LEROY – When the LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals and the Grand Meadow Superlarks meet on the football field you expect to see a great nine-man game.

Sunday, October 10, 1999

LEROY – When the LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals and the Grand Meadow Superlarks meet on the football field you expect to see a great nine-man game. Friday night was no exception.

The lead changed hands twice in the final two minutes.

Grand Meadow took the lead, 22-21, with 1 minute, 55 seconds remaining when, out of kick formation, Randy Breitbarth caught a shuttle pass, broke a couple of tackles, and went in for the two-point conversion. L-O came right back and scored the winning touchdown when Justin Stevens recovered teammate Eric Kottschade’s fumble in the endzone. L-O then made the two-point conversion for the 29-22 win.

"This was a really fun game," Grand Meadow coach Gary Sloan said. "That is what you usually get with a LeRoy-Grand Meadow tilt."

Kottschade took it to the Superlarks throughout the game. He carried the ball 31 times for 226 yards, one touchdown. LeRoy coach Stan Olson’s offense was relentless, using basically two plays out of a formation with a tightly bunched four-man backfield. The formation has the fullback lining up close behind the quarterback while the left and right halfbacks line up tightly behind, slanting towards the quarterback. The plays were sweep right with Kottschade carrying the ball and sweep left with Clint Hodgdon handling the pigskin. Hodgdon ran for 96 yards on 21 carries with two touchdowns. They had 325 total yards rushing.

"They get so many guys to the point of attack," Sloan said. "That offense is tough to stop, they double team the linebackers on those plays. We also missed a few too many tackles."

The Superlarks had the upper hand in the first quarter going in for the score on their first drive. On fourth down from the L-O 24 yard line, Ben Thorson hooked up with a leaping Brandon Stier on a post pattern for the score. Grand Meadow looked like they would score again in the first when it got first-and-goal at the 9 after a 31-yard pass from Thorson to Randy Breitbarth. Three rushes got the ball to the Cardinals’ 2. The Big Red then stuffed Thorson on an option play at the 2.

After moving the ball out of harms way and down the field the Cardinals turned the ball over on downs at the Grand Meadow 30.

But the Cardinals hit pay dirt on their next drive, a 63-yard, 12 plays affair. The Cardinals converted two fourth-and-shorts along the way. Hodgdon scored from 4 yards out. The time remaining in the half was 2:57.

Thorson then engineered a successful two-minute offense with a 65-yard drive for the go ahead touchdown. He again hooked up with Stier for the score. Stier faked a post pattern and cut for the left corner, where Thorson laid it right into his hands for the 26-yard TD play.

Thorson was 9-of-18 for 175 yards, two TDs and one interception. Stier had three receptions for 66 yards.

LeRoy-Ostrander scored on an 88-yard, nine-play drive on its second possession of the second half. On all nine plays of the drive they ran the ball.

"It was a physical game," Sloan said. "They were a little bigger than us and we were a little worn down in the second half."

At the 10:08 mark of the fourth quarter LeRoy began its next scoring drive. They went 64 yards on seven plays. Kottschade had gains of 23 and 19 yards on the drive and he then scored from 3 yards out.

Grand Meadow looked to even things up on its next drive but Stevens stopped that plan with an interception of a Thorson pass. Thorson then returned the favor by picking off a Ryan King pass, setting the Superlarks up at their own 35. Grand Meadow moved down the field, the big play a 29-yard ramble by Breitbarth down to the LeRoy 4. On fourth-and-goal, the Superlarks punched it in. Thorson went around the right end for the score. It looked like Sloan would settle for a tie when he sent out the kicking team. It was a fake however. The gamble paid off putting Grand Meadow up 22-21.

"We were tired and I thought they would have the upper hand in overtime," Sloan said, "that’s why I went for the fake. There was still a lot of football left to play."

All the Superlarks needed to do was stop Kottschade and Hodgdon. They couldn’t. On third-and-eight at the 31, Kottschade went around right end for 21 yards putting the Cardinals in field goal position at the 10.

"That play really hurt us," Sloan said.

On first-and-goal the Cardinals again swept right with Kottschade. He was stopped at the 2 and while he was falling down the ball came loose. Stevens was Johnny-on-the-spot, falling on the ball at the goal line.

"I was freaking when I saw the ball," Stevens said. "I just held on to it tight. I didn’t want it to get away from me."

L-O (5-1, 10th in the state’s nine-man rankings) now looks to ramble its way to a Southern Confederacy title in the next two weeks. The Big Red is tied for first place with Granada Huntley-East Chain-Martin Luther and Nicollet. Its final two games are on the road. They travel to Granada on Friday before heading to Glenville MEA Wednesday. Grand Meadow (2-4) hosts Glenville-Emmons next Friday as it looks to move up in the Section seedings with a win. Right now, they’re fourth of five teams.