Fennville earns historic win with sensational touchdown pass from nose tackle
· Yahoo Sports
FENNVILLE - Senior night is a little extra special for the Fennville football team.
Being ineligible or the playoffs, the seniors season ended Friday night.
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But was it ever memorable.
Fennville coach Wendell Hughes put in an all-senior lineup to start the game, which included 275-pound nose tackle Omar Martinez lined up at quarterback.
He took the snap and ran up the left side - the old "student-body left" - and rumbled 30 yards for a first down as the crowd went wild.
Turns out, that was just the appetizer.
A couple plays later, Martinez was back in at quarterback and launched the ball 47 yards into the hands of senior receiver Jesse Bernard for a touchdown.
It is a memory Martinez, Bernard and the entire senior class will never forget made even better by the 42-22 win over Marcellus on Friday, Oct. 23.
"It means a lot to us to finish with a win on senior night," Martinez said. "I am so surprised it worked that well. The guys blocked really well (to make it happen). I'll never forget this."
Neither will his teammates, especially knowing it was the last game for the seniors.
"It makes this game everything. This is my last time playing with my friends from kindergarten. It is unexplainable how much this means. We couldn't end on a better note," senior Ashton "Happy" Senters said. "I don't think words can explain the memory of Omar throwing that touchdown made me so much happier than I have ever been. I will probably be telling this story to my kids."
The fun formation came from something Hughes saw in practice.
"I told them I would start all seniors. We were messing around before practice and he threw one a country mile. I asked him to do that again and he was throwing dimes. My wheels started spinning," Hughes said. "We were going to run the ball first, then throw, but we had a penalty on the second play. Then I went back to the regular offense, and it was really itching at me. So we tried it and I was tickled for the seniors. I was so happy it worked like it did.
Fennville finished the season 6-3, defeating a ranked team in the finale.
The Blackhawks put together back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2017-18 and ninth time in the past 47 seasons.
It is Fennville's 17th six-win season. It was the sixth time the Blackhawks scored more than 300 points and eighth time they scored 100 or more points more than their opponents.
Seamus Lynch scored on a direct snap and Mason Sabala hit Bernard for the conversion with 6:55 to go in the half, pulling the Blackhawks within 16-14.
Sabala marched the Blackhawks the length of the field and ran in a 2-yard keeper with 1:11 to go in the half. The conversion missed but Fennville led 20-16.
On the first drive of the second half, Sabala threw a 34-yard touchdown to Lynch on fourth-and-11. Bernard's conversion pushed the Blackhawks lead to 28-16.
After a Marcellus score, Fennville scored on a pitch from Sabala to Bernard early in the fourth quarter. The conversion pass to Bernard was good and the lead was 36-22 with 11:08 to go.
Senior Ashton Senters came up with a huge tackle for a 9-yard loss then fellow senior Israel Arredondo added another on fourth down to give the Blackhawks the ball. Senters then recovered a fumble to seal it then scored on an 11-yard run with 2:11 to go and a 42-22 lead. Brandon Lavery added a late interception.
Fennville's seniors are Martinez, Bernard, Kaiden Atteberry, Gavin Beltran, Riley Campbell, Khordell Bernard, Senters, Nolan Menear, Lavery, Arredondo and Calvin Giles, who also had his senior night for marching band.
"This was their playoff game. We have been saying that all week," Hughes said.
Sabala was 11-for-18 passing for 143 yards and a touchdown. Lynch had six catches for 99 yards and a touchdown.
Atteberry had 6.5 tackles and Arredondo had six.
Why Fennville can't make the playoffs
While many teams with winning records have the excitement in anticipation of making the playoffs, and who they will face.
For two years in a row, that hasn't been the Fennville football team, despite a winning record.
That is because the Blackhawks dropped down to 8-person football a few years ago. Since Fennville High School is technically too big for 8-player, the team cannot make the playoffs.
Even if they were eligible, 8-person football usually requires a 7-2 record to make the playoffs since it has fewer rounds.
It is a tough deal, but one the school administration made to make sure football didn't evaporate in Fennville with numbers in the program dropping to an all-time low.
That means every Week 9, the Blackhawks are playing their final game of the season, whether they are 9-0 or 0-9.
The first few years, it wasn't a disappointment because the Blackhawks weren't going to make the playoffs anyway.
"It is disappointing we don't get that opportunity. We are trying to get back to 11-man, but to have a program garner some success, we have to stay in 8-man right now," Hughes said.
But the Blackhawks have had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in a decade.
The recent success of the program could lead to more numbers in the youth football programs in the area and could eventually lead Fennville back to 11-person football - and eventually the playoffs.
But there is a certain specialness to the finality of each Fennville season - especially this one.
"It is a rallying cry for our seniors. Last year, we made the trip all the way up to Onaway on Week 9. We stayed overnight and the boys will have great memories from that for the rest of their lives," Hughes said. "We were at home this year."
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’[email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Fennville earns historic win with sensational touchdown pass from nose tackle