Ryder Miller redeems mistake with winning score, Ottawa comes back for 13-12 win over Plano

OTTAWA – Early in the second half, Ottawa Pirates running back Ryder Miller was spun into a Plano tackler at the Reapers’ 1-yard line and fumbled the football away with the chance to give his team the lead.

With the fourth quarter ticking down and the chance to give his team back the advantage, Miller took a pitch and ran around the right end for a 1-yard touchdown, the winning score Friday night in the Pirates’ 13-12, Kishwaukee River/Interstate 8 Conference crossover win over the Reapers.

“I’m extremely proud of Ryder Miller,” Ottawa coach Chad Gross said. “An unfortunate break on that fumble, Plano made a good play on the ball at the goal line, but it shows you what kind of character he has. Fourth quarter, I have no worries giving him the ball at the 1 that he’s going to punch it in, touchdown.

“That’s the type of kid he is. One thing goes wrong, but he just steps up and makes the next play.”

Miller finished with 118 yards rushing on 16 carries and was Ottawa’s leading tackler with eight on the evening. Dual-threat quarterback Colby Mortenson was 7 for 13 passing for 78 yards and ran for 34 more, Julian Alexander ran for 27 yards, Cody Sprowls recorded two tackles for loss, Levi Sheehan ran out of the Wildcat for a 7-yard TD, and Conner Price had four receptions for 36 yards plus his seventh career interception and two passes defensed.

After a scoreless first quarter, Plano (0-1) trailed for most of the second and a seemingly endless third quarter before taking its first – and ultimately only – lead on a weaving Waleed Johnson 24-yard touchdown run with 59.8 seconds left in the third. That touchdown run, however, was one of only 11 offensive plays run in the second half by the Reapers compared to the Pirates’ 34 offensive snaps.

“Their offensive line is big, and they came up with a great game plan,’ Plano coach Rick Ponx said. “They took what they had, and they used it, were more physical than us up front, and it was difficult to stop them.

“We came up with a takeaway, but other than that they wore us down, there’s no question about it.”

Thanks to a 72-yard kickoff return from Thomas Harding after Miller’s TD, the Reapers had a chance to retake the lead, but turned it over on downs at the Ottawa 7-yard line with less than three minutes remaining.

Johnson was every bit as much of a workhorse as advertised, carrying the ball 21 times for 139 yards and one of Plano’s two touchdowns. The other – which put the Reapers down 7-6 after a failed PAT snap – came midway through the second quarter when Plano QB Samuel Sifuentes (6-of-13, 109 yards, one TD, one INT) hit a wide-open Tristan Meszaros on play action for a 43-yard strike.

Noah Uhrich had the aforementioned fumble recovery, and Carnell Walls recorded 1 1/2 tackles for loss for the Plano defense. The Ottawa offense, however, churned up 19 first downs and 292 yards (214 rushing, 78 passing) from scrimmage on the night compared to the Reapers’ 10 first downs on 254 yards (145 rushing, 109 passing).

Big plays – including a 39-yard Mortenson-to-Packston Miller completion on fourth-and-14 to set up Miller’s winning touchdown in the fourth – proved to be the difference, and the Pirates simply made a couple more of them.

“These kids, they’ve been in so many [close] plays over the past few years,” Gross said, “I think they’ve just built confidence that they can compete with these guys, and given the opportunities now they’re the guys making the plays.

“Our kids, they made a lot of plays tonight. They earned it.”

“Week 1 there are no favorites,” Ponx said. “Anybody can beat anybody, and it’s the team that makes the least amount of mistakes. We made more mistakes than Ottawa today, and that’s the way it turned out.

“They made their mistakes, but they overcame them. We didn’t.”

Plano (0-1) starts a three-game homestand next Friday, hosting Manteno.

Ottawa (1-0), too, will take on an old conference rivals, continuing Illinois’ third-oldest football rivalry with a visit down Route 23 to Streator (1-0).