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October 22, 2004 > Sports > Lovett edges Brown in overtime

Lovett edges Brown in overtime

By Stephen Whitfield | Thresher staff

The Lovett Powderpuff team inched closer to clinching a playoff berth with a 20-13 overtime win over winless Brown in this week’s Powderpuff Game of the Week. On its opening drive, Lovett marched down the field, culminating in a 20-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Kris Tucker. Brown responded immediately though, as sophomore running back Amy Richter ran for a 65-yard touchdown run on Brown’s opening play from scrimmage. After the initial scoring outburst, both defenses played better, as each team managed only one more touchdown in regulation despite each team’s many multi-play drives. Tucker caught a 64-yard touchdown pass — her second of the day — with 1:30 left in the second quarter to give Lovett a 13-6 lead, but Richter later matched her, scoring her second touchdown on the final play of the third quarter, to tie the game at 13. Lovett’s offense twice drove into Brown territory during the fourth quarter but failed to score on both occasions, forcing the first overtime game in recent memory. In the overtime period, senior quarterback Elizabeth Coble took control for Lovett, running twice for 12 yards and scoring the game-winning touchdown. After relying heavily on its running game at the beginning of the season, Lovett now uses its receivers more often, throwing the ball on 76 percent of its plays against Brown. ‘We’re always throwing in new things, and we always game-plan differently for each team we play,’ Lovett head coach Lanny Bose, a senior, said. ‘We went in just figuring out what we were going to do, and we saw some openings in the passing game and exploited them. Our girls really executed real well, and that made me very happy.’ Despite their big-play success, Lovett’s young receiving corps still made numerous unforced errors Saturday, dropping eight passes, including four on the opening drive. Tucker, who usually plays on defense, led the offense by catching three passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns, and she converted the extra point in overtime. ‘I think we’re going to continue with the passing game just because it seems to be working,’ Tucker said. ‘Today, everything was working — the practice has been paying off. I think we’re going to keep it up. We’ve got a lot of great receivers, and everybody’s been doing really well.’ With junior quarterback Brandi Burns starting her first game of the season, Brown relied on running back Richter offensively. Richter responded, running for 125 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries, catching two passes for a total of 20 yards, and even completing two of three passes for 38 yards. In total, she touched the ball on 21 of Brown’s 30 offensive plays. Richter said her increased role in the offense was an adjustment for her team. ‘Our offense changes with every game — we adapt to whatever team we’re playing against,’ Richter said. ‘With Lovett, it just worked that I ran the ball. … Today was a brand new offense for us, and we just felt it. It depends on the team — it can change every single game.’ With its win, Lovett improved to 5-0 and places itself in comfortable position. With a win in one of its final three games, Lovett will advance to the playoffs, and three wins will give Lovett the No. 1 seed. Its schedule gets tougher, however, as Lovett plays third-place Wiess, which improved to 4-1 with a 27-0 shutout of Will Rice, next week followed by games against playoff contender Baker and defending champion Sid Rich. Lovett’s last two victories against Brown and also winless Will Rice, have been by a combined total of eight points. ‘Will Rice and Brown are teams that have the capability [to put] wins together, and they just haven’t so far,’ Bose said. ‘As far as Lovett’s concerned, we just haven’t played the most focused football the last couple of weeks, and obviously we have some big games coming up. We’re going to have to put a full game together — we had some really good things happen on both sides, and then we started to get sloppy and bad things happened.’ Bose said the experience of playing close games will help his team in games against better teams later in the season. ‘The most important thing is that we pulled out a tough game,’ Bose said. ‘Being mentally prepared to play tough games — which we’re going to be doing the next three weeks — [is] really important. Being able to play with pressure on you — even if it’s against a team with which we probably shouldn’t have had so much pressure against — I’m glad we had that experience.’ Brown, which has lost its last 14 games dating back to 2002, is officially eliminated from playoff contention after falling to 0-5. Next week, Brown plays Martel (2-3), which is a contender for one of the final two playoff spots even though it lost to Sid Rich last weekend, 25-7. In other games, Will Rice (0-6) lost to Wiess on Saturday and to Hanszen (3-2) 18-7 on Sunday. Jones (2-3) kept its playoff hopes alive with a 12-6 win over Baker (2-3). Next week’s Powderpuff Game of the Week will feature contrasting styles, as Lovett and its potent passing attack plays Wiess’ power running game. Last season, Lovett contained Wiess’ offense in a 13-0 win. Next week’s Hanszen vs. Jones game will be a bonus game of the week. The teams are both battling for playoff spots, but Jones must win to avoid elimination from playoff contention.

Basketball GSA and Wiess are off to fast starts in men’s college basketball, each with a 2-0 record in the Pacific Division. Will Rice joined them in winning last Thursday night to improve to 1-1, while both Brown and Sid are 0-2. In the Atlantic Division, Baker stood at 1-0 through Tuesday’s games, with both Lovett and Jones at 1-1, and Martel 0-1. In women’s college basketball, Jones and Sid both clinched playoff spots from the Eastern Conference with 3-0 records after Lovett forfeited its last two games Monday and Jones beat GSA 41-20. In the Western Conference, Wiess is 3-0 after dealing Hanszen (2-1) its only loss by a 33-27 score Tuesday. Baker (1-1) also has a chance at the playoffs. Martel, Lovett, Sid and Wiess all opened with victories last week in freshman college basketball action.

Men’s Volleyball GSA (3-0) breezed to the top of the Ketchup League with a pair of two-game wins over Baker (0-2) and Will Rice (1-1) Wednesday. Martel beat Brown in two games in the only game so far in the Catsup League.

Ultimate Baker beat Martel 9-0 and Brown edged Will Rice 4-3 on the ultimate point in the opening night of ultimate action Tuesday. For the first time, ultimate will count toward the President’s Cup standings after two years as a trial sport.

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