Apollo narrowly lost to Graves 14-7 in a game that was within the Eagles’ reach but was foiled by penalties.
The first half was an evenly matched battle between the two teams. The defenses from both teams opened with intense pressure as fourth downs were forced on the first drives for both Apollo and Graves. Apollo and Graves both hindered their play from multiple penalties on both offense and defense. Apollo had the worst end of the penalty situation as they had two touchdowns called back for holding. Had those penalties not been made, Apollo would have been victorious.
Graves put points on the board first after they found an open receiver for a pass and completed a 39-yard touchdown to make the score 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Apollo made a big play in the middle of the second quarter that could have tied the game. Max Johnson found Eli Masterson who broke away from a defender and ran into the endzone, but there was an offensive holding call and the touchdown did not stand. The score at halftime was 7-0 with Graves ahead.
Graves added more pressure onto Apollo by scoring first in the second half from a 6-yard touchdown pass to take their lead to 14-0. Apollo tried to answer back quickly with a big gain of yards from a pass from Johnson to Masterson. They were shut down however, after Apollo tried to convert the fourth down. Graves made sure the pass was incomplete and forced a turnover on downs.
Graves continued to mount defensive pressure and got multiple sacks for big losses of yards in the third quarter to halt Apollo’s offense. Apollo got close to scoring range in the fourth quarter, but was pushed all the way back to the 50-yard line after failing to convert the fourth down. On the second play of the next drive, Apollo forced a fumble. The ball was scooped up and ran into the endzone by Jamison Brown to make the score 14-7 late in the game.
Apollo had multiple opportunities to complete plays for big gains of yards in the second half. Johnson found success moving around in and moving out of the pocket, but multiple dropped passes and blocking errors that led to sacks halted their momentum. Head coach John Edge said he saw progression from Johnson despite the setbacks in this game.
“Yeah, we had some dropped balls and protection problems for him,” he said. “He’s still young, and he’s got moves to stay in the pocket and throw the ball, or get out of the pocket to throw, so he’s getting better.”
On Graves’ final drive, they were forced to a fourth down within field goal range. The attempted kick was no good and that set up Apollo to try and win or tie the game with their final drive. Apollo progressed up the field but were foiled within scoring range after Graves intercepted a pass to seal the final score at 14-7.
Looking back, Apollo head coach John Edge saw good defensive effort from the team, but the penalties amassed by the team were what stopped them from winning, he said.
“If only we can minimize our penalties on offense, because those two touchdowns that got called back hurt us,” he said. “Defensively, we had a really good game. Of course, we picked up a fumble and scored a touchdown, but we still have to keep fighting, playing and doing our jobs. We’ve got several weeks to get better before the playoffs and that’s how we’re going to approach it.”
