Pandora-Gilboa’s Andrew Miller splits Ada defenders Trevor McGue (4), and Ian House (5) Friday night in Pandora.
Nate Reynolds | The Lima News
PANDORA – To use some baseball terminology, Pandora-Gilboa touched all the bases in a 34-14 football win over Ada on Friday night.
Offensively, defensively and emotionally the Rockets were in control. And all that happened with their starting quarterback being held out of action because of illness.
“We just had guys all over the place stepping up, making plays,” P-G coach Matt Hershey said.
Andrew Miller rushed for 172 yards on 25 carries and scored three touchdowns and Ben Burkholder, subbing for starting quarterback Cory Gerten, rushed for 128 yards on 16 carries. Together with the offensive line, they led a relentless running game which gained 317 yards on the night.
P-G (6-3, 6-1 Blanchard Valley Conference) also locked down Ada’s offense, which came into Friday night’s game as the highest-scoring team in the BVC (36.9 points a game) and the conference leader in total yardage (381 yards a game).
But the Bulldogs (7-2, 5-2 BVC) were held to less than half of their scoring average and had only 210 yards total offense.
“The defense played lights out. We held their offense in check for the most part,” Hershey said.
“Tonight was a team effort. I couldn’t be prouder of the way the offensive line did their job. The O-line got off the ball, the running backs ran hard and both my quarterbacks who played tonight made big plays,” he said.
It’s possible playing without their starting quarterback inspired the Rockets and drew them closer together.
“When we heard he was out we knew we had to step it up. The linemen, we knew we had to step it up,” senior offensive lineman Eli Luginbill said.
Miller said, “On Monday we realized we wouldn’t have our quarterback and we’d have to find a way to build and succeed without him. It did, I guess, bring us all together and we were able to step up and overcome.”
Pandora-Gilboa scored the first time it had the ball on a 10-yard touchdown run by Chase Meyer on a double reverse.
Ada tied the score on a 42-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Levi Green to Gavin Oldfield with 1:16 left in the first half to tie the game at 7-7.
But then, in possibly one of the turning points in the game, Nathan Walker returned Ada’s kickoff to the Bulldogs’ 39-yard line and on the first play Burkholder threw a touchdown pass to Meyer for a 14-7 lead.
“That gave us a big confidence boost that we could score. We got a few stops on defense and it just went on from there,” Burkholder said.
Ada tied the game at 14-14 early in the third quarter on a 28-yard touchdown run by Green but didn’t score again.
Pandora-Gilboa’s second-half touchdowns came on runs 5, 8 and 16 yards by Miller. It out-gained Ada 191 yards to 64 yards in the second half.
For part of the second half Burkholder went back to his usual position at running back and P-G lined up in a “heavy” backfield with three running backs and sophomore Layton Cannode at quarterback handing off to them.
“That was our goal all week – wear them down and make them hurt. We knew we could dominate,” Luginbill said. “Coach said, ‘Wear them out, go 100 percent and wear them down.’ ”
