How 76 points were scored: O'Hara Football

CELTICS HANDLE THE THUNDER WITH LIGHTNING PLAYS Led by T.J. White’s and Raphael Spencer’s two touchdowns apiece, the O’Hara Celtics downed the Saint James Thunder 45-31 on September 25th. Touchdowns were also scored by Terrell Johnson, Brett Coatney, and Louis Golden in the romp. Here is a rundown of the evening’s scoring: O’Hara 0, Saint James 6: O’Hara received the opening kickoff but were stopped in three running plays. Saint James mounted a thirteen play drive to reach the scoreboard first. Grinding out yardage in which none of the plays netted over ten yards, Danny Manning scored from 10 yards out. In the drive the Thunder twice went for yardage on fourth downs. Their extra point kick was wide. It was the first time in five games that the Celtics were scored upon in the first quarter. O’Hara 7, Saint James 6: Jimmy Clark returned the kickoff with a great run and the Celtics took over in good field position on the Thunder 41 yard line. Five plays later, Brett Coatney found his way into the end zone on a 14 yard carry. Julian Gidley kicked the extra point after which the Celtics never trailed in the game. O’Hara 13, Saint James 6: It took a while for the Celtics to score again. Saint James moved the ball from the 23 yard line to the 41 yard line, helped along with two completed passes. But their third pass was intercepted by Joe Melchior who took the ball all the way to the end zone. A penalty called on the blocking however brought the ball back to the 38 yard line. Aaron Stubblefield made up for 35 yards as he hauled in a T. J. White toss to place the ball on the 3 yard line. Swinging around the right end, Terrell Johnson fumbled into the end zone for a touchback, and the Thunder got the ball on the 20 yard line. After advancing the pigskin 17 yards, Saint James attempted another pass which was picked off by Joe Melchior again. O’Hara scored with five plays capped by a 26 yard pass completion from T. J. White to Louis Golden. No more scoring until the half: The Thunder failed to make a first down on the next possession and punted. O’Hara ran the next eight plays from their own 26 yard line to Saint James’ 26 yard line, the big gainers were two T. J. White scrambles for 19 and 16 yards. But the Celtics gave up the ball on downs. With the little time left, Saint James was unable to dent the O’Hara defense. O’Hara 19, Saint James 6: The Thunder attempted to keep a drive alive at midfield by going for it on fourth down rather than punt, but gave O’Hara relatively good field position when they fell short. In two plays, O’Hara had its third TD. Brett Coatney ran for 9 yards and Raphael Spencer went all the way for the score, a distance of 36 yards. O’Hara 27- Saint James 6: Saint James took over on their own 33 yard line and with two complete passes for 12 and 47 yards got first down on the 8 yard line. Four attempts to run the ball into the goal failed and O’Hara took over on the one foot line! With Raphael Spencer and Terrell Johnson running the football, O’Hara advanced the ball to the 40 yard line in seven plays. Spencer broke loose for a 60 yard scoring run. Chuck Preston scored two points on the conversion attempt. O’Hara 27- Saint James 12: The Thunder went exclusively to a passing game on their next possession. A 53 yard pass from Jim Getto to Danny Manning accounted for the six points. O’Hara 33 - Saint James 12: Keon Young recovered O’Hara’s on-side kick, and on the very next play, T. J. White outmaneuvered the Thunder defense for a 51 yard TD. The extra point attempt by Julian Gidley was blocked. O’Hara 33 - Saint James 18: Continuing with a passing game, the Thunder was able to cash in on a Jim Getto to Matt Eckelman pass covering 53 yards, even though it appeared Getto was well beyond the line of scrimmage when he threw the ball. The play was not called back. The quarterback was sacked on the two-point conversion attempt. O’Hara 33 - Saint James 25: Logan Pyle recovered the Thunder’s on-side kick, and the home team worked for a score that would bring the two teams to within eight points. It required a fourth down play along the way, but the Thunder managed to get the job done on a 12 yard pass to Bryan Eisman. Logan Fortney’s extra point kick was good. O’Hara 39 - Saint James 25: Thanks to a good runback by Raphael Spencer and a face mask penalty, O’Hara had the ball on the 20 yard line. However a fumble four plays later coughed up the ball. Saint James returned to the running game and got the ball up to midfield where they gave up possession on downs. Aided by a 15 yard gain on a T. J. White to Aaron Stubblefield pass, the Celtics were able to widen their lead on an 8 yard scoring run by T. J. White. O’Hara 45 – Saint James 25: The last O’Hara TD was almost a gift. Very deep in the O’Hara territory, the Thunder elected to go or it on fourth down and failed to come close to the first down. They gave up the ball on the 9 yard line! Terrell Johnson got the call and delivered the ball to the end zone. O’Hara 45 – Saint James 31: With remaining time, the Thunder used up eight plays but did get an additional six points on an 18 yard run by Jake Heller. The final points were garnered with only 12 second of playing time left in the game.