Surprise! Meet your new starting quarterback for Margaretta football

Players on the Margaretta football team didn't know who the third-string quarterback was.

The quarterback himself didn't even know he was the backup's backup, until he did.

"It was a big surprise," Tyson Bailey said. "It was kind of a big deal. The team wasn't expecting it either. They weren't sure who it would be. When we found out it was me they were surprised and they believed I could get it done.

"Next man up. It is what it is. They believed in me and I believed in me and we went in and got it done. I was nervous at first. We've got a lot of reps in. Here we are and I feel pretty good about it."

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The sophomore has good reason after tossing touchdown passes to Kale Bailey and Carter Luzader, and adding a score on the ground as the Polar Bears earned their first victory, 26-7 last week over Woodmore in the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division.

"Starting off 0-4, none of us were happy," Bailey said. "We had an undefeated team coming to our place, we all knew it was time to put our heads down for a hard week of practice. We played as hard as we could each play; we wanted that one.

"We were all frustrated we weren't winning games. It was needed bad to get us on the right track."

Judah Keller returned to his post at safety, which might be more important for practice than games. Keller, who was expected to see snaps at quarterback, suffered a concussion in the first game and missed three weeks.

"He was great showing the offense where weaknesses were," Bailey said. "He's very physical. He reads everything well; he fills gaps and blitzes and he reads pass and he flies around and he knocks down balls. He plays wherever on the scout team defense and he showed us how to get better.

"He'll blitz and he's hard to block and it helped us out quite a bit."

Jake Bouy started at quarterback the first three weeks, but remains out after he suffered a concussion as well. In addition to maladies at quarterback, receiver Julian Washington injured his back in the preseason and won't play this year with his eyes on a healthy basketball season.

"It was a big factor not having all our guys," Bailey said. "We struggled but we adapted and each player tried to get better and it was a good thing for when they get back. It was a huge challenge without those players.

"Our offense and defense played well (Friday); we're more confident. I've gotten more comfortable throwing. We're coming in prepared and ready to play our hardest."

Margaretta's first four opponents have at least four wins. Unbeaten Hopewell-Loudon visits this week.

"(Last week) was really exciting for me," Bailey said. "Now that I've done that, I'm more comfortable making plays. Now, I know we can go do it again. After a huge win, we're in the right rhythm to keep playing well and hard. The first four weeks, we've grown to hate losing.

"We've been practicing extremely hard and really getting after things."

Bailey entered the season as a returning starter at outside linebacker and in a new role at running back. He hadn't played quarterback since middle school and is learning routes and trying to reprogram his arm for consistency with as many throws as possible, stationary or not.

"The goal now is to play hard, win as many games as possible, push for the playoffs and try to go undefeated all the way through the conference," he said. "Before the season, I wanted yards at running back and tackles at linebacker.

"I never thought I'd play quarterback, but here I am and it's been an exciting ride."

mhorn@gannett.com

419-307-4892

X: @MatthewHornNH

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Surprise! Meet your new starting quarterback for Margaretta football