Ansonia takes control of WOAC and Preble Shawnee…with old-time football

Impressively, Ansonia won its eighth straight game by playing aggressive, ball-control football and proving to undefeated Preble Shawnee that you can’t win if you can’t score. And you can’t score a goal if you don’t have the ball.

Ansonia, OH – I’m not sure they actually keep stats like time of possession in Ansonia football – along with some other unimportant details.

But one thing is for sure: The Preble Shawnee Arrows, their latest victim, probably realized on the trip back to Preble County Saturday night that we didn’t have that much ball.

And they didn’t do much with it once they had it.

The Ansonia Tigers (8-1, 8-0 in WOAC) ensured they controlled the ball, the game and the scoreboard en route to a convincing and frustrating 24-13 victory over the previously unbeaten Arrows (8 – 1, 7-1 in the WOAC).

They used the ground game…a slow, methodical, frustrating way of countering left, right, and astray, and it’s four-down territory everywhere on the field. The way Ansonia plays is an anomaly in modern football culture, and they like it. They wouldn’t want it any other way.

“The way we play sticks in your mind,” Tigers coach Adam Hall said after the game. “I’ve been telling the guys all week that we need long drives so they wonder how many times they’re going to get the ball in the rest of the game. That’s a big deal because with six minutes left, they’re not sure they’re going to get the ball back… another chance to score.”

And as it turns out, it worked for Hall and the Tigers on Saturday, too.

They scored first at 5:26 of the first quarter on a four-down run by veteran workhorse Zane Henderson, who touched the ball 26 times over the course of the game…and was ready to do more. The scoring drive lasted 11 plays and covered 65 yards and nearly six minutes. And yes, Preble must have wondered…will we ever get the ball?

When they did, they did nothing with it and forced Ansonia to do something and that’s what they did. They fumbled on the first play from scrimmage and Preble Shawnee recovered the ball around the 35-yard line as the first third ended.

This time the Arrows did something, as running back Isaac Blankenship scored from close to the goal line, and the extra point gave Preble a 7-6 lead and their only lead of the game just seconds into the second quarter.

Ansonia answered immediately at 9:07 when quarterback Layne Bowman, with some skill in the backfield, moved the Preble defense to the right while he went left…32 yards, untouched, to put the Tigers back on top, 12-7. Ansonia didn’t have a decisive game, opting for the 2-point conversion after every score and that 12-7 lead would hold until halftime. But against a team like Preble Shawnee, which averages 50 points per game, it was poor.

Ansonia started the second half and the Tigers’ defense again quickly shut down the Arrows and forced them to punt. At 8:41, Ansonia took the ball and began another arduous, long march up the field, culminating with a four-yard touchdown plunge at 3:29 by Jacob Schmitmeyer. The two-point conversion wasn’t good again and the Tigers had some breathing room at 18-7. But only for a few games.

On the ensuing kickoff and possession, Preble Shawnee finally pushed the Ansonia defense downfield, and quarterback Brody Morton threw a pass that his teammate Reece Smith tipped over Jacob Schmitmeyer onto himself, came down with the ball, and made it 2-0 points scored: 33. In the hunt for points, the Arrows aimed for two points, were stopped just before the goal line, but were only narrowly in the lead at 18:13.

As it turned out, Ansonia’s best defense was offense – a big problem when behind. And as the fourth quarter began, Ansonia was busy with the football again, driving to within the Preble Shawnee ten-yard line before running aground. On fourth-and-2 down, Preble stopped Zane Henderson just before the first down at 6:46.

The Arrows took the lead and needed a touchdown to advance, but Ansonia’s defense still had something to say.

“Our defense played as well as we could,” Adam Hall said later. “Or at least as good as we could ask them to play.” And with four minutes to play, they chose the perfect time to justify his confidence.

Facing his own fourth-and-1 from the 24-yard line, Preble opted for an unimaginative dive right into the teeth of the Ansonia interior line. The Tigers held, the ball was turned over on downs and Preble knew they probably wouldn’t get the ball back.

In fact, Ansonia drove the remaining 24 yards with 2:26 left and 66 seconds left on the clock when Henderson broke the line from a yard out and extended the lead to 24-13. Of course the PAT attempt was no use, but with a minute to go he was up 11 points and no one cared.

As it turned out, Preble got the ball back, but a couple of Hail Mary throws downfield were incomplete, a third one was intercepted, and that’s how the game ended.

As Hall said, it worked for them – keeping the ball, running out the clock and denying the opposing offense chances.

“That’s how we’ve been playing since coach Hoening [Eugene Hoening) was here.  That’s what we’ve named the field for him,”  he smiled.  Hall learned his football under Hoening as a player at Ansonia.

They never threw the ball all night – didn’t need to.

“We actually did try to throw the ball once (at the end of the first half), and we got sacked,”  he smiled.  “I think there’s a misconception that we can’t throw, but Layne (Bowman) has thrown it well when we’ve asked him to do it.  But we do what we do well enough to be confident with staying with it.  We want to get you outnumbered and outmanned, and I think we did that tonight.”

The fans loved it…have always loved it as a matter of the only football that most have ever known.  Again, in a day where people in the stands demand the ball be thrown, and a more entertaining style of football, people at Ansonia just appreciate winning.

“It’s not pretty but we win with it,”  said end zone camera operator Alex Peace.

“It’s hard-nosed football, and we like it,”  added Don Barnt, who lives in Greenville.

“The people here, and our players, are bought in,”  adds Hall.  “Fans, parents…they’re bought in.  It’s not like that everywhere.  No one complains about who has stats, or who get touches, or who scores.  We’ve got guys who are just happy to be on the field.  Actually, I wouldn’t keep stats if we didn’t have to.  The conference (WOAC) wants to keep them so we do, but I don’t think the players would care at all if we didn’t.”

There is no more colloquial football setting than what they have at Ansonia.  The people are friendly, appreciative of media coverage, and fans and players alike go out of their way to make a first impression memorable.  Zane Henderson was right in the middle of the people, afterwards…enjoying the win, without concern for how many carries, how many touchdowns, or how many yards.

“I don’t know how many times I carried the ball,”  he smiled.  “But that’s how we play.  We want to win every play.  We’re a machine…we play like a machine.  Five yards, three yards…that’s all we need.  You can feel the frustration from the other team, and it makes you want to hold it more, and longer.”

At 8-1, few people believed that Henderson and the Tigers would have enough after last year’s regional run, and subsequent graduation losses, to be back in this position again.

“It’s our seniors,”  he assures.  “We have a big job and big shoes to fill.  We have to show the underclassmen how to keep it going…how to be leaders.  I think seniors are more important to this team than they might be with others. I’m sure of it.  We love playing football here.  It’s a great community.  The people are great.  They love football and they love us, and that’s what keeps us going.  We just love it.”

For good reason.

It’s a well-kept secret that few suspect in this day.  And everyone’s fine with it in 45303 – all 1,200.

Old-time football.