Jayden McFarland with the carry. Ward Moeller | Photo

It was a tale of two halves last Friday night for the Tecumseh football team.

The Arrows build a 14-point lead in the second quarter, but could not score again after that, as Bellefontaine took advantage of turnovers in the final 24 minutes as the Chiefs defeated the Arrows 34-14 at Spitzer Stadium last week.

“Our kids played hard and it was a battle, and the score doesn’t indicate how the battle was,” said Tecumseh coach Chris Cory. “The ball started rolling downhill in the second half and we couldn’t stop it. Things were going really good for us, then really bad.”

The Arrows scored first when Ryan Rowland scooped up a fumble and ran 33 yards for the games’ first score, a touchdown that gave the Arrows a 7-0 lead with 2:39 left in the first quarter. That’s how the first period ended, but the Arrows came back early in the second and added to their lead.

Jayden McFarland finished a drive for the Arrows with a six-yard scoring run with 10:18 left in the half, pushing the Arrows lead to 14-0.

Bellefontaine then returned the kickoff down inside the Arrows five yard line, then scored on the next play to cut the Arrows lead in half at 14-7. Tecumseh had a final drive of the half that stalled in Chiefs territory on a fourth down.

That’s how the first half ended, but that was not how the second half would go for the Arrows.

“I thought we dominated the first half, we had the ball 18 of the 24 minutes,” Cory said. “We were moving the ball and mixing it up well.”

Bellefontaine scored late in the third quarter on a pass to cut the deficit to 14-13, then one minute later, they ran an interception back for a touchdown that gave them the lead 21-14 heading to the fourth.

The fourth quarter saw two turnovers lead to more points for the Chiefs. The second was another interception return for a score to cap the scoring at 34-14. Bellefontaine outscored the Arrows 27-0 in second half.

“We just had too many turnovers, and never could get it together on offense,” Cory said. “We put our defense in some bad spots. They took advantage of our turnovers.”

“They have a lot of kids back, and any mistake that we made they capitalize on. That’s what you do with a veteran team, turn turnovers into points. We knew we couldn’t lose the turnover battle or gave up special team scores. The tide turned after the half, they dominated us in the second half.”

Kenyon Watson had 56 yard rushing for the Arrows. They return to action next Friday at Ben Logan.

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