Late touchdown propels Baxter football past BGM

BROOKLYN — Another dropped pass was not on Jake Travis’ mind late in the game with his team down four points in the final seconds.

“I was so nervous,” Travis said. “I saw the ball in the air and I had my hands ready. I was hoping not to drop it again. I tried not to think about the earlier drop.”

Travis did not drop the final pass attempt by Cody Damman and his 11-yard TD catch with 6 seconds left in the game put the Bolts in front for good during a 46-44 road win over BGM on Friday.

Class 8-man No. 10 Baxter remained unbeaten and survived its first test of the season during a wet and rainy District 7 contest.

“That was just character. And Cody Damman is a dude,” Baxter head football coach Rob Luther said. “He can make plays and we made one more play than they did.

“But we can’t make that play if Mahoney doesn’t make his play on the pick.”

Evan Mahoney made the defensive play of the game when he picked off BGM quarterback Jacob Maurer with around 2 minutes to go in the game.

The Bears led 44-40 at that point. They took possession of the football at their own 29-yard line with 3:55 to play, but Mahoney snagged his first interception of the season to give the Bolts a final chance at the win.

“We only had one timeout left so we could only give up one more first down,” Luther said. “I was just hoping our offense could get one more shot. We were still pretty explosive even though we couldn’t throw it that well.”

Damman made one final throw when the Bolts needed it. The ball was wet and the field surface wasn’t ideal on a rainy night, but Damman got the ball to Travis for the game-winning touchdown.

The play wasn’t designed to go to Travis, but BGM covered up the Bolts’ crossing routes to the right side of the field. Travis simply found some open grass after Damman scrambled from right to left.

“We drew up a play to go to the right. I rolled out that way, but they blanketed that side of the field,” Damman said. “There was nothing there. I just tried to run back the other way, do some playground stuff, and I found JT open in the back of the end zone.”

Baxter converted a third and three and a fourth and four on the drive to set up the final play. The Bolts had a first down at the 11-yard and the touchdown came two plays later.

The rest of the game saw plenty of drama.

BGM scored first as Maurer took advantage of a short field and scored from 1-yard out.

Damman’s 2-yard TD run with 2:56 to go in the first tied the game at 8-all and it stayed even after one quarter.

The Bears converted two fourth downs on their next drive and Maurer scored from 1 yard out on fourth and goal to put BGM in front with 8:19 to play in the second.

The Bolts came right back to go in front on their next possession. On third and 10, Damman hit Travis on a sideline throw that Travis took all the way down inside the 5-yard line. He scored one play later.

BGM (3-2, 2-2) got into another fourth down and short on its next possession, but Treyton Travis came up with a big defensive play to halt the drive.

That set up Baxter’s next score, which was a 30-yard TD run straight up the middle by Damman. That made it 22-14 with 4 minutes to play until halftime.

Damman finished with 242 yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries. He averaged 9.3 yards per carry in the win.

The game featured two of the best 8-man quarterbacks in the state. Damman came into the game with 632 passing yards, 505 rushing yards and 24 total touchdowns. Maurer totaled 693 passing yards, 797 rushing yards and 27 total TDs.

“Maurer is good, but coming in I thought our passing game was better,” Luther said. “Unfortunately, the weather made it so we couldn’t even really grip the ball to throw it.

“Maurer is a phenomenal player. If Cody is not the best QB in 8-man, he’s one of them. He can throw it, but we didn’t have many opportunities.”

Another big defensive play by the Bolts set up another TD. This time, Perrin Sulzle intercepted Maurer along the Bolts’ sideline.

The offense started at the Bears’ 20-yard line and Jake Travis scored on a short TD run later to put his team in front 28-14.

Jake Travis finished with 31 rushing yards and two scores on 11 carries and added 124 yards and a TD on nine catches.

With 1:17 to play until halftime, BGM scored a TD that was called back because of an illegal man downfield penalty. And on fourth and five, Devan Fredregill applied pressure to Maurer and forced an incompletion.

Baxter led 28-14 at halftime and went up 40-22 in the second half.

