DELAWARE — A hangover left over from last week, perhaps? Or did Delaware Hayes catch lightning in a bottle? In reality, turnovers and missed opportunities hindered the Mount Vernon football team in giving up the Pacers first Ohio Capital Conference win of the season on Friday, 21-14.
The first quarter was scoreless, but featured a quarterback change for the Jackets (5-3, 3-2). Greg Briggs, the starter, was relieved by Greg Dennis, the Week 1 starter.
“(Briggs) threw an interception early, so we gave the other kid (Dennis) a shot,” said Mount Vernon coach Anthony Naples.
In the second quarter, Dennis drove the Yellow Jackets (5-3, 3-2) to midfield, but had to set up to punt on fourth down. The punt was faked to J.D. Orr, however, and Orr raced 30 yards to the Hayes 20 for a new set of downs. Several plays later, Orr punched in from 4 yards out to give Mount Vernon a 7-0 lead.
The Pacers tied on Alex Rafeld’s 25-yard pass to Caleb Howell with 1:14 to play in the half. Mount Vernon used the time it had left, with the help of Delaware penalties, to take the ball down inside the red zone. The Jackets could have gone for a field goal, but tried three times to throw for a touchdown with 10 seconds to play. Two were knocked down by the Pacer defense and one was dropped, and the score remained deadlocked at 7.
“We thought we had an opportunity to score a touchdown,” said Mount Vernon coach Anthony Naples. “We had one dropped in the end zone and had one kid make a great play on another. We just thought we had a good chance.”