Mehlville Varsity Football took on Oakville last Friday in the opening round of districts. This was the second they met this season with the first meeting ending in a Mehlville loss with a fourth quarter comeback by Oakville. So when Mehlville saw they would take on their rivals again they were more than ready to take on the challenge.
With Mehlville entering districts as a heavy underdog against Oakville, but they didn’t play like it. mehlville opened up the game by scoring 14 unanswered points by two rushing touchdowns, one by senior quarterback Brendan Moore and senior fullback Matt Everding. In the second quarter Oakville finally put points on the board by D’Juan Reaves. Shortly after Mehlville answered with Brendan Moores second rushing touchdown of the game, his 12th of the season, putting Mehlville up 21-6 at half.
The third quarter was a defensive battle until the scoring was broke open when Andy Oliver threaded the needle on a 27 yard strike to Carvon Robison. On the next drive Mehlville used a halfback pass to find Kyle Bean 61 yards downfield for the touchdown. Although that was last touchdown Mehlville would score. They would have to rely heavily on their defence which had a tough task against the first team all-conference quarterback Andy Oliver. Mehlville Defence proved to be up to the challenge by picking off three passes and recovering a fumble. But Oakville came storming back with a late third quarter touchdown by D’Juan Reaves with a 74 yard touchdown run and a 34 yard touchdown pass by Andy Oliver to Arsante’ Conners.
Feeling the pressure of another Oakville comeback Mehlville had to step up. With time winding down Andy Oliver was leading his team down the field late in the fourth quarter, Mehlville stopped them and forced a fourth down. Just outside of field goal range and not enough time to punt, Oakville elects to go for it. It was an obvious passing situation as Andy Oliver drops back to pass and hits a wide open wide receiver, but the ball was knocked out by defensive back Darius Williams. Mehlville began celebrating as they knew it would only take a couple of kneel downs and they would move onto the next round of districts.
Check out the Gallery of the game at https://mehlvillemedia.com/?p=2577
