ARCHBOLD, Ohio — The final minutes of Archbold’s season-opening football game against Genoa were a blur to coach David Dominique.
It was also a wild, thrilling, and heart-throbbing finish that gave the Blue Streaks an unlikely victory.
Archbold scored 21 points in the final six minutes and 27 in the final 16 to turn an early 14-0 deficit into a 27-14 nonconference win on Friday at Archbold High School.
“Toughness and resilience. The kids never quit,” Dominique said. “That was the big thing for us tonight.
“We got down early, we weren’t sure what was going on, but we never, ever quit from that first quarter on. That’s a testament to these kids. Great kids, worked their tails off, and played their tails off tonight.”
Archbold earned its fourth straight season-opening victory over Genoa since the two schools started the series in 2021. Overall, the Blue Streaks have won 10 straight season openers, all under 10th-year coach Dominique.
“I’ve been with the same coaches for a long time, been loyal to me, and just these kids have been awesome,” Dominique said. “We’re just blessed with great kids that buy into what we’re doing, and that’s why we have that success.”
The Comets’ hot start with touchdowns on their first two possessions put the Blue Streaks in a hole, but Archbold slowly worked its way back into the game in the second half.
Senior quarterback Kurt Krueger found classmate Evan Wendt in the left side of the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown with 5:16 left. Krueger’s ensuing 2-point conversion pass was off the mark, but Archbold trimmed its deficit to 14-12.
After a Genoa three-and-out, the Comets got a break when Zayden Dunn recovered a fumble from Wendt on a punt with 2:51 left. Genoa, however, tried for a big play through the air on the next snap, but Myles Mollenhauer’s pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and intercepted by Jason Grime.
“I was on top of the world when that actually happened,” Grime said. “But at the start, I was like ‘OK, we’ve got to go boys, we’ve got to work.’ We were down, and we get that, and I’m like, ‘Holy cow, man.’”
On the next play, Krueger found Morgan Harris deep for a 58-yard touchdown as Archbold took its first lead of the game, 20-14, with 2:34 left after Wendt’s 2-point conversion run.
“It was amazing. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” the sophomore Harris said of his second of two catches in the game. “It was the best feeling on earth.”
The swing of emotions was substantial for both sides. Archbold continued its momentum by pressuring Mollenhauer and forcing him to throw a pick-six to Anderson Bentley two plays later as the Blue Streaks built a 27-14 lead with a little more than two minutes remaining.
“It was very difficult. Really, the last three quarters were difficult,” Genoa coach Bill Fisher said. “Yes, it’s fun to be in the lead. But to have 14 points in the first quarter and get shut out the rest of the game like that was a little disheartening, especially when we had some good opportunities for more points and more yards.”
Krueger was 15-of-25 passing (9 of 13 in the second half) for 186 yards and three touchdowns, while Ryder Ryan had six catches for 91 yards and 15 carries for 65 yards and a score for Archbold.
Mollenhauer completed his first six passes and finished 14 of 23 for 205 yards and one touchdown, but had three interceptions. Jaxon Magnone, a 6-foot-4 sophomore wide receiver, tallied 158 yards and a score on eight catches for Genoa.
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