Leipsic’s Colin Niese carries Ada’s Landon Simon (54) with him as he gets into the end zone during Friday’s Division VII regional quarterfinal at Ada.
Jessica Trinko | The Lima News
ADA — Most high school football players have to stew over a loss and plot their revenge for a year.
Leipsic only had to wait a week.
The 11th-seeded Vikings learned from their mistakes in a regular season-ending loss to Ada last week and came away from the same field with a 30-22 Division VI, Region 26 first-round victory against the No. 6-seeded Bulldogs on Friday. The Vikings scored four unanswered touchdowns and held off a late Ada rally in a playoff battle of Blanchard Valley Conference foes.
“The guys were all bought into being better and winning the next week,” said Leipsic freshman quarterback Marc Kirkendall, who completed 15 of 21 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns. “We lost the last one, but if we win this game, it doesn’t matter. The guys all knew that, so we knew we had to come out here and be a lot better.”
Next Friday, the Vikings (7-4) travel to third-seeded Gibsonburg, which beat Arlington, 21-6.
While Leipsic struggled to run in that 29-26 season finale, they churned for 182 rushing yards this time. Colin Niese had 95 yards rushing on 17 carries, including two rushing TDs. He also had a 43-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter. Ty Lammers added 15 carries for 62 yards and a TD.
“I think this is really good for us because we finally established the run and the pass,” Niese said. “So we can go both ways. For a while, there was just pass.”
The Vikings trailed by two at the half but grabbed the momentum in the third quarter. After Lammers scored on an 8-yard sweep on the first possession of the second half, the Vikings got the ball right back, pouncing on a fumble by Ada (8-3) at the 43 on the ensuing kickoff.
On the very next play, Kirkendall found Niese coming out of the backfield about 15 yards downfield. Niese did the rest of the work with a run after the catch for a 24-14 lead four minutes into the second half.
“What we didn’t do well enough is not turn the ball over,” said Ada coach Toby Smith, whose team had lost two fumbles in the game. “We had too many mistakes against a quality football team. When we get to this level, the playoffs, we can’t make those types of mistakes.”
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Kirkendall found Jayce Brecht in the back-left corner of the end zone and the Vikings went up 30-14 after their sixth failed two-point conversion try of the night.
Ada showed some resilience, though, scoring a minute and a half later on BVC co-player of the year Levi Green’s 46-yard pass to Kayleb Brinkman. The duo also connected on the two-point conversion try to cut Leipsic’s lead to eight points after earlier finding each other on a 62-yard touchdown play in the second quarter. Green finished the night 10 of 13 passing for 143 yards to go with his 16 rushes for 107 yards.
The Bulldogs successfully snuffed out Leipsic’s next drive, forcing Leipsic’s only punt of the game from the Ada 41, which landed at the 7 with 5:28 left on the clock. Ada couldn’t get the ball past the 20, though, and Leipsic took over on downs with 3:05 left in the game.
“We have excellent character in our senior class,” Leipsic coach Joe Kirkendall said. “They’re good football players, and they are better young men. There’s no sense of panic with our group, and that’s what it comes down to.”
For Ada, the season-ending loss was a disappointment, but the playoff experience showed how far the Bulldogs had come in rebuilding their culture, Smith said.
“For these kids, we’re so proud of where we’ve come from in 2020 when this team was extinct,” Smith said. “And all of a sudden, these kids started to decide that they want to see this thing change into something that we’ve got today, and we’re very proud.”
Leipsic 30, Ada 22
Leipsic Ada
23 First downs 13
383 Total yards 294
182 Rushing yards 151
201 Passing yardage 143
15-21-0 Passing 10-14-0
2-2 Fumbles-Lost 3-2
1-42 Punts 1-31
2-25 Penalties 7-57
Score by quarters:
Leipsic 6 6 12 6 — 30
Ada 7 7 0 8 — 22
First quarter
A-Kaine Fisher 34 run (Andrew Allen kick), 9:51
L-Colin Niese 7 run (pass failed), 3:21
Second quarter
A-Kayleb Hickman 62 pass from Levi Green (Andrew Allen kick), 7:34
L-Colin Niese 4 run (pass failed), 3:14
Third quarter
L-Ty Lammers 8 run (pass failed), 8:48
L-Colin Niese 43 pass from Marc Kirkendall (pass failed), 8:35
Fourth quarter
L-Jayce Brecht 26 pass from Marc Kikendall (pass failed), 11:54
A-Kayleb Hickman 46 pass from Levi Green (Hickman from Green), 10:25
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
