”It was a dog fight, and it played out like we thought,“ said Northeastern High School football coach Jake Buchholtz. ”Unfortunately, we were on the short end of the stick."
The Jets led by eight points late in the fourth quarter, but fell to West Jefferson 42-36 in a back-and-forth overtime Ohio Heritage Conference North Division thriller on Friday night at Kile Field.
“I told them, ultimately, it’s not the outcome we wanted, but I’m proud to be their coach,” Buchholtz said. “I’m proud of their effort. I hope the community is still proud of them because it was a helluva ball game. Unfortunately, we were on the short end.”
Jets senior Cody Houseman ran for two TDs in the first half and Newman scored on a 2-yard run on the Jets’ first possession of the second half to give Northeastern a 21-14 lead. West Jefferson responded with a 65-yard drive capped by a 6-yard TD pass from Austin Buescher to Ethan Friessen and took the lead with 4:12 remaining on a 33-yard run by Buescher.
The Jets trailed 28-21 midway through the fourth quarter. Northeastern senior Diezel Taylor hit senior Kaleb Moone on a 33-yard TD pass and Taylor ran in the 2-point conversion with 2:30 remaining to give the Jets a 29-28 lead.
“I thought we did some really good things in our run game tonight, which we knew was kind of a strength for us,” Buchholtz said. “When plays needed to be made, our guys made plays.”
Northeastern senior Luke Mefford intercepted a pass on the Roughriders’ next possession and returned it to the 3-yard line. Jets senior Jackson Jones scored on the next play and Taylor kicked the extra point to give Northeastern a 36-28 lead.
But the Roughriders weren’t going to give up. They drove 60 yards in less than a minute, scoring on a 4-yard run by senior Braxton Vance. West Jefferson quarterback Austin Buescher ran in the 2-point conversion to send the game to overtime.
West Jefferson won the toss and elected to play defense. Taylor’s pass to senior Jacoby Newman on 4th-and-15 fell short, giving the Roughriders the ball with a chance to win the game.
A few plays later, Buescher scored on a 6-yard run to give West Jeff a 42-36 victory.
“I told our guys at the end, I have to be better,” Buchholtz said. “I thought I didn’t do the best job of putting our defense in good situations, mostly there at the end. If we get a stop, it’s a different ball game, but credit to them.”
Both teams entered the game undefeated. Northeastern fell to 5-1 and 0-1 in the OHC North. They host West Liberty-Salem (4-2, 1-0) next week at Conover Stadium. West Jefferson (6-0, 1-0) travels to Triad (0-6, 0-1).
While the loss may sting, the Jets have no time to feel sorry for themselves, Buchholtz said.
“I told our guys, four years ago we were in this situation against Greeneview and we came out on top and this year it didn’t happen,” he said. “We have to get better. We know West Liberty is going to be good, and we know Mechanicsburg is gonna be good, and we know that if we sit here and we sulk in this, it’s gonna be a rough, a rough month of October.”
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