After an 0-2 start to the 2022 season, Findlay High's football team needed a win in the worst kind of way.
For a while Friday night, it looked like that's how the Trojans would get one.
Stalled by costly penalties, crippled by untimely turnovers, Findlay found itself in a dogfight with Bowling Green. Dallas DeLaCruz fueled some long drives with a strong running game, though, Ryan Montgomery displayed the same form he did in his varsity debut against BG a year ago, and Javonte Hill hauled in two touchdown passes in the final four minutes and Findlay held off the Bobcats for a 35-19 victory.
"We have to figure that out. That can't happen, especially in big games," FHS coach Stefan Adams said after Findlay was flagged 11 times for 99 yards, turned the ball over on a fumble and an interception, and failed to cover an on-sides kick that gave Bowling Green a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter.
"We had a lot of bright spots, though, guys making plays when we needed to make them. I'm happy for the kids. I'm happy for the community. It was a good win."
Montgomery, a highly-recruited sophomore who got his first varsity start in Findlay's 2021 game with BG, completed 16 of 23 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns. Hill had seven catches for 111 yards and three scores, including 3- and 7-yard TD receptions in the final 3:59.
DeLaCruz carried 12 times for 119 yards, churning out more yards on the ground than Findlay did as an entire team in losses to Anthony Wayne and Perrysburg. The junior running back/linebacker, a two-way starter for the Trojans, also caught a 27-yard pass on a third-quarter scoring drive that put Findlay up 21-6.
"This means a whole lot. I think we needed that," DeLaCruz said.
"The last two weeks we just weren't playing our football. Practices this week were great. Everyone was locked in the whole time. We just came out and did what we had to do."
Findlay led 7-0 following a shoulda, woulda, coulda first half. The Trojans did capitalize on an interception by Donovan Harris to get on the scoreboard, with DeLaCruz blasting 20 yards on a draw play and Montgomery hitting Hill on a 46-yard catch-juke-and-run play for the score.
The first half numbers, though, were concerning.
Findlay's first two drives of the game were both curtailed by holding penalties, a third ended with an interception and a fourth, just before the half, on a fumble.
Findlay had 204 total yards in the first half, but Bowling Green had more first downs (9-7) and a huge edge in time of possession (15:40 to 8:20).
Findlay came out of the halftime locker room with a "take-charge" attitude, driving 73 yards in seven plays. Powering right up the middle, DeLaCruz started the drive with 13-, 10- and 4-yard bursts.
"I can't take too much credit because without my line, without their blocking, there's nothing I can do," DeLaCruz said.
Montgomery, after buying time with a shifty scramble to his right, capped it with a 33-strike to Harris on a busted but heads-up play.
Up 14-0 and executing well, Findlay seemed poised to run away with it. Instead, the Trojans and Bobcats began swapping haymakers like a couple of heavyweights.
Helped by a pass interference call that negated an interception, Bowling Green went 80 yards in just six plays, Peyton Harris covering the final 12 on a counter. When Findlay backed off the ensuing onsides kick, BG's Paul Archer, the kicker, raced in and covered the ball at the Findlay 34. Another six-play drive and Harris scored again, this time from 3 yards out, to trim Findlay's lead to 21-19. The Bobcats could have tied the game then and there, but they were unsuccessful on a pass for the 2-point conversion.
"I think everybody in the state thought we were going to lose big," said Bowling Green coach Josh Wade.
"(But) our kids stepped up and came to play. We got after it in the second half. I told my guys this is what playing a good football team is like. This is what football is, the back and forth.
"We've got a good football team in Bowling Green. We didn't come out on top, but I'm really proud of these guys."
Trailing just 21-19 with 8:40 left in the game, Bowling Green seemed to have all the momentum. Findlay got it back with one time-consuming drive, then added an insurance TD following a gut-check stop by the defense.
Montgomery heated up on the first drive, hitting Hill with 9- and 17-yard strikes and Reece Little for 15-yard gain to the 12. On a fourth-and-2 call from the 4, Montgomery lofted a fade to the end zone where Hill outjumped a defender for the ball.
Connor Harp's interception ended BG's final threat, with DeLaCruz breaking off one more big gain and Hill and Montgomery hooking up on one last TD pass.
"I think Ryan got comfortable, got loose, and that was good, too," Adams said.
"And I kept telling our line is pretty darn good. We just had to get them moving, and tonight, I think, was a good start for that, too."
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