Column: Wooster/West Holmes, OSU/Notre Dame make for perfect drama

I don’t know how much more of this my old ticker can take.

On both Friday and Saturday nights, I watched a pair of football games that literally went down to the last play, taking me and others in attendance at the Wooster at West Holmes football game and those watching the Ohio State at Notre Dame showdown on television Saturday evening, on an emotional roller coaster ride for the ages.

Good thing that I don’t have any allegiance to any particular team thanks to 30-some years of unbiased sports reporting.

Friday Night Fireworks: West Holmes wins thriller over Wooster in Week 6

I stopped devoting my passion to a team after the Cleveland Browns ripped my heart out and stomped all over it a couple different times in the 1980s, thanks to John Elway engineering “The Drive” to beat the Browns in 1986 AFC Championship Game, and then Ernest Byner’s infamous fumble when he was going in for the go-ahead score in the 1987 AFC Championship Game.

And I won’t even mention the 1997 World Series, featuring my former employers, the long-suffering Cleveland Indians, and the upstart Florida Marlins. All right, since I brought it up, people tend to blame Jose Mesa for blowing the lead in the ninth, but fans forget it was an error by second baseman Tony Fernandez that opened the door to fateful final blow that reminded me that sports is just a game, and I shouldn’t invest so much of myself into being a fan.

Which brings me back to last weekend’s fantastic finishes.

At Knights Field Friday night, the neighboring rivals were locked in a seesaw contest that put up points aplenty and looked like one of those games where whoever had the ball last would most likely be the winner.

Back and forth this game went with West Holmes striking first, 50 seconds into the game, only to see Wooster knot things up at 7-7 by the end of the first quarter.

The battle featuring a pair of highly-touted junior quarterbacks, Morgan Smith of the Knights and A.J. Likowski of the Generals, saw both of these signal callers shine. Smith ran for nearly 300 yard and scored four touchdowns. Likowski threw for more than 200 yards and two touchdowns, as he also ran for better than 100 yards.

It was an impressive display by both young men.

Late in the game with Wooster up 40-45, Smith was intercepted for the second time in the game midway through the fourth quarter.

The Generals were poised to secure the win, when something strange happened. The West Holmes defense rose to the occasion, forcing a turnover on downs at the 26 yard-line of the Knights.

Smith ran again and again, bulling his way to a touchdown and a two-point conversion, with 3:33 to play, putting the hosts up 43-40.

Likowski rallied Wooster as he had done all evening, but he was sacked by senior linebacker Mason Shankel of the Knights, which set up a third-and-21. Sophomore defensive back Lynn Cline picked off Likowski’s next pass and the West Holmes offense ran out the final 1:19 of the game to secure the thrilling victory.

Saturday’s Ohio State-Notre Dame game was much the same, as the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish went up and down the field against each other, but couldn’t finish off the drives, seeing OSU eking out a 3-0 lead at the half.

The Buckeyes went up 10-0 early in the second half on a long touchdown jaunt by TreVeyon Henderson, only to see the Irish battle back to take a 14-10 lead late in the game.

With time running out, as well as the hopes of the Ohio State faithful, junior quarterback Kyle McCord guided the Buckeyes on a game-winning drive, capped off by scoring run by Chip Trayanum as time ran out on the game clock.

Phew. That was a close one.

Fortunately, the Cleveland football game on Sunday against Tennessee was a laugher that didn’t allow the viewers to get too worked up.

There's only so much a sports fan can take.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Column: Wooster/West Holmes, OSU/Notre Dame make for perfect drama