Bill Ryan/The Gazette
Glenelg's Scott Wheeler tackles Kyle Williams of Marriotts Ridge during Friday night's game.
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Turnovers made, then broke the host Glenelg High football team, which lost to Marriotts Ridge after Mustangs' lineman Austin Carroll scored the game-winning touchdown off a recovered fumble during a 28-20 win on Friday.
The Gladiators, who fell to 2-3 overall and in the Howard County League, initially took a 7-0 halftime lead on a 40-yard fumble recovery return by Colin Osbourne.
But the Mustangs (4-1, 4-1) had three drives in the third quarter, all three starting in Glenelg territory, and all three ending in touchdowns.
The first drive by the visitors began at the Gladiators 18-yard line, courtesy of a 56-yard kickoff return by Matt Banta. The second began 42 yards away because of an interception by Kyle Williams. And the third was only 30 yards away off an interception from Paul Lee.
To take the 20-7 lead, Marriotts Ridge quarterback Tim Blair ran in touchdowns of 4 and 2 yards and threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Derek Coleman.
Glenelg would hurt itself with another interception and fumble before the Gladiators finally opted to strike back in the final five minutes of regulation.
After getting sacked back to the Glenelg 23 yard line, Shannon Maura busted out a 22-yard run and Gage Trawick connected with Ricky Dubois for a 35-yard pass. The big plays helped set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Trawick to Casey Alteiri.
With 2 minutes and 20 seconds left to play, the Gladiators forced a four-and-out that ate up only 77 seconds. They got to the Mustangs 40-yard line before facing 4th and 10 with :26.3 left to play.
It was then that a happy accident tied up the game, as Trawick's pass, intended for Dubois, was deflected. Taylor Sones snagged it out of the air and found 40 yards of open field to paydirt. Known for its ground game, Glenelg called 31 pass plays while only running on seven occasions during the second half.
In the first overtime, the Gladiators' defense felt they had a stop on Marriotts Ridge when Scott Wheeler wrapped up Blair and drove him to the ground. Initially thought to be a sack for a loss of four yards on fourth down, it was instead ruled that Blair fumbled the ball. A collection of whistle-less confusion ensued, with the Mustangs' Austin Carroll, a lineman, running into the end zone with the ball. They also converted the 2-point conversion.
Glenelg's effort consisted of with four running plays, but was stopped in a pileup just short of the goal line.
