SIDNEY — The fun continues for Sidney’s football team, and Ratez Roberts owes his uncle for being a part of it.
Sidney is 7-0 for the first time since 1974 after Thursday’s 49-42 win over Tippecanoe in a Greater Western Ohio Conference American North game. The home bleachers were packed at Sidney Memorial Stadium, despite the game being broadcast by Fox 45.
The word on this season’s Yellow Jackets has long been out. If you go to a Sidney game, you’ll likely see big plays, and maybe even record performances.
“We’ve got big playmakers on all sides of the ball,” Roberts, a junior receiver, said. “We all know how to make plays. This is my first year playing football in high school. It’s a great experience, and I just want to keep playing.”
Roberts played football in middle school but didn’t play in his first two years of high school. His addition has added another big-play threat to an offense already loaded with playmakers. Roberts has a team-high 16 receptions with 335 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
Roberts started with the team in weight training this past summer on a week-by-week basis.
“I’m really glad I stuck with it,” Roberts said. “My uncle finally convinced me to play. I’m glad I stucked with it and played. …All high school (my uncle) had been begging me to play. I knew we’d have something special this year, so I just decided to come out.”
The season got more special on Thursday. Aside from the historic start, running back Isaiah Bowser and kicker Hallie Truesdale set records.
Truesdale kicked five extra points to reach 37 on the season, which is a new school record. Bowser finished with 266 rushing yards and reached 1,900 rushing yards on the season, which is a school record. He set the previous record last season with 1,877 yards.
Bowser reached the mark with 1:45 left in the game. Sidney faced a fourth down deep in Tippecanoe territory and elected to try to convert it with a tie score. Bowser just didn’t get the first down — he busted through the line and ran straight up the middle of the field for a 71-yard touchdown. Caleb Harris had an interception with under a minute left to seal the win for Sidney.
Roberts gave Sidney a 42-35 lead earlier in the fourth quarter on a touchdown reception… or rather, fumble recovery for a touchdown.
Andre Gordon threw a 13-yard pass to Roberts with 3:04 left in the fourth, which popped out of Roberts’ hands and fell in the end zone. Roberts recovered the fumble for a touchdown to give Sidney a 42-35 lead.
“I saw one DB on me and after the play was called, I looked at Dre and was ready for it to come to me,” Roberts said. “… It was all just a reaction. I honestly didn’t have anything going through my head, I just wanted to catch the ball and score.”
Gordon completed 10-of-17 pass attempts for 174 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 123 yards and two scores.
Sidney finished with 546 yards of offense — a typical performance for a team that averages 42.3 points and a GWOC-best 499 yards per game.
The performance of Tippecanoe’s offense is also typical of Sidney’s opponents, much to coach Adam Doenges’ chagrin. The Red Devils amassed 386 yards, including 237 rushing yards by Cole Barhorst, who scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to keep pace with Sidney’s scoring. Barhorst’s last touchdown was a 90-yard kickoff return with 2:50 left that tied the game 42-42.
“We had a lot of big plays, but I wish we didn’t have quite as many on the other side of the ball sometimes,” Doenges said. “… It was just guys not getting their jobs done and missed tackles. Despite what some people might think, we do practice tackling. Sometimes I think we’re not in good positions and other times we just don’t wrap up, and other times the other kids are just better. We’ve got to get better.”
But…
“At the end of the day, it wasn’t pretty, but 7-0 is 7-0,” Doenges said.
Doenges also the game was the latest display of the team’s grittiness this season. Of Sidney’s seven wins, five have come by margins of seven points or less.
“That’s been the knock and something I’d not been real happy with the last six or seven years,” Doenges said. “I just didn’t think we were tough enough in these kinds of situations, and now we’ve proved that we are tough enough. Now, we’ve just got to try to win these games by a little bigger margin.”
The Yellow Jackets will face Troy next Friday at Memorial Stadium in a GWOC North game. Sidney and Troy are tied for first in the league with 2-0 records.
