For the week of September 18 - 24, 2002

What a great Homecoming game!

Nearly 3,000 watch Jerome 
nip Wood River 27-26 in OT

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By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Everywhere you went all weekend, people were talking about Friday’s marvelous Homecoming football game between Wood River and Jerome that christened the brand, spanking new Phil Homer Field.

Dylan Welcome (10) follows Matt Conover’s block for another Wood River rushing gain against Jerome. Express photo by Willy Cook

Nearly 3,000 spectators saw Wood River and Jerome battle tooth-and-claw and back-and-forth for four quarters before the Tigers emerged with a 27-26 non-conference victory in an 10-yard overtime playoff.

"It’s safe to say it was a record crowd for Wood River," said 12th-year coach John Blackman, who’s been around the Hailey barn since 1985. "They saw an exciting game."

Forget for a moment the morning-after second-guessing about extra point kicks—the one the Wolverines didn’t make and the one they didn’t take. Much of the Friday’s drama was of the David and Goliath variety.

Thanks to a hard-hitting defense that kept Jerome in check for much of the game, Wood River came within an eyelash of beating Jerome for the first time in 27 years. And Hailey’s 26 points were the most scored in one game against Jerome since 1968.

Matt Conover scored two TDs for Wood River. Express photo by Willy Cook

Blackman said, "The kids left it all out on the field, no doubt about it."

Senior quarterback Matt Conover, who returned kickoffs and punts for 110 yards and intercepted two aerials, scored his first two varsity touchdowns. The second, a five-yard bootleg after his interception, gave Wood River a 20-12 lead with 4:01 left.

It didn’t seem important at the time to the jubilant Wolverine troops sensing an improbable victory, but when Kellen Chatterton shanked the extra point kick, Jerome had new life.

"We make the extra point, the game is over," said Blackman, conceding a nine-point lead would have forced Jerome to score twice in the final four minutes. "Kellen had made his first two kicks and this is his first year placekicking. It was just wide."

Bryan Harris’ 27-yard kickoff return gave the invigorated Tigers good field position at their own 39. Helped by two face mask penalties against Wood River (92 penalty yards in the second half), Jerome rolled 61 yards on eight plays in three minutes.

"Our defense got us three turnovers. I thought they did a great job until that last drive," Blackman said.

Jerome junior running back Clay Swan (24 carries for a game-high 142 yards) tallied his second touchdown on a 16-yard run with 1:12 remaining, then he calmly punched home the two-point conversion for a 20-20 tie.

There was some question about whether the teams would settle for a tie, since it was a non-conference game, so the officials surveyed both coaches at the end of regulation time.

Pumped up after its narrow escape, Jerome readily agreed to the 10-yard sudden death playoff. Few of the 3,000 fans had left the stadium. Wood River followed suit. "The kids wanted to go for it. We wanted to play for the win," said Blackman.

The selection of brother-and-sister Kellen Chatterton and Joni Chatterton as Homecoming king and queen was popular with the huge crowd. Express photo by Willy Cook

Wood River won the coin flip and elected to take the ball on offense—with four chances to score from the 10-yard-line. Blackman said, "I was fairly confident we could run power four times and get it in. We gave it to Dylan Welcome, and he did a little juke step and got it in the first play."

The coach deliberated about the conversion. He explained, "I thought about kicking, but felt if we got two points we could put it out of reach. Jerome hadn’t made a kick on their extra points. My guess was they were going to run if they scored."

Blackman said his coaching mistake came in his play selection for the two-point run attempt. Jerome middle linebackers Swan (11 tackles) and Brett Hamilton (10) stopped Chatterton’s plunge at the two-yard-line.

"I called the wrong play," he said. "It was a middle wedge with Kellen. I thought we could get three yards out of it. But Jerome had been stunting its middle linebackers all night, so we should have gone off tackle."

Under the playoff format, Jerome got its chance to score from the 10-yard-line—and Wood River’s defense led by Chatterton (17 tackles), Christian Blackman, Zach Bloomfield, Tyson Reynoso, Tyler Brown and Kory Ott stopped three Tiger runs.

Down to its final play at the six-yard-line, Jerome senior quarterback Jesse Pallas rolled to the right and waited and waited and finally found the trailer—6-2 tight end Burke Higley. Pallas threw and Higley folded his body over the ball.

Wood River knew it was coming. They had been working in practice all week, trying to contain the Tiger rollout and force the quarterback inside. For the most part, they had contained Jerome all game. Blackman said, "We knew it was going to be a delayed pattern, a tight end dump."

But Jerome just executed. Credit Pallas, who completed just four passes all game, and three were absolutely crucial to Jerome’s win. Then, with Jed Seamons holding, Derek Jansson kicked the extra point to keep Jerome (2-0) unbeaten.

"We were disappointed. But, after the game was over, you can’t believe the number of people who came up and congratulated the kids for the game they played," said Blackman.

The Wolverines, still scoreless in the first half, should have led early because they had great field position. Blackman said, "We should have punched it in two more times. There were a lot of ‘ifs,’ in the game."

Jerome interceptions stopped the first two Wood River drives deep into Tiger turf. Then, Conover intercepted a Jerome pass and dashed past a Jason Nelson crackback block for a 52-yard return to the Tiger three. On the first play, Wood River fumbled and Swan recovered, with a minute left.

"We came up empty on the fumble," Blackman said. "Behind 6-0 at the half, we knew we were in the game because we always seem stronger in the second half. Our defense did well containing them."

Offensively, Jerome’s stunting linebackers prevented Wood River from getting enough time to pass in the first half. The coach said, "Our big problem was picking up those backers. But we caught them in a stunt on a trap on our first play."

Chatterton (118 yards on 12 carries) busted through the secondary for an 80-yard run to the Tiger 10. Three plays later, on third down, Conover evaded a tackler and turned a broken play into a seven-yard TD. Chatterton kicked and Hailey led 7-6—the first score against Jerome since 1994.

Penalties killed Wood River in the second half. An unsportsmanlike conduct whistle against Conover on third-and-long enabled Jerome to keep possession and drive 57 yards on 10 plays for a 12-7 lead.

In the fourth quarter, Wood River got its power running in gear and went 61 yards in seven plays—Dylan Welcome sprinting 39 yards down the right sideline for the go-ahead score. Chatterton kicked the point for a 14-12 Wolverine lead, prompting the announcer to say, "Ladies and gentleman, we have a ball game."

Soon after, Conover’s interception return and bootleg touchdown gave Wood River more hope at 20-12. For the game the Wolverines (263 yards rushing) outgained Jerome 440 to 338, but four turnovers hurt the cause.

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WOLVERINE NOTES—Junior running back Luis Ruiz had an excellent first half, outsprinting the Tigers around the ends for 18 yards. But Ruiz hurt his knee being tackled late in the third and left the game….Parents and volunteers sold over 500 hamburgers at Friday’s well-attended Tailgate Party…The main grandstand seats 1,500 and it was packed. Fans also circled the corners of the field.

It was Jerome’s 22nd consecutive win over Wood River making the Tiger advantage 27-3, but the close outcome differed from recent history.

Jerome had pounded Wood River 148-0 in the last three meetings from 1995-97. In fact Wolverine teams had scored only 25 points, total, against Jerome in the last nine games. They exceeded that with 26 Friday night.

The only Wood River victories over Jerome in the 30-game series, all coming in Hailey, were 19-6 in 1975, 9-6 in 1973 and 26-0 during Wood River’s 8-1 season of 1968.

 

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