West Holmes rallies to beat Galion in football playoffs

Graham Martin was in the right place at the right time.

The West Holmes senior hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass — which bounced off teammate Lynn Cline's hands and then off a defender — with under 30 seconds remaining in the game to lift the Knights past Galion 22-19 in a Division IV, Region 14 quarterfinal at Knights Stadium on Friday, Nov. 3.

Fourth-seeded West Holmes (10-2) advanced to play No. 1 Perkins (11-0), a 28-21 regional quarterfinal winner over St. Marys Memorial, in a regional semifinal at Marion Harding High School on Nov. 10.

Martin’s game-winning catch was his only catch of the game and just his third all season.

“I just saw hands upon hands, and the ball somehow made it through and came right to my chest,” Martin said. “… (The pass) wasn’t supposed to come to me at first, but it bounced off a couple of hands and ended up in my arms.”

After Gabe Ivy rushed for a 1-yard touchdown with just under three minutes left in the game to give Galion (8-4) a 19-14 lead, the Knights started their ensuing drive at their own 32-yard line.

They quickly marched down the field and deep into Tigers territory on the arm and legs of quarterback Morgan Smith, who completed two passes to Cline and rushed for a 30-yard gain, breaking several tackles in the process.

“I just read my blocks and didn’t really see a hole, so I bounced it to the left side and just kept my legs moving and kept on going, and they kept arm tackling and falling off because that’s not going to work,” said Smith, who finished with 146 yards and a score on 32 carries.

A false start forced West Holmes into a precarious situation — third-and-long from the Galion 16-yard line. That's when Smith threw a bullet across the middle to Cline, who wasn't ready for the ball and had it ricochet off his hands, then off a defender and into Martin's hands for a touchdown and a 20-19 lead.

“That’s not how we drew it up in practice,” Smith said with a laugh. “I didn’t know what to think on that one.”

“It was my bad (on the game-winning touchdown),” Cline said. “I wasn’t looking for the ball. I didn’t think I was open. I saw the safety over top of me. I looked back, and he threw me the ball. I should have caught it, but I tipped it up, and it ended up going into Graham’s hands, and it worked out just how we wanted it.”

Smith then threw a two-point conversion pass to Nate Fair to give the Knights a three-point lead.

Galion's last-ditch drive ended with Fair intercepting a pass around midfield.

Although Cline didn’t pull in the game-winning touchdown pass, the sophomore caught nearly everything else thrown in his direction. He finished with a school-record-tying 13 catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. Cline tied former Knight standout Brayden Chaney, who hauled in 13 passes against Bellevue during the 2017 season.

Cline knew he needed to step up when top receiver Kyle Maltarich left the game with an injury early in the second quarter. West Holmes was already playing without second-leading receiver Logan Zollars, who suffered a season-ending leg injury in its first playoff game.

“We knew that we lost some good receivers, so everybody was out there stepping up,” Cline said.

Martin also made an outstanding defensive play prior to his game-winning catch.

After Ivy rushed for a 1-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 19-14 lead with 2:39 left in the game, they went for a two-point conversion to try to go ahead by seven points. But quarterback Braxton Prosser was stuffed at the goal line by Martin.

“At first, I wasn’t sure that I read run, but then I saw the tight end out of the backfield,” Martin said. “He was tugging on me a little bit, so I came off the outside of him and hit (Prosser) as hard as I could because I knew he was close (to the goal line). It was a big play.”

A week after allowing a season-high 50 points to Bryan, WH’s defense stepped up time after time against Galion. The unit forced two turnovers and came up with several key stops on a night when field position was at a premium and offensive yards were hard to gain.

Cline recorded a team-high 22 tackles, Mason Shankel chipped in 19 and Elijah Williams-Dixon added 11 (two for loss).

“Tackling, getting off blocks and reading your keys were an extreme emphasis all week,” West Holmes coach Zach Gardner said. “Our kids went out and took our coaching to heart, and they went out and executed. I’m very proud of our defense.”

Smith finished 23-of-34 passing for 236 yards and two touchdowns. Maltarich hauled in five balls for 67 yards before leaving the game with an injury, and Fair snagged four passes for 35 yards.

West Holmes jumped out to a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter when Smith hit Cline for a 15-yard touchdown. The Tigers tied the score at 7-all with 38 seconds left until halftime on a 6-yard touchdown run by Prosser.

Ivy gave Galion its first lead of the game with a 44-yard rushing touchdown early in the fourth quarter, but the extra point attempt sailed wide left, leaving the Tigers with a 13-7 lead.

West Holmes regained the lead on its next possession as Smith capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. Alex Pringle's extra point pushed the Knights ahead by a point.

West Holmes has advanced to the regional semifinals or beyond each of the past four seasons.

“We are a program here,” Gardner said. “Don’t be mistaken. We are a program that is exactly where we were last year. Coming into this season people doubted us, wondering how we were going to be. Well, here we are.

“Our program is in exactly the same spot as we were last year, and that’s a testament to our kids and a testament to them buying into our program.”