By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
FRED T. FOARD 23
BANDYS 17
CATAWBA – Building a football program often comes in baby steps, but Fred T. Foard High went well beyond that on Friday night to get its first win of the season.
The visiting Tigers rallied late, scoring on a long touchdown pass in the final 2 ½ minutes, to nip Bandys 23-17.
It was Foard’s third straight win over the Trojans (1-1) — something the Tigers hadn’t done since winning twice at home and once on the road over Bandys in 1981-83 (see info below) – and came via a big pass play that answered one from the Trojans.
Down 16-10, Bandys took a 17-16 lead with seven minutes, 39 seconds left to play when quarterback Ja’Tay Culliver hit DeShawn Gibbs for a 71-yard TD. Ben Joseph’s PAT put Bandys up by a point.
The Trojans’ Jacob Ellis had an interception with 4:15 to play but Foard (1-1) then forced a punt on fourth-and-1 to gain a final possession and go for a win.
A LOOK BACK
Fred T. Foard High won 23-17 at Bandys for its third straight win in the series. The Tigers hadn’t done that since beating the Trojans in four straight from 1980 through 1983. A look at the three straight (records for the 1980 win are not available):
1981
Fred T. Foard 21, Bandys 6: In a Week 11 game at Bandys, Marcus Shuford ran for a 1-yard TD and Brian Kimball scored on a 2-yard run to highlight a Foard victory.
The Tigers forced three lost fumbles, outgained the Trojans 290-218 and held Bandys to only a TD run by Terry Bowman.
Shuford scored 22 rushing TDs that season and Kimball added another nine.
1982
Fred T. Foard 21, Bandys 0: Holding the Trojans to 70 rushing yards and 77 yards of total offense, the Tigers cruised at home.
Foard gained 381 yards, forced five turnovers (three interceptions) and ran its win streak to six games.
This was the Foard team that won a Western Division II title – a secondary type playoff the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) had at the time – by beating Franklin and then Southwest Guilford.
Kimball led that team with 21 rushing TDs and two TD receptions.
1983
Fred T. Foard 13, Bandys 0: In the final game of the regular season in a year when Brad Lutz led the Tigers with eight rushing TDs and Kenny Wagner kicked two field goals, Foard shut out the host Trojans, sending them to their eighth straight loss.
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research.
Corey Siemer got behind the Trojans’ secondary with 2:05 to play and quarterback Jack Colosimo threw him a 72-yard pass for a go-ahead TD. Daniel Lackey added a PAT for a six-point lead.
When Bandys then lost a fumble and the Tigers recovered, Foard ran out the clock.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” Foard head coach Derrick Minor said in a radio interview after the game.
Minor is in his second season at Foard, where his first team went 3-8, and has set out to improve the Tigers’ outlook with moves that include a newly designed helmet and awarding players points for achievements both on and off the field.
Foard has had seven losing seasons and a .500 record (6-6 in 2014, when they made the state playoffs under Tom Harper) in the previous eight years.
On Friday night, Foard’s defense made some key plays after turnovers helped Bandys get in scoring position. One of them proved to be crucial in the end.
The Trojans had possession and first-and-goal at the 6. Ethan Howard gained a yard on first down and Colby Morgan got two, setting up third-and-goal at the 3. When Howard got the call on third down, Foard’s Tate Beaver hit him and caused a fumble that the Tigers’ Matthew Greenwood recovered.
“We’ve been fighting,” Minor said in the postgame interview. “That stop just before the half was, to me, the pivotal point of the game.”
Bandys – playing without starting quarterback Luke Hojnacki, who has a shoulder injury that could keep him sidelined for at least six weeks – led 10-7 at the half on a 3-yard TD run by Howard and Joseph’s 23-yard field goal.
The score stayed that until Siemer ran 5 yards for a TD and Lackey added a PAT with 3:05 left in the third quarter, putting Foard up 14-10.
The Tigers added a safety, going up by six points, before Bandys took the lead on its long pass.
Bandys played Ellis, a junior who is also its long snapper, at quarterback and Culliver also took some snaps earlier. Culliver had a 51-yard TD run and Howard had an 8-yard TD run nullified, both by holding penalties.
Foard continued its trend of winning close games in Butler Stadium, denying Bandys head coach Trent Lowman career win No. 20 with its sixth win in the series (since 1980). The average win margin in those wins is 6.3 points.
Minor gained his 35th career win as Foard outgained Bandys 266-240.
Colosimo completed six of 10 passes for 134 yards – four to Siemer for 105 yards – and Culliver threw for 109 yards for the Trojans.
Howard led Bandys’ rushing with 21 carries for 107 yards, reaching at least 100 for the fifth time in his last six games. He unofficially has 293 rushing yards this season.
Siemer’s emergence as a receiving threat comes a season after he caught only one pass for 11 yards.
Foard next plays at North Lincoln (1-0) on Friday at 7:30 p.m., where it faces a former Tigers assistant coach, Steven Pack, in his second game as head coach of the Knights.
Bandys is idle on Friday and at home on Sept. 8 against Bunker Hill.