Fresh off clinching its first league title since 2016, the Toledo football team nearly found itself upset to end the regular season, but pulled out a win at the last second, beating Stevenson 34-28.
“It turned out to be a good game — if you were a fan,” Toledo coach Mike Christensen said. “ It wasn’t a great game for us.”
Up by seven late in the fourth, the Riverhawks stopped the Bulldogs on three straight goal-to-go plays, only for Stevenson to score with 2:30 left on fourth-and-goal to tie things up. With a shortening clock to work with, Toledo marched 60 yards down the field, before Geoffrey Glass plunged into the end zone from a yard out with 10 seconds left to take the lead for good.
That touchdown came too late for Stevenson to respond, like the Bulldogs had all night to that point. Throwing the ball all over the field, quarterback Kacen Bach torched the Riverhawks for multiple big plays to keep his side in it.
Meanwhile, while Christensen said his team didn’t necessarily take its foot off the gas after wrapping up its league title, he could see the tough matchup coming.
“It’s kind of like the Raymond-South Bend game, when I knew we didn’t prepare well, and we got our butts handed to us,” he said. “This week, I knew we didn’t prepare well, and it was a tough game. At some point our guys have to realize that there are no weeks off.”
Toledo will stay at home for its crossover matchup as the 2B South champ, hosting North No. 5 Ilwaco.