Before that, Luther gambled again on fourth down and eight from his own 22-yard line and BGM snagged an interception.

The Bears took advantage of another short field and Maurer eventually scored on third and goal from the 1-yard line.

“We have not snapped a punt yet this year, and the conditions weren’t great to do it obviously,” Luther said. “They dropped their best player back to receive so we just didn’t want to give him the ball. We took our shot.

“And if the rain isn’t a factor, we are going anyway because we have plays, but we struggled to throw the ball. That’s who we are. We are going to take our four downs. But it did hurt us tonight. No doubt about that.”

The Bolts’ regained momentum though after Damman hit Jake Travis for 16 yards on third and 15 on the team’s next drive. Damman followed that up with a 17-yard run and scored two plays later after two more runs.

BGM closed the gap to 34-28 on its next possession after Maurer hit Shamus Keller for a 35-yard TD on fourth and five. That came with 1:11 to go in the third.

The Bolts went back in front by double-digits early in the fourth, but BGM’s Tate Martin snagged an interception that he returned for a TD to close the gap to 40-36 with 8:55 to play in the game.

“It was a bad play call. We hit that one earlier in the game on the other side,” Luther said. “I really liked the call, and them getting a pick six did go through my mind. We missed a block and it was a bad play call, but we overcame it.”

Luther went for it again on fourth and long on the Bolts’ next possession. The incomplete pass set up the Bears at the Baxter 23-yard line.

BGM scored about 1 minute later on a 15-yard TD run by Maurer. That put BGM in front 44-40.

Baxter gave the ball back to BGM with 3:55 to play in the game. The Bolts went for it on fourth and five, but Jake Travis gained only four yards on his catch.

With less than four minutes to play, BGM started at its own 29-yard line. A few minutes later, Mahoney flipped momentum with the interception.

“There was a lot panic with us being down four and them having the ball. I didn’t really believe at first but then we got them into a third and five and it was just about making a stop at that point,” Damman said. “That was a huge pick. That was his best defensive play of the year so far.”

Starting from their own 20-yard line, Baxter converted a third and three and fourth and four on the final drive. The second conversion and eventual game-winning TD pass went to Jake Travis. Before that, Jake Travis tried to create havoc on defense.

“I was nervous. We just tried to make a play up front, get a sack, do something,” Jake Travis said. “Coach Luther told us before the game to be the guy to make a play. Evan was the one on defense and I guess I was the one on offense. It was basically go hard or go home.”

Jake Travis led the defense with 11 tackles, four sacks and five tackles for loss.

Fredregill tallied 7.5 tackles and three tackles for loss, Trice Clapper added 6.5 tackles and three tackles for loss and Damman had 7.5 tackles. Mahoney registered six tackles and the big pick, Treyton Travis had three tackles and one fumble recovery and Sulzle snagged the other pick.

The Bolts lost inside linebacker Cody Samson to an injury early in the second quarter. That forced Cainan Travis to take over inside and he finished with a career-high 9.5 tackles. Samson had four tackles before he left the game.

“Devan Fredregill and Trice Clapper were great on the line,” Luther said. “Cainan Travis had to play inside linebacker when Cody Samson got hurt and for a sophomore who hasn’t played that spot a lot, he handled Maurer really well.”

Maurer finished with 205 passing yards, one TD and two picks and rushed for 145 yards and four scores on 30 carries. Keller caught 10 passes for 113 yards and a TD.

“We know we are at least a 2 seed now,” Luther said. “It was a big game. We hadn’t been tested so to be able to do this on the road, in the rain, was big for us.

“We missed some tackles. They made some plays. They’re a really good football team. They will be one of the best 3s in the state in the playoffs, but I’m proud of our kids.”

Notes: Damman did not get caught up in his “one-on-one” battle with Maurer. He threw for 131 yards, one TD and two picks in the win. “There’s so much more to our team and to our goals than a QB vs. a QB,” Damman said. “This was a huge win. We really need this one to prove to ourselves we can beat a team of this caliber.” … Samson was injured two different times in the game. He was eventually carted off the field with 10:13 to play in the first half.