Barnum Pulls off Mircale

  With under a minute to play in regulation the Barnum Bombers were facing a ton of adversity.  The Bombers were at their own five-yard line and they trailed the Mesabi East Giants 22-20.  In other words they needed a miracle.  The miracle came in the form of a seldom used hook-and-ladder play that ended with Brandon Newman racing to the end zone for a game-winning touchdown that gave the Bombers the 26-22 win.

  More on the slick play later.  Things started well for the Bombers and it looked like they would put the game away.  Brandon Newman, who finished with 274 yards rushing, scored in the first quarter on an 87-yard touchdown run, but the extra point pass failed and the Bombers were up 6-0.  Later in the first quarter it was Newman crashing in for a six-yard touchdown run pushing the lead to 12-0 after they failed to convert the two-point conversion.

  In the second quarter it was another Barnum score with quarterback Hunter Lake tossing a 14-yard pass to Michell Weller and Newman added the two-point conversion run to give the Bombers a 20-0 lead.

  Things begin to change late in the second quarter when Cole Klopp caught a Collin Luke pass for an eight yard score for Mesabi East.  After Luke passed to Alex Marfiot for the two-point conversion the Giants had cut the lead to 20-8.

  The third quarter saw the Giants score again when Paul Meloche bolted in from 60 yards away making it 20-16 after the two-point conversion pass to Brandon Evancevich from Luke.  Mesabi East finally took their first lead of the game when Marfiot raced into the end zone from 37 yards away making the scored 22-20 entering the final quarter with the Giants leading.

  Flash forward to THE PLAY!  With under a minute remaining, and trailing 22-20, the Bombers were facing 95 yards in order to score.  The Bombers opted to put the game into the hands of their offensive line and three key players.  With Mitchell Weller lined up as a receiver to the left, the Bombers lined up Newman as a receiver to the right.

  The idea was to have quarterback Hunter Lake pass the ball about 25 yards up field to Weller in the middle of the field and have Newman cross behind Weller and have Weller flip him the ball.  All of this was contingent on Lake having enough time in the pocket to make the pass.  He did.  And the rest of the plan worked to perfection.

Weller caught the ball and Newman crossed behind him and took a perfect pitch from Weller to the end zone 70 yards away.  The score gave Barnum the lead and the eventual win.

  The win moved the Bombers record to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the Great Polar Red Divison, while Mesabi East drops to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play.