Friday night was supposed to mark the beginning of the playoff season for the Findlay Trojan Varsity Football team. Despite it seeming like the team had the game in the bag, as the scores held steady throughout the fourth quarter, the last few seconds of the game changed the fate of the season.

Olentangy Liberty, sitting at 28 points, scored a touchdown as the clock reached zero on the scoreboard, bringing the scores to Findlay 35, Liberty 34.

Marching band members speculated that had it not been for the timeout called by Findlay before the kick, Liberty may not have gone for the two-point conversion, as opposed to the kick. After scoring the conversion, Liberty ran victoriously down the field with the final score coming to Findlay 35, Liberty 36.

The season was not one lost though, as it was hard fought. Findlay beat the two year losing streak to Perrysburg, crushed rival school Fremont-Ross, and earned the title of champions of Northern Lakes League.

“I feel great about our season,” senior free safety Beret Helms commented. “We beat some teams that us seniors have never beaten, so it was pretty awesome to do that. I think we got to a point where we were playing great football and were really confident heading into the playoffs. We won an NLL championship, too, which was sweet.”

Nonetheless, the loss to Olentangy Liberty was difficult for many of the players, and especially those who are seniors.

“I was devastated,” junior linebacker Jacob Vance said.

Some Findlay Trojan senior football players will go on to college football teams and this loss just marked the end of their season with their high school team. For others, this was their last game altogether.

“It’s tough,” Helms said. “Really hard to kind of grasp the fact that we won’t ever play on Friday nights again, especially with the way it ended, it’s just hard to think about.”

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