But the Ross offense couldn’t generate any momentum. The Little Giants went three-and out on their first drive and turned the ball over to Sandusky after Spencer fumbled at the Blue Streaks’ 14 after Ross drove 28 yards on seven plays.
Sandusky took a 7-0 lead with 24 seconds left in the first quarter after forcing Ross to punt on its first possession. Jordan ran eight times as the Blue Streaks used 11 plays to find the end zone on a 14-yard pass from Esposito to Rayshawn Daniels.
Foos (6-of-14, 112 yards, 1 INT) and the Ross offense were plagued by five dropped passes by Little Giants’ receivers. The Little Giants had only three first-quarter plays.
It became 10-0 Sandusky after Ross’s second of the first half. The Blue Steaks took over at the Little Giants’ 40, where Jordan ran five straight times to the Ross 15. Eric Hille drilled a 32-yard field goal with 4 seconds left in the first half.
At halftime, linebacker Brad Woleslagel said the Little Giants talked about adjusting their run defense.
“We brought our outside linebackers in on the tackles to give us a little more outside running support and made them run the ball up the middle,” Woleslagel said. “We knew that our offense would eventually be able to score, we just had to give them more opportunities.”
Kidwell said the Little Giants had to account for a mismatch in size between Sandusky’s offensive line and Ross’s 3-5 defense.
“We wanted to cover every one of their offensive linemen because they were big and we were undersized,” Kidwell said. “We had to make them earn everything they got.”
It became a 10-6 game early in the third quarter, when Spencer ran 55 yards on the fourth play from scrimmage at the 10:05 mark.
The Ross runner appeared to have been stopped as he ran up the middle, but a second effort by Spencer allowed him to break into the open field, where he burned the Blue Streaks’ defenders in a race to the end zone.
However, the extra-point attempt of kicker Adam Loucks failed, and the Little Giants could not trim their deficit to a field goal.
Sandusky responded with a 9-play, 65-yard drive that featured the running of Jordan on the first eight plays. But on third-and-goal from the Ross 4, Irbe’s pass attempt to the end zone fell incomplete before Hille drilled a 21-yard field goal at the 5:24 mark of the third quarter to give the Blue Streaks a 13-6 lead.
Ross’s offense began to function more efficiently toward the end of the third quarter, but could not tie the game. Mierke caught a 32-yard pass from Foos on third-and-17 before Spencer capped a four-play drive wirh a 32-yard touchdown run.
But when the Little Giants decided to go for a 2-point conversion, Justin Hines dropped a pass from Foos in the end zone as Ross trailed 13-12 at the 3:20 mark.
