maly, too: 32-29 Victory At Jacksnville Gives 'We Will' Bulldogs a Share of Pioneer Football League Championship

Saturday, November 17, 2012

32-29 Victory At Jacksnville Gives 'We Will' Bulldogs a Share of Pioneer Football League Championship

The mantra for the Drake football team all season was "We Will" and for the Bulldogs [8-3 overall, 7-1 in the Pioneer Football League] their come-from-behind 32-29 victory at Jacksonville [7-4, 5-3 PFL] Saturday completed the mission as the squad captured a share of its second consecutive conference title and sixth conference championship in program history.

Drake moved into a tie with Butler for a share of the PFL crown at 7-1 in the league. The week before, Drake defeated Butler, 45-20, to put itself in position to win back-to-back league titles.

The successive crowns marked the first for the Bulldogs since Drake won the Missouri Valley Conference four straight years from 1928-31.

The outcome of the game came down to the wire as a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns helped the Bulldogs erase a 22-17 deficit to hold a 32-22 lead with 9:53 to play.

A two-yard touchdown by Jacksonville's Keith Dawson with 2:53 left in regulation cut Drake's advantage to 32-29.

Armed with a full complement of timeouts, the Dolphins held the Bulldogs to a three-and-out to get the ball back with 2:04 to play.

Jacksonville scored 15 fourth quarter points to put Bulldog fans on edge, but the Drake defense came through in the final two minutes of the game to squash a potential game changing by forcing three straight incomplete passes with the last being broken up by senior defensive lineman Brandon Coleman (Cary, Ill.).

The triumph was the first for the Bulldogs over the Dolphins in Jacksonville since 2006 and the first for coach Chris Creighton

Senior quarterback Mike Piatkowski (Wheaton, Ill.) completed 25-of-34 passes for 277 and a pair of touchdowns for Drake. With his efforts on the day, he surpassed 10,000 passing yards in his distinguished career.

Drake's leading ground gainer was sophomore Gary Scott (Forsyth, Ill.) with 55 yards and two touchdowns, while senior Kevin Marshall (Glen Elynn, Ill.) hauled in 11 passes for 110 yards and one touchdown to pace the Bulldogs' receivers.

Defensively Drake was paced by a seven-tackle effort from senior Jake Underwood (Cary, Ill.), while junior Travis Merritt (Johnston, Iowa) registered eight tackles for the defense's balanced effort with two sacks and three tackles for loss as the Bulldogs recorded 10 tackles in the Dolphins backfield.

The Bulldogs assumed an early 7-0 advantage in the game when Scott capped a seven-play, 45-yard drive with a two-yard scamper on third-and-one. The big play on the drive was a 12-yard completion from Piatkowski to Marshall.

After a three-and-out by Jacksonville, Drake and the Dolphins both fumbled the ball with the Underwood recovering a fumble by Treviu Folston at the Dolphins' 43-yard line.

Drake then extended its lead with a five-play, 43-yard drive to go up 14-0 on a one-yard play-action pass from Piatkowski to a wide-open Marshall in the corner. Setting up the score with a 21-yard run around the left end from the 22-yard line was Scott.

The Bulldogs controlled the ball for 9:04 in the first quarter and held a 14-0 lead.

Facing a fourth-and-seven at its own 41-yard line, Drake pulled out a fake punt as the ball was snapped to an up-man and then handed off to Underwood who went around the left side and raced for 44 yards to the Jacksonville seven-yard line.

The Dolphins locked down defensively and forced the Bulldogs into a 22-yard field goal by freshman Cam Bohnert (Edmond, Okla.) to go up 17-0 with 11:57 left in the half.

After a three-and-out by Jacksonville, the Dolphins pinned the Bulldogs at the six-yard line on a 56-yard punt by Kody Thomas.

Jacksonville corralled Piatkowski in the end zone for a safety.

The Dolphins tacked on a field goal as time expired in the first half as the Bulldogs went into the intermission up 17-5.

Drake received the ball to begin the second half and Andre Addison intercepted Piatkowski and returned the ball 50 yards for a touchdown.

Jacksonville then took a 19-17 lead on a 32-yard pass completion from Folston to D'Andre Randle with 3:47 left in the third quarter.

A 32-yard completion on third-and-10 from Piatkowski to senior Nick Rosa (Owosso, Okla.) saved a drive to start the fourth quarter. Senior Joey Orlando (Park Ridge, Ill.) came back to haul in a 27-yard pass from Piatkowski at the one-yard line. A one-yard push up the middle by Scott gave Drake a 23-22 lead. The Bulldogs then successfully converted a two-point conversion with a diving catch by Rosa.

After a three-and-out defensive stand, senior Mike Ratelle (Edina, Minn.) took in the Jacksonville punt and returned it to the eight-yard line with a 36-yard return. After a five-yard delay of game penalty, a 13-yard pass from Piatkowski to Orlando placed Drake up 32-22 with 9:53 left.

[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.