Ottawa County news. (Port Clinton, Ohio) 1931-1956, 1953-11-20
Redskins Defense Sparks Victory Over Bellevue

"a
the Century" as coaches, school of
ficials and sports writer's long ago
threw away their crystal bowls
but it will be many moons before
Port Clinton and Bellevue football
fans forget Friday nights historic
battle in the Fremont Road Sta
dunn.
And it will be a long time be-
fore hoarse voices are back to nor
malcy as Redskin fans roared
through the final %anza, giving
vocal support to the gridders who
suddenly saw "the light" as they
tossed the word defeat" out of
the dictionary and substituted the
word "guts".
PORT CLINTON IL, BELLE
VUE 6.
That was the final score but it
definitely wasn't the story.
Purdue's historic "giant killer"
victories to snap the lengthy win
strings of Notre Dame and Mich
igan State were not even as i'm
pressive or unexpected as Port
Clinton's 1853 squad winning over
Bellevue. Not that Bellevue has
had brilliant season but the
visitors had won six games over
tough opposition and lost only to
undefeated Shelby, 20 to IA, in
league competition.
Port Clinton Redskins had not
tasted victory until week earlier
when they were practically handed
33 to O win by plucky but weak
squad from Lakeside. Despite the
Lakeside defeat, the Redskins had
a defeatist attitude when they
took to the field Friday night as
they knew Bellevue was a far
stronger team.
What happened during the first
quarter is anyone's guess. If Coach
Joe Lukac's uphill fight to instill
spirit into the squad finally paid
off is mere conjecture. More like
ly answer to the sudden about face
was the teams realization that it
takes II men to play football and
all II must cooperate to win.
When the Redskins scored first
as Joe McAtee hauled in an aerial
from Bob Twarek and raced 80
yards to The Promised Land, the
fans could not only see but could
feel The Big Change. McAtee's
score was set UP on another 80
yard pass play, AL Jensen to Clyde
Enderle.
Stunned and over-confident, the
Bellevue Redmen might as we'll
have gone home after the first
quarter as Port Clinton was de-
termined to win. While the visitors
tried everything 'in the book" to
pull the ultimate defeat from the
fire, everything went wrong as
they fumbled on important plays
and saw the eager Redskins inter
cept passes and put up an, impreg-
naIble defense.
Bellevue did push over a touch.
down in the second quarter and
the half-time score was 6 to g.
Vern EiSenhauser intercept Red.
skin pass On the 80 during the
second quarter and John Lepley
scored from the six. Lepley's extra
point placement was wide.
Port Clinton took to the air a.
gain in the third quarter and the
attack paid off. AL Jensen hurled
to Twarek who scored the winning
touchdown from the nine. The
extra point attempt again failed.
Last Ditch Stand
Without doubt the big thrill OF
the game came in the final seconds
when Bellevue made it first down
on Port Clinton's three-yard-line
with goal to go. With victory in
their grasp, the Redskins kney they
couldn't give an inch, and an inch
they didn't give Battered and de-
termined, they held for downs
grabbed possession of the ball and
clung tenaciously to the pigskin
as the game ended and the crowd
went wild