Tipp led by one point with 1:30 to play when Troy decided the only way to have a chance to win was to let the Red Devils score and get the ball back down eight points. But the Red Devils talked about the possibility during an injury timeout.
Liette broke loose up the middle while the Trojans made little effort to tackle him. So he went down at the 1-yard line so Troy wouldn’t get a chance to score. Then the Red Devils took a knee on three plays and celebrated a 13-12 victory for their fourth straight win over the Trojans.
Liette drew inspiration from a sign in the weight room that says, “Team Over Me.”
“I want to be like that,” he said. “I want to be that guy to kneel down and put the ball away. I just wanted to win this game for my team.”
Tipp (4-1, 4-0 Miami Valley League) outlasted Troy on a night when both teams missed scoring opportunities and made numerous mistakes.
In the first quarter, Tipp took possession at the Troy 22 off a penalty tacked on to a punt return and later at the 11 after Maddox Sivon’s interception. But Troy’s Logan Ullery ended Tipp’s first attempt with an interception on third-and-goal from the 3. On Tipp’s next try, Caleb Akins broke up a pass at the goal line and the Trojans blocked a field-goal attempt.
Tipp opened the second half with a drive into the red zone only to be intercepted by Creighton Verceles at the 2. Still, a 2-yard touchdown run by Liette in the second quarter and Peyton Schultz’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Davis in the third quarter were enough.
“I’m not going to guarantee victories, I’m not going to guarantee anything else besides our kids playing hard and leaving every last thing they have on the field,” Tipp coach Matt Burgbacher said. “And our kids did that tonight. We had some adversity with the turnovers and stuff like that, but I thought we responded tremendously to everything.”
Troy (4-1, 3-1) hurt itself over and over. Six false start penalties put them behind the chains often. And twice on the same second-quarter drive, running back Jahari Ward put the Trojans in the red zone on a 31-yard run and a 24-yard reception. But both plays were called back because of penalties and the Trojans eventually punted. Another drive in the second half began with two fumbled snaps and put the Trojans in an insurmountable third-and-23.
“The key was that we were trying to beat two opponents,” Troy coach Troy Everhart said. “Trying to beat a quality Tipp program and trying to beat our own minds because mentally we were checked out.”
The Trojans still had a chance leaning on Ward’s 26 carries for 132 yards. They led 6-0 on Aiden Kirkpatrick’s 69-yard touchdown pass to Johnathan Dilbone late in the first quarter. Ward scored on a 6-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter. But Tipp stopped him inside the 1 on the two-point try. The Trojans’ extra-point kick in the first half was blocked.
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