Archbold ends SE's season

ARCHBOLD - It just wasn't enough.Archbold took the lead and never let Seneca East get too much footing.Archbold ended Seneca East's season in a Division VI Region 22 quarterfinal, 44-12, at Archbold on Friday."Our kids never gave up," SE's coach Ed Phillips said. "They are a really good football team. We played well enough to play in the game, and we played better than the score and played good enough to be in the game but we just had too many mistakes to bounce back from."The speed of which Archbold (9-3) came at the Tigers (8-4) is what challenged SE.Archbold came out of the gate throwing. In the opening possession of the game, a 53-yard pass from Maddox Pinter to Aranjer Krieger. The Blue Streaks successfully converted a third down to start a march down the field. That drive ended with a Ryder Ryan touchdown from two yards out.From there, Quinn Sauder already had a point after attempt count, but now, he had a 32 yard field goal to add to his name.After the field goal, the Tigers had possession, and on a second down, Nicholas Parks ran, but then fumbled the ball, which the Blue Streaks took advantage of and recovered.A personal foul penalty from the Tigers moved the ball from the 32 to the 9 of Tiger territory where Pinter threw to Collin Short for a touchdown.The Blue streaks put the Tigers in a hole 17-0 by the end of the first quarter.Archbold added another touchdown with 9:47 left on the clock when Ryan ran from 26 yards out and the point after from Sauder was good, making it 24-0.SE finally responded with a little help of the flags. After Jackson Gayheart ran it, there was a facemask against the Blue Streaks, and it moved the ball from the 25 to the nine. Another flag came flying out for another facemask on Archbold and that moved it to the five yard line. Two plays later, Parks got it in for six points for SE, but the two point conversion was no good.With 2:23 left in the first half, Pinter connected with Krieger once again, this time from 21 yards out but the Sauder extra point was no good.The Tigers had tried to get into the end zone to close the gap but the stout defense of Archbold wasn't letting them have it. With 2:17 on the clock and ticking, SE did make it to the six yard line, but after Parks was sacked for a loss of four yards, and three throws were incomplete, it was halftime.At the half, it was 30-6."With this team, you have to score the points with them," Phillips said. "And when you don't do that, we just couldn't keep up with them. We had a couple of times in the red zone and we couldn't get it done."SE had one more touchdown in the game that came on a drive that started at the end of the third quarter. Parks converted a fourth down-and-16 from the 16 yard line when he connected with Ethan Schultz, but the two-point conversion attempt was no good as he was sacked in the back field."I'm sad it's over," Phillips said. "Just like this game, the kids kept fighting it and it felt like we had chances to get back in it, but we couldn't get over that edge. That's how our kids are. We will put this behind us and we will keep moving forward."Archbold did score once in the third quarter on a Ryan touchdown from four yards out with the point after good and a one yard touchdown run in the fourth from Ashton Stuckey with 4:22 left, and a Rudy Rodgers point after good.The hole was dug and they couldn't climb out.The message from Phillips to the seniors was one of pride in the hard working group of athletes that he has had. He also is proud of the leadership that the seniors have shown this season."We wanted to show that even winning one playoff game in a year is success," Phillips said. "It's a really good year for us as we won more. There is only one team in the division that will win, and unfortunately it wasn't us tonight. It's sad when you don't get to practice on Monday. It's exciting when you win because then you get to continue. It's hard, especially for the seniors, because that last game is the last one of their high school careers. The young kids, I think, have learned from these guys and the young guys know what to do to move on even farther."