Meteor rally falls short

For the Montrose faithful it has become too common. A close first half, a momentum swing in the wrong direction and glimmers of hope late.

The Meteors made it exciting in the final minutes but once again fell short of victory in their 22-16 loss to Columbia Montour Vo Tech in a nonleague contest.

A scoreless first half was marred by penalties and turnovers by both teams.

“It was very uncharacteristic of us,” said Montrose Coach Bill Sandly. “We make a couple big plays only to have things called back because of penalties.”

Montrose withstood a couple of Columbia Montour drives to keep the game within reach. Columbia Montour seemed to take advantage when after a Montrose completion the ball was fumbled although the receiver appeared to be down.

The Ram got inside the ten yard line but the Montrose defense led by Brayden Timms was able to force a turnover on downs.

Timms made the biggest play of the half on a later drive when he dropped back into pass coverage and picked off Columbia Montour Quarterback Caleb Dawson’s pass for his first career interception.

“I just read the Quarterback, he rolled to his right and I was hoping to get a sack,” explained Timms. “But then he pulled up to throw and I threw my hands up and was able to catch it.”

Montrose seemed to carry the momentum of the play when Ethan Cina found Damien Rohan down the sideline to put the Meteors in scoring position, but a holding penalty negated the play and the Meteors played out the half unable to score.

 Columbia Montour was able able to get into the endzone first in the middle of the third quarter after Timms went down with a shoulder injury Fullback Mekhi Mundrick scored from six yards out.

The Rams extended the lead in the fourth quarter when Dawson connected with Seth Shoemaker from six yards out and beat two Meteors to the pylon to convert the two-point conversion to go up 14-0.  

On the following Meteor drive Cina threw his fifth interception of the game and the Rams returned it to the one-yard line. Two players later Dawson found Owen Reichner in the back of the endzone and Mundrick converted the two-point conversion.

“We just didn’t execute on offense in the second half,” said Sandly. “We drop two passes to open the half, our defense is on the field the whole time, you’re going to wear down.”

Montrose made it exciting against the Columbia Montour second-team defense when Cina found Dylan Geertgens from 14 yards out with just over two minutes remaining. On the two-point conversion Geertgens took the pitch from Cina on the Quarterback option to make the score 22-8.

After the Rams drive stalled Cina found Geertgens on a 30-yard slant pass and again converted the two-point conversion on the option to cut the lead to 22-16 with 37 seconds to play.

Columbia Montour was able to cover Henry Rogers’s squib kick and run out the clock.

“We were able to put something together after the game was in hand, but it’s very frustrating,” said Sandly. “This is a hard one to take.”