WILLARD – When push came to shove on a cold, damp Friday night at Willard High School – when the figurative clock struck midnight – the most desperate bunch scratched and clawed and simply wouldn’t let up.
Heading into the fourth quarter, top-seeded Seneca East (10-1) clung to a 13-9 lead over eighth-seeded Loudonville (5-6). The game was moved to nearby Willard’s turf field after Seneca East’s grass surface became oversaturated this week from the rain. But just 11 miles from the Tigers’ campus, it still felt like a Seneca East home game, as orange-and-black faithful spilled out from the bleachers and spread along the fence on Friday night.
There was a lot on the line for Division VI Region 22’s one-seed. The Tigers had qualified for the playoffs three straight years before this, but could never make it out of the first round.
With 12 minutes left on the clock, they made sure this year was different.
The Seneca East offense had made it to the Loudonville 21-yard line following a series of powerful rushes and Redbird penalties. That’s when senior tailback Blaine Swartzmiller plowed to the nine, and then again to the 1-yard line. He finished the job on the next play with a goal-line touchdown plunge, pushing the lead to 20-9.
The Tigers weren’t done, though.
After forcing a Loudonville fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Swartzmiller charged into the end zone untouched from five yards out on a direct snap. On Seneca East’s next offensive possession, Swartzmiller put the final nail in the coffin with a 50-yard scoring sprint, once again off a direct shotgun snap.
With 5:24 to play, the home stands rumbled, the players bounded up and down the sideline, and it was all but over.
The Tigers had done it. They would live to see another day.
“I didn’t want them to think about history,” said Ed Phillips, in his 10th season as Seneca East’s head coach. “But I knew that they were playing for a lot of people; they were playing for any Seneca East guy to ever put on the uniform, any fan that ever sat in the stands, anybody that ever walked the halls at that school, and I told them that afterwards.
“I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve wanted to win a playoff game my whole life. That’s been one of the things that I wanted most, and it took be 44 years to do it – and it was worth it. It’s a special night for me personally, it’s a special night for these kids, and I couldn’t be prouder or happier for them.”
Seneca East won on Friday night by a final score of 33-9. Swartzmiller, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound tank, finished with 255 yards on 30 carries. He tallied four touchdowns, three of which came in the fourth quarter. When the lights shone brightest, the senior led Seneca East to a place it had yet to go in his time as a Tiger – the second round.
“Blaine, our offensive line, our defense… We take pride in how we finish the games, and that group of guys – the offensive line, the defense – they just took over,” Phillips said. “They went out there and they made plays and they finished that game off in style.”
For Loudonville, the final score hardly indicated the closeness of Friday night’s contest. The Redbirds, who went 0-10 one year ago, had a real shot at upsetting the Tigers (who have finished with eight wins or better each of the last four years) until the final period unfolded.
Crucial late-game penalties cost Loudonville, especially when they occurred deep in Seneca East territory. Down 13-6 with 3:30 left in the third quarter, Loudonville had the ball at the Tiger 5-yard line – first-and-goal. But a holding call moved the ball back to the 15, and after a third-and-goal rush from the nine-yard line failed to reach the end zone, the Redbirds were forced to settle for a field goal.
In a game of momentum swings, Loudonville head coach Kevin Maltarich believed that sequence played a major role in the outcome.
“You know, we get the momentum and I think the game’s tied, instead of kicking the field goal, and it’s a whole new game,” he said afterwards.
Seneca East struck first on Friday night when Swartzmiller stretched into the end zone from one yard out. But Loudonville answered on its next offensive possession, as senior quarterback Dylan Polen pushed into the end zone behind his offensive line on fourth-and-goal from the one. The Redbirds missed the extra point, making it 7-6 midway through the first quarter.
After the game’s first two possessions, however, each defense settled in. Neither team scored again until the 8:30 mark in the second quarter, when senior Seneca East running back D.J. Ruffing blazed up the right side and sprinted 45 yards for a touchdown, making it 13-6 going into halftime.
From there, the Tiger defense turned the heat up. Before the red zone stop at the end of the third quarter, they forced two Loudonville punts. The Redbirds finished with 270 yards of total offense, but were held to just 122 in the second half. Meanwhile, Seneca East rattled off 391 total yards, with 304 coming on the ground.
“For three quarters, it was pretty tight. Just everything caught up with us,” Maltarich said. “They’re big and they’re physical and we had some bumps and bruises, and we kind of ran out of gas.”
Loudonville was led offensively by junior tailback Alec Eldridge, who ran for 85 yards on 18 carries. Polen passed 3-of-8 for 56 yards, and also ran for 27 yards on 13 carries.
Seneca East junior quarterback Chase Foos threw 8-of-14 for 67 yards, and he ran for 17 yards as well. Ruffing finished with 65 yards on three carries.
Standing outside the locker room after the game, Phillips seemed pleased with his team’s aggressiveness against a talented Loudonville squad – especially late in the game.
“We just attacked. We were worried about some things they did, they handled the ball really well and they have a bunch of backs that ran really hard. And once our kids settled in and just attacked – and I give our defensive coaches, Justin and Andy Ruffing, a lot of credit – they just took it to them,” Phillips said.
“And it’s kind of like a feeding frenzy, you know? When that bloody meat gets dropped in a pool of piranhas, they feed. And that’s how our kids were, especially in that fourth quarter.”
The Tigers will face four-seed Columbus Grove (8-3) next week, which beat Carey (7-4) by two touchdowns on Friday night.
“It’s awesome. You don’t want to stop, you never want to stop,” Phillips said. “So to be able to keep it going is spectacular.”
Loudonville will turn in the pads after concluding a season which many did not see coming. In Maltarich’s first year, the Redbirds went from winless to playoff-bound. They made their first playoff appearance since 2014, which Maltarich said his team should be proud of.
“This is the start of something that’s going to be special. You know, we’re going to see those guys again down the road, hopefully next year. They’ve got a good junior class and we’ve got some young kids coming up. And from where they’ve been the last two years to where we’ve ended up, it’s a success, and we’ve gotta build on what we’ve done and keep climbing that mountain,” Maltarich said, moments after speaking to his team in the locker room following the loss.
“If you look at it, it’s been a nice season, especially for these seniors. They’ve had friends that have left them and didn’t come out this year, and a lot of people that didn’t believe in us, and those kids put in a lot of hard work. And at the end of the day, it was a successful season because these kids learned how to compete and they made the playoffs.”
Maltarich said his team will use Friday night as a learning experience moving forward.
“In this game, it takes all 11 guys, and they’ve gotta go as hard and as physical as they can every single play,” he said. “It’s just one of things where it’s a learning curve and we’re going to learn from this, and we’re going to come in next year with a vengeance.”
