'It's a great team win:' Winton Woods rallies to beat La Salle, 12-6
FOREST PARK, Ohio – Two recent Division II state champions found themselves paired against each in the first round of the playoffs for a second-straight year.
Winton Woods and La Salle played championship-level defense in their first-round playoff meeting in this year’s Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II playoffs.
It was the host Winton Woods Warriors making the final plays to edge the Lancers 12-6 Friday night at Winton Woods.
WW (8-3) advances to play Withrow in next week’s second round. La Salle finishes 4-7.
“It’s a great team win,” said Winton Woods senior T.J. Buckman. “This La Salle team was tough. We had to stop them defensively and we did our job as a team.”
Winton Woods, the 2021 Division II state champions, hosted the 2019 state champs from the Greater Catholic League-South.
The Lancers, like the entire GCL-South this year, played a lot of strong out-of-town teams. They went 0-3 in the Greater Catholic League-South, beat Colerain, then went 3-3 against a variety of non-local foes.
La Salle led 6-0 with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter and lined up for a 40-yard field goal to make it a two-score lead. Junior Donmiel Rogers Jr. blocked the kick, then won a scramble for the ball, picking it up at midfield and running it in for a touchdown.
Bryan Knighten’s extra-point attempt hit the crossbar and bounced backwards, and it remained tied at 6-6.
The teams traded turnovers after that. Buckman recovered a fumble at the La Salle 19. La Salle junior Drae Arnold intercepted a pass at the Lancers 13, his second pick of the game.
Winton Woods forced La Salle to punt. Senior Charles Johnson caught the ball at midfield and returned it 30 yards to the La Salle 17.
With 2:33 to go, junior Tyler Gooding ran untouched for a 12-yard touchdown for the winning TD.
La Salle drove to the WW 40 in the final seconds, but a sack by Justice Jordan on fourth down ended it.
“We knew we were down but we knew we couldn’t give up,” Buckman said. “Defense can still make big plays, offense can still make plays. We knew the game wasn’t over until the clock hits zero. We keep fighting as a team, all together.”
The defensive struggle had 228 combined yards. Winton Woods had 145 to 83 for La Salle. The Lancers’ only touchdown came from a short field after Arnold’s first interception.
“We had guys make big plays, special teams made some plays,” said WW head coach Chad Murphy. “The defense has been rock solid all year and they always give us a chance to win.”
Three keys to Winton Woods’ win
Defense shuts down La Salle: La Salle quarterback Pat McLaughlin was the focus of the Warriors’ game plan. He had one 30-yard run in the first quarter but only finished with nine yards on the ground counting four Winton Woods sacks. The Warriors limited him to 8-of-20 passing for 35 yards.
The Warriors had 14 tackles for loss.
“Stopping the QB,” Buckman said. “We knew the QB could scramble a lot, stopping the run, taking the deep pass away. Stopping the run was our biggest key.”
Winton Woods allowed only 83 points in the regular season, and shut down two of the city’s top offenses in Milford and Anderson. Winton Woods lost 20-13 to the Raptors and 3-0 to the Eagles, but the lessons from those games helped tonight.
“La Salle is a really good football team,” Murphy said. “They do a lot of things (with formations). We stopped about every offense known to man, we’ve seen them all. Our staff and players have done a phenomenal job. We have a lot of experience against different offenses. It’s all part of it, seeing those things, what worked and what didn’t work.”
Big special-teams plays: Both of Winton Woods’ TDs were set up by big special teams returns. Zae Jennings had a punt return TD called back by a penalty. Buckman, the punter, had a 68-yard punt downed at the 1-yard line in the first quarter.
Perseverance over penalties: Winton Woods committed 16 penalties for 155 yards. Two touchdowns were called back by penalties, Jennings’ return and a long touchdown pass. Winton Woods also had two drives in the La Salle red zone come up empty.
Still, the Warriors found a way. Murphy referenced the 2021 state champions, who lost three close games in the regular season, including to La Salle.
“Sometimes you think you deserve to win,” Murphy said. “This is one of those ones that because of the penalties and because of the ugliness offensively, we gave them a (short field) in the first half. We did a lot of things to hurt ourselves but still found a way to win, and that’s huge. In 2021, when we won it all, we suffered some losses that year too. We cleaned things up and learned from those losses.”
Turning point/play of the game
Rogers’ TD in the fourth quarter sparked the Warriors on a night where the offense struggled.
Top players
T.J. Buckman, Winton Woods: The senior linebacker had 14 tackles, 10 solo, with one sack and 3.5 tackles for loss. The sack stopped a big La Salle scoring threat. He was also WW’s punter, hitting a 68-yarder that was downed at the 1 in the first quarter.
Tra’mar Harris, Winton Woods: He had six catches for 84 yards, four of those on the Warriors’ most sustained drive of the game.
Drae Arnold, La Salle: He had two interceptions, one to set up a touchdown and another to stop a scoring threat for the Warriors.
Brady O’Connor, La Salle: The junior caught a touchdown pass and led the Lancers with 10 tackles, seven solo with 2.5 for loss.
Winton Woods 12, La Salle 6
La Salle 0 6 0 0-6
Winton Woods 0 0 0 12-12
LS – O’Connor 3 pass from McLaughlin (kick failed)
WW – Rogers Jr. 50 blocked field goal return (kick failed)
WW – Gooding 12 run (kick blocked)
Recors: LS 4-7, WW 8-3
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'It's a great team win:' Winton Woods rallies to beat La Salle, 12-6
