BAINBRIDGE – A Walton team starting the season 0-2 seems almost unfathomable. Yet, the Warriors were staring that unlikely result in the face with 3:29 left in Friday’s game at Bainbridge-Guilford.
The Warriors, who suffered a last-minute defeat to Sidney the week before, completed a perfectly executed drive, and scored with 13.2 seconds remaining to edge the Bobcats, 30-26.
The Warriors moved 53 yards on 10 plays, and won the game on their only pass completion of the game. Sophomore Dalton Kaminsky fired a strike to Isaac Wacha, who was dragging across the endzone for the winning points.
“Dave Gardepe, who calls the plays for us, did a heck of a job,” said Walton head coach Jim Hooever. “He called that last play, and it worked. Our prime receiver on that play is actually out in the flat, and that guy (Wacha) is just an extra guy to clear out. Kaminsky did a great job seeing him, and he hit him.”
While the end result of the game was typical for Walton – who have won every matchup with B-G over the last 30 years – the formula for success was atypical.
Bainbridge-Guilford (1-1) launched itself to a 20-8 lead in the second quarter. Its ground game was especially effective up the middle with fullback Billy Holden, and senior tailback Dakota Vandermark was elusive and untouchable once he broke past the initial line of scrimmage.
An 11-yard first-down completion from Ryan Porter to Austin Bauerle on a third-and-nine extended B-G’s opening drive. Holden, crashing through an improved offensive line, moved the Bobcats to the Walton nine, and Porter covered the rest of the distance on a quarterback keeper around the right end.
Walton immediately responded with its own score as Christian Howe capped an 11-play drive running in from nine yards. Each team’s successful two-point conversions left the game tied at 8-8.
Vandermark immediately put his team back in front. On an off-tackle trap, he raced 54 yards to paydirt. B-G stopped Walton on downs on the ensuing possession, and Vandermark popped another run to paydirt. Running the same off-tackle play that scored his first touchdown, Vandermark advanced into the secondary, and the Warriors’ defense quickly gave up on the chase as the senior back pulled away on a 66-yard run.
“We came in with a great game plan, and the line did an outstanding job,” said B-G coach Tim Mattingly.
Those long runs were consequently shut down consistently the rest of the way – except for one play – as Walton’s ball-control offense assumed control. An 11-play drive before halftime ended in Dylan Hornbeck’s six-yard TD run cutting the margin to four by halftime. Walton took the lead for the first time early in the fourth when Nick Shiels followed his lead blocker en route to a 22-yard score.
B-G was held to just one first down in the thid quarter, and had little working on the offensive end until Vandermark struck again. The Bobcats were faced with a fourth-and-two after three straight Holden runs up the middle. Vandermark got the call on the same play that yielded great results earlier in the game, and gave his club the 26-24 lead darting around defenders on his way to a 42-yard score.
“We figured they would bring everyone to shut down the fullback, and we thought that maybe we could catch them with the off-tackle trap, and we did,” Mattingly said, “but talk about a game of inches.”
Mattingly watched anxiously from the sidelines as Walton bit off chunks of yards on its way to the winning score. “You want to see us get a stop in that situation and you see the time clicking off,” the B-G coach said. “Who would have thought that Walton would have passed for the final score? One of us had to make a play at the end, and my hat is off to them, they did it.”
Vandermark rushed for 185 yards on just 10 carries, and Holden had 60 yards rushing.
Walton’s Howe finished with 101 yards, and the Warriors amassed 294 yards on the ground.
Score by quarters
Walt. 8 8 8 6–30
B-G 14 6 0 6–26
Scoring Summary
