SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Unassociated Press) — What seemed to be an insurmountable lead by the SOFA Newcomers on Sunday changed in the matter of only three minutes.
They can blame Pete Hendricks and Ian McGibboney for dropping them from a win to a tie.
After staking themselves to a 14-0 lead in the first half with some solid defense and forcing timely turnovers, the Newcomers’ fortunes reversed in what seemed to be the blink of an eye — late in the game.
Holding a seemingly insurmountable 35-19 lead with 3:30 to go in the game, the Old Guard moved the ball at will — with Larry Litle and Chris Brewer converting key fourth down plays — and opening up a nifty catch-and-run touchdown from Hendricks to McGibboney with two minutes to go. The conversion to Jack Phillips was good and the game stood at 35-27.
The onside kick failed, giving the Newcomers a chance to put the game away, but the Old Guard stalled on four downs, leaving 1:14 on the clock — and more than enough time for Hendricks to work his magic.
Starting from their own forty-yard line, the Old Guard had two quick incompletions to set up a third down. A Newcomers defender rushed in and attempted to sack Hendricks, but with some nifty cuts — and key downfield blocks — he scampered into the endzone to cut the deficit to two with 28 ticks remaining.
Jody Thomason made a nice catch for the two-point conversion, tying the game up at 35-35 and accounting for his second conversion of the day.
The Newcomers started their drive at midfield, getting a quick toss to Aaron Floyd to the thirty, but two straight incompletions ran out the clock.
They were able to attempt a field goal which was good, but a protest from Phillips was upheld contending that since each play for the Old Guard had been an eight-second runoff, that same rule should apply to the Newcomers. His protest was upheld after it was discovered that their third-down play with five seconds left inadvertently only took three seconds off the clock.
Jess scored her second touchdown in SOFA history off a nifty underhanded toss from the Newcomers quarterback to stake them to the afore-mentioned 35-19 lead.
But it was the only points they would get the rest of the way.
GAME NOTES: Today saw the largest number of newcomers in SOFA’s short history, with nine …… Game-time temperature was 30 degrees, but a swirling wind from the NE dropped the windchill to 22. Each team felt it as players were more bundled up than usual …… Next week’s game will begin at 11 a.m. due to two SOFA players needing to travel to Jefferson City to cover Jay Nixon’s inauguration as Missouri Governor …… This week’s tie is the first in SOFA history. Normally both teams would play an overtime but the fact the field goal was nullified post-game after a protest means the game ended in a draw.
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