Trailing 17-6 at the half and 24-12 in the third quarter, Meeker coach D.J. Howell made an offensive adjustment that looked like a pure attempt to old-school the Crossings Christian Knights Friday.
The Bulldogs make their living off the power running of senior Caden Wolford and junior Zach Cook, but CCS had slowed them by stacking seven players near the line of scrimmage.
So Howell sent in a tight end for extra blocking and direct-snapped the ball to Wolford, who lined up at quarterback and would either assault the line himself or hand off to Cook.
The plan worked perfectly in the second half and helped deliver the win, although not in the obvious way.
“We were getting a seven-man box, and they were playing man coverage up in our face,” Howell said.
“We felt we could take a couple of shots down the field and we were able to do that.”
With CCS selling out to stop the run, Cook found himself in single coverage on a couple of pass routes and Wolford made perfect throws to him for touchdowns of 95 and 25 yards that put the Bulldogs up, 31-30.
Wolford added another touchdown on the ground with 1:38 left in the game and Caleb Chapman intercepted a CCS pass in the final half-minute to secure the win.
“We’ve been trying to get Zach one-on-one this season because he’s big and he’s a tough matchup,” Howell said of the 95-yarder. “He out-physicalled the guy, and then he caught another big on the wheel route on a fourth down. One-on-one, and he went up and got it.
It was the first official district victory for the Bulldogs, who are 4-4 for the season.
They beat Star-Spencer earlier in what was a district game at the time, but the Bobcats’ season imploded and they are no longer playing, which means Meeker doesn’t get to count the game on its district record.
They close out their regular season Friday night against Jones, the No. 2 team in the district, then head to the playoffs.
“We know we have a test next week and we’ll get to work on that,” Howell said. We have our record balanced up and we’re going to enjoy the tar out of this weekend.”
“I’m really proud of Caden and Zach and all the seniors - really proud of them.
“In the secondary, we’ve been pretty beatup and those guys gutted it out. We only had about two hours of practice all week and it was hit-and-miss with the storms.
“We certainly weren’t perfect, especially in the second half, but I loved the competitiveness of how they played in the second half.”
Meeker’s secondary made the Bulldogs’ first touchdown possible when Keavin Grady intercepted a pass in the end zone to set up a scoring drive.
Wolford capped it with a five-yard run.
CCS scored twice to take a 17-6 lead, but Wolford ran for a 50-yard score in the third quarter to start the Bulldog comeback.