After three consecutive losses, the Oxford Wildcats seemed destined to suffer another setback last week against the Fenton Tigers.
The Cats trailed 20-7 with less then six minutes left in the game. Oxford’s offense was flat, having given up five interceptions for the game.
The Tigers’ Matt Maygar had just picked off his third interception of the contest and Fenton moved the ball to the Wildcat’s 33 with six minutes left.
Even when Oxford’s defense held and the offense got the ball on their 21 but there seemed little hope with only 5:14 remaining in the game.
Suddenly, the Wildcats’ struggling offense came alive and in the next three minutes, Oxford completed the unlikely comeback with 14 points and a 21-20 victory.
In both touchdown drives in the final minutes Oxford used a no-huddle offense that saw quarterback Kyle Rowley hit his receivers with timely passes. On one fourth down play, Rowley hit Matt Shipman for a 24-yard gain. Rowley also connected with split-end David Reile for two 15-yard catches, the second one was good for a touchdown with 2:38 remaining.
Eddie Summers’ conversion kick put the Wildcats down only by six points.
Great kick coverage by Oxford pinned Fenton back on their 13 yard line. The Wildcats’ defense stopped Fenton on two consecutive runs, including a tackle by Pat Streit for a two-yard loss, and an incomplete pass, forcing the Tigers to punt.
Good use of timeouts by Oxford prevented Fenton from running time off the clock. The Tigers had played good ball control in the second half, including maintaining possession for nearly 10 of the 12 minutes in the third quarter.
Oxford got the ball back on the punt on their 36 yard line with 2:09 remaining.
Rowley hit Reile with another completed pass to move the ball to the Tigers’ 43.
Working with the no-huddle offense, The Cats’ moved the ball to Fenton’s 34.
Oxford’s Andrew Darin, on a play called 26 power, surprised the Fenton defense with a run up the middle, taking the ball down to the 15 yard line with only 1:27 left in the game.
Rowley then scrambled the final 12 yards off the right side for a touchdown with 1:13 remaining in the game.
With Oxford’s fans chanting, “Eddie,Eddie,” Summers kicked the conversion to give the Cat’s their improbable comeback and the 21-20 victory.
Fenton’s attempt at a comeback was stopped when Steven Flores intercepted a pass from Fenton quarterback A. J. Leh with 52 seconds remaining.
Coach Bud Rowley praised his team for not giving up.
“That was a great effort,” he said. “You guys battled back. That was Oxford football.”
Rowley said the credit for the comeback goes to the players.
“They did it, the football team, not the coaches. It was a great comeback.”
Kyle Rowley said the team seemed to come alive late in the fourth quarter.
“We were down in the dumps and were flat and suddenly we started clicking like we should have all year.” Kyle said. “We had too many turnovers today and they hurt us before but we came back from them this time.”
The victory evened the Wildcats’ record at 4-4 with one game remaining on Friday at Holly at 7:30 p.m.
The loss dropped Fenton to 4-4 also and spoiled the Tigers’ homecoming game.
Fenton built its lead with two first-half touchdowns and another to start the third quarter on an 80-yard drive that consumed more than five minutes of the quarter.
Oxford’s touchdown in the first half came on a 12 yard pass from Rowley to Shipman in the second quarter.
Drew Polidan had two of Fenton’s five interceptions and was the Tigers’ leading ball carrier before he suffered a shoulder injury in the second quarter and did not return.