Leadingham dons his school name proudly over his oncedevastated heart.
Leadingham sent a heartfelt message that broke the hearts of West Carter Friday night, as the junior booted a 23yard field goal through the uprights to lift Fairview to a 1613 overtime win over West Carter at Blankenship Field.
"The biggest reason I moved to Fairview last year (from Ashland) was because it was my father alma mater," Leadingham said. "He played on the football team. I don have the size and the speed to do everything, but I nike air max australia contribute everything I can with my foot."
Fairview coach Nate McPeek displayed no shortage of confidence in his newfound weapon. made that wasn just because he a great kid, but he spends 20 minutes before practice kicking and he always stays after and kicks," McPeek said. "I going to use him all year."
The kicking game was quite pivotal in the tight contest between the Eagles and Comets, who battled to a 137 Fairview victory last season in Westwood.
Leadingham missed an extra point during the second quarter, but Fairview defense helped him to another opportunity.
After Harrison Bond broke out of a tackle and squirmed through a seam for ultimately a 97yard touchdown run with 4:18 remaining in regulation, the Eagles lined up and blocked Josh Ackerman extrapoint attempt.
"I knew then that my opportunity might be coming," Leadingham said. "I was trying to warm up, keep myself ready. Once we got into overtime, everything started coming together. I couldn have asked for a better defense to stop them."
The Eagles defense was the reason why Fairview was able to stretch the game to overtime. It went back to nearly 48 minutes before, actually, when Chris Brewer intercepted Bond on a halfback screen pass attempt on the first play from scrimmage. Brewer scampered 30 yards untouched to paydirt trainers australia cheap to help give the Eagles a 70 lead 13 seconds into the game. The sophomore fullback rumbled to 139 yards on the ground.
Brewer struck again, as his contributions were plentiful during a 10play, 85yard drive which he capped with a 3yard score.
West Carter was limited to just 27 yards offense during the first half, but thanks to Bond and a long run by Timmy Bradley, the Comets surpassed the Eagles in total yardage by game end. Bond rushed for 136 yards on 13 attempts to lead an offense that produced 225 yards.
Fairview had 210 total yards. After showing West Carter several variations of the WingT formation in the first half, the Eagles were not able to get back into a rhythm.
Bradley came up with Fairview lone lost fumble of four mishandlings, less than a minute after the Eagles Chris Kimbro accounted for Bond second interception.
The fumble set the Comets up in Fairview territory, and they took advantage by letting Mackenzie McGlone do the bulk of the running. He finished the scoring drive with a 4yard TD rush, putting West Carter on the board.
Following Bond gametying score, Fairview could not squeeze out enough yardage to deter McPeek from deciding to run out the clock.
West Carter won the overtime coin flip, but Comets coach Kevin Brown made the uncommon decision of taking the ball first.
"I know conventional wisdom says play defense there," Brown said. "But I thought, if we score here, we can break their back."
Zach Segina and Bobby Lakin made sure Bond was not going to hurt the Eagles again, as they flattened the quarterback on West Carter secondandgoal play. Then the Comets hurt themselves by committing a false start penalty. Bond incomplete pass on fourth down gave the Eagles their chance.
Jared Hutchinson ran all three plays leading up to Leadingham gamewinning field goal.
West Carter called a timeout to ice the junior kicker, and lined up to block it, but nothing was going to stop Leadingham foot from driving through the ball with confidence, even though it was firstever football game.