ANTWERP – Ayden Cavinee scored on touchdown runs of 15 and 59 yards to lead the Arlington Red Devils to a 27-20 victory over Antwerp in Division VII, Region 26, football playoff action Friday night at Archer Field.
Neither team scored in the opening stanza before the Archers finally broke through with eight seconds remaining in the first half.
Senior quarterback Carson Altimus scampered four yards to give Antwerp the first points of the evening as the blue and white took a 6-0 halftime advantage.
Arlington answered in the third quarter when Cavinee rumbled 15-yards for a score that tied the game at 6-6 entering the final period.
Cavinee then gave the Red Devils their first lead of the night, sprinting 59-yards for a touchdown with 11:20 left in the fourth quarter. Trenton Heacock added the two-point conversion run for a 14-6 Arlington advantage.
The Hancock County squad extended the lead with 5:20 remaining as Caden Russell plunged two-yards in pushing the Arlington advantage to 20-6.
Antwerp made things interesting, getting a 13-yard touchdown pass from Altimus to Landon Brewer as the Archers trimmed the deficit to 20-12 with 3:45 on the clock.
However, Arlington quickly answered to take control back.
The Red Devils needed only 22 seconds to find the endzone with Heacock tossing a six-yard scoring strike to Luke Metzger for a 27-12 lead at the 3:23 mark.
Antwerp again cut into the deficit when Altimus connected with Kayden Winslow on a 16-yard touchdown toss with 53 seconds left in the contest. Altimus also added the two-point conversion run to trim the deficit to 27-20.
Arlington, though, sealed the victory by recovering the ensuing onside kick and the Red Devils then ran out the clock to start the celebration.
Cavinee led the way for the Red Devils with 185 yards on 22 carries while Heacock added 43 yards over 14 attempts. Russell chipped in 32 rushing yards on eight tries for Arlington.
Altimus passed for a pair of touchdowns to pace the Archer offense while also adding 100 rushing yards on 18 carries.
Antwerp wraps up a Green Meadows Conference co-championship season with an overall record of 9-2 while the Archers were 6-1 in conference play.
