maly, too: Drake Overcomes 24-Point Deficit, Wins In Overtime, 34-27

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Drake Overcomes 24-Point Deficit, Wins In Overtime, 34-27

Drake's football team overcame a 24-point deficit to defeat Marist, 34-27, in overtime Saturday at Drake Stadium. The Bulldogs’ offense struggled early before hitting its stride late in the third quarter to scored 31 unanswered points.

“I’m really fired for our team right now,” coach Chris Creighton said. “This was a football and a life lesson. You find yourself in positions where it’s hard to believe and our football team believed they were going to win. There’s deep power in that.”

That belief helped improve the Bulldogs to a perfect 5-0 in the Pioneer Football League and 6-2 overall. Marist dropped to 1-3 in the PFL and 2-5 overall with the loss.

Mike Piatkowski (Wheaton, Ill.) engineered Drake’s comeback victory as he led the Bulldogs back from a 27-3 deficit, to add another impressive performance to his career totals. The fifth-year senior rewrote the record book again, with two touchdown passes to give him 68 career touchdown tosses, passing Ira Vandever in the Drake record books. The quarterback was 32-for-54, with 373 yards, and one interception through the air, and had 28 yards scrambling.

“No one will ever know how good Mike [Piatkowski] is,” Creighton said. “You can look at stats all you want – but given the game that he called – he’s a great quarterback.”

Gary Scott, Jr. (Forsyth, Ill.) gashed the top rushing defense in the conference, finding the end zone twice – including the game-winning score – to complement his 90 yards on 19 carries. Joey Orlando (Park Ridge, Ill.) was the top passing target for Piatkowski, catching nine passes for 103 yards, one touchdown, including a key two-point conversion. Nick Rosa (Owasso, Okla.) also caught eight passes for 89 yards, and Grahm Butler (Brock, Neb.) added 72 receiving yards and a touchdown.

John Hugunin (Oswego, Ill.) led the Bulldogs defensively, adding 12 tackles to his team-leading total, including joining Brandon Coleman (Cary, Ill.) in sacking Marist’s quarterback in overtime. Tyler Moorehead (Mason City) sealed the victory in overtime, recording a sack on fourth down. Moorehead had six tackles in the game.

“It’s always a team effort but Tyler Moorehead is one of our leaders,” Creighton said. “I think he got in there and got that sack at the end. He’s another special player and everyone hears him loud and clear by the way that he plays.”

Facing a 24-point, 27-3, deficit late in the third quarter, Drake finally found the end zone with 3:35 remaining on the clock as Piatkowski found Butler on a 22-yard strike. The same combination connected for the two-point conversion to ignite the Bulldogs’ comeback.

With momentum in tow, the defense forced a three-and-out and the Bulldogs drove down the field to bring themselves within one possession at 27-19. Scott capped a 63-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown run. The ensuing two-point point was converted with Piatkowski finding a wide-open Orlando in the corner of the end zone.

Drake tied the game, 27-27, with 7:07 left in the fourth quarter, to erase the Red Foxes lead. Set up by a Mike Ratelle (Edina, Minn.) hit to separate the ball from the Marist receiver on fourth down, the Bulldogs drove 66-yards down the field with the drive being capped by Piatkowski’s record-breaking touchdown connection to Orlando from 17 yards out. Piatkowski once again converted the two-point conversion, this time finding Kevin Marshall.

After holding the Marist offense once again, Drake gave itself an opportunity to take the lead with time expiring. The offense moved the ball down to the 4-yard line, before giving Cam Bohnert (Edmond, Okla.) a 22-yard field goal try with 10 seconds remaining in regulation. The kick, however, narrowly missed to the right of the goal post, sending the game to overtime.

In overtime, the Bulldogs’ offense gained possession first and put pressure back on Marist after scoring a touchdown to give Drake their first lead in the game, 34-27. Scott rushed for his second touchdown of the day on first-and-goal from the 2-yard line to give the Blue and White the advantage. Drake’s defense sealed the comeback with a goal line stand, coming up with a pair of sacks to neutralize the Red Foxes’ scoring bid and preserve Drake’s perfect PFL record.

Marist took the early advantage with a long 74-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Reilly to Mike Rios, to put the Red Foxes up, 7-0, with 10:29 remaining in the first quarter. The pass was the longest play that the Drake defense has given up this season and also marked the first time that an opponent had scored first in a game since Morehead State had a lead on September 22.

Drake cut into Marist’s lead on the following drive, concluding with a 27-yard field goal by Bohnert, to make the score, 7-3. The long 15-play, 65-yard drive spanned almost six minutes of game clock. Bohnert’s field goal attempt was enabled by an impressive play by Piatkowski, in which he scrambled to the left sideline before finding Butler on the 12-yard line.

Bohnert missed a 32-yard field goal attempt early in the second quarter as another promising Bulldogs drive stalled in the red zone. The Marist defense continued to get pressure on Piatkowski, forcing the signal caller out of his comfort zone. While Piatkowski did convert long passing plays on third-and-long multiple times on the drive, he was unable to find a receiver inside the Marist 20, setting up the field goal attempt.

Marist increased its lead with 10:01 remaining in the second quarter, ending their drive with a 3-yard touchdown run by Max Jacques, to give the Foxes a 14-3 lead. The scoring drive was once again set up by a long passing play, this time a 40-yard completion to Rios to begin the scoring drive.

Drake threatened following the Marist scoring drive in the second quarter, but came up empty from the 1-yard line. Although Piatkowski once again set the offense up in scoring position, a pair of rushes from the 1-yard were stonewalled by the Red Foxes to kill the drive on downs.

The Bulldogs’ offensive woes continued late in the half as another promising drive come up empty despite a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. This time the Bulldogs could not execute a handoff on an end around play in which Rosa ran into Piatkowski, causing a fumble that was recovered by Marist at their own 8-yard line. The Red Foxes elected to run out the clock with 28 seconds remaining in the half, heading to the break with a 14-3 lead over the Bulldogs.

The momentum continued for Marist in the second half with a fumble recovery on the kickoff at the 16-yard line. The Red Foxes took three plays to find the end zone on a nine-yard pass to Joe Tralli, increasing the Bulldogs’ deficit, 20-3.

Jacques continued to gash the Drake defense in the third quarter, scoring his second touchdown on the afternoon to give Marist a commanding 27-3 lead with less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter. His one-yard rush concluded a 37-yard drive that followed Jack Marston’s interception of Piatkowski.

The Bulldogs will have a full week to savor the remarkable come-from-behind victory before resuming PFL action on Nov. 3 at Dayton. Kickoff between Drake and the Flyers is set for noon, CST.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for communications].

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.