post.
The drive ate up more than 10 minutes of game time, and East saw the ball just two more times.
“I told them before they took the first snap, eat the whole quarter and put six on the board,” Olathe South coach Jeff Gourley said. “Well, we ate the whole quarter, plus some. It was a great drive for a high school to run that many plays.”
Nance finished with 82 yards and two scores on 16 carries for the Falcons. Olathe East got 62 rushing yards from quarterback Connor O’Malley, 54 from Cahill and 52 from Braden Wingate.
This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Penalties lay Hawks low and good defense seals Falcons’ win."