Unbeaten Ridge Football Survives in Overtime

Story and photos by Terry Boudreau

The Ridge Red Devils improved their record to 3-0, and proved their mettle, with a hard-fought victory over gridiron opponent Linden at home on Friday night.

With the team's offensive weapons depleted by the loss of fullback Liam Derkasch to injury, the Devils were going to have to pull out all the stops against the formidable Linden High School Tigers.
 
Even with a final winning score of 20-14, Ridge never gained the lead in the four quarters of the game, falling back to trail 7-0 in the first quarter. But with only 12 seconds remaining in the first, Ridge Quarterback Conor Hughes put Ridge on the scoreboard with a 37-yard pass to Ryan Bell.
  
Both teams came up strong defensively in the second and third quarters and the score remained 7-7 until Linden would score on a 30-yard run in the fourth quarter.
  
Ridge worked the ball down the field and when the drive seemed stalled, a pass interference call kept the drive alive. A double pass from Hughes to Chris Mueller and from Mueller to a streaking Nick Franzese put the Red Devils within scoring range. Hughes took the ball in from the 8-yard line for the touchdown tying the score at 14-14.

With just 1:40 to go in the game, Ridge turned over the ball to Linden. The Ridge defense stood up stopped Linden — sending the game into overtime as the game spilled beyond 9:20 p.m.
 
Linden had the ball first and went 4 downs, to be stuffed by the Devil defense. When the Ridge offense took a turn, the plan was to get in range for Hughes to kick a field goal.  But Devils Head Coach Bill Tracy gave the offense one last shot and they took advantage of it.

Hughes took the snap and faded to his left and tossed a laser to Ryan Bell in the end zone. The game was over, with Ridge surviving to win 20-14 following a very physical battle.

"We practiced the play (the double pass) this week," said Chris Mueller. "We figured we had to find ways to put points on the board. I caught the pass, looked down field and Nick Franzese was wide open. I thought I overthrew it a little bit, but Nick made a great catch.

"Will Vogt and Ryan Bell had some great blocks on the play that helped me get that ball down field," Mueller said.

A 'war' against 'physical,' 'fast,' and 'well-coached' team

It was a war out there," Mueller continued. "They were a very physical team, very fast and very well coached."

"They were battling all the way," said Ryan Bell.  "They are a great team and really physical. They got on us early, but we battled back and ended up with the win. Conor (Hughes) threw me a great ball and I knew I had to catch it. Everyone has faith in me and Conor and Coach (Tracy) wanted to go for it there."

"Crazy game," was the description by Ridge head coach Bill Tracy. "The kids made some plays when they had to and they played hard. The defense played outstanding in the second half. Except for the one drive when (Linden) scored, we got 3 or 4 '3 and outs' including a '4 and out' in overtime.  

"The defense and the special teams kept us in it," Tracy said. "We didn't have our 'A' game offensively tonight, but Linden had a lot to do with that. They were all over us, a real big, physical team, a very good squad. It was a classic game."