FREDERICKTOWN — The game of football, as we are frequently reminded, is a game of inches.
That was never more true than on Friday, when the Fredericktown Freddies missed a first down conversion by a mere inch with a minute to go, turning the ball over and completing a 17-14 loss to Bishop Ready.
The drive had lasted over 5 1/2 minutes — the Freddies had held the ball for all but four minutes of the entire second half — when they had a fourth-and-two at the Ready 31-yard line. Quarterback Ryan Logan faked a handoff up the middle and bootlegged to the right, diving toward the first-down spot on the sideline. At first, the Freddies bench celebrated, thinking he had the first down. But a measurement proved otherwise.
“We get a first down there, I’m almost 100 percent certain we would have scored,” said Fredericktown head coach Brian Baum. “We had the momentum. They just had a great stop there.”