High school football: Connor Jamison leads dramatic comeback

BEREA — Connor Jamison's Brunswick football teammates and coaches nicknamed him Uncle Rico from the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" because he can throw the ball over a mountain. By the end of Friday night, the student section was chanting "The Truth" and "MVP" after the senior led the Blue Devils to a wild 47-42 non-league victory over Berea-Midpark. All were appropriate after Jamison led Brunswick back from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter with a 47-yard bomb to Jake Tamosiunas on 4th-and-10 with 33 seconds left for the winner. The throw completed a career night for Jamison in which he went 30-for-46 for a school-record 407 yards, five touchdowns and one interception in his return to his home district after spending the last three seasons at Holy Name. He also had a 1-yard touchdown run. "I'm feeling awesome," Jamison said. "In my previous years, I've never thrown for over 200 yards. I never had more than two passing touchdowns. I never had a rushing touchdown before. "It's pretty sweet, because I finally got to be here with my boys and ball out." The odds that Jamison would get to play hero looked pretty slim after Titans star receiver Nick Reece took a Wildcat snap and ran 58 yards for a touchdown to put Berea-Midpark up 42-27 with 7:36 left. The odds still appeared long after Jamison ran the ball in with 5:25 left, but the third mishandled snap on a kick of the game still left Brunswick trailing by nine points. Then Jamison hit running back Gavin Ballok for his second touchdown catch to cut the deficit to 42-40 with 1:31 left. The Titans secured the onside kick. After the Blue Devils forced a turnover on downs near midfield, Brunswick was still down to its last breath when the first three passes of the ensuing drive were incomplete. On fourth down, Jamison scrambled, Tamosiunas broke his shallow route to run deep and caught the winner. "Be an athlete," Tamosiunas said. "I just found a way to get open. Connor Jamison threw a great ball. I saw it up there, went up and grabbed it. That was it." The play helped give James Boyeas a win in his debut as Blue Devils coach. "I don't know if words can truly explain it," he said. "I'm just so proud of our kids. For their resilience, their fight, grit and determination. There's no give up in our guys. There were times when they were taking some momentum, but that was a complete team win. It was fun." After Reece (6 catches, 108 yards, 4 total touchdowns) had tormented Brunswick for most of the night, Adin Evert stepped up to make sure it didn't happen again, intercepting Dylan Papuchak's pass for Reece on the ensuing drive to secure the win. Evert also caught Jamison's first two touchdowns among nine catches for 165 yards. Anthony Gamboa had a team-high 11 catches for 91 yards while also rushing for the team's first touchdown on a 10-yard jet sweep to cut Berea-Midpark's lead to 14-7. Despite the win, Boyeas and his staff were left with plenty to work on ahead of the home opener on Friday against Olmsted Falls. Brunswick committed 11 penalties for 75 yards, though they were offset by Berea-Midpark's 21 for 154. The defense was unable to get off the field on third and fourth downs in key spots, leading to allowing 498 yards and a number of breakaway plays, and the kicking game saw mishandled snaps blow chances at a 42-yard field goal and two extra points. Still, the Blue Devils overcame all that to win despite not leading until the final 33 seconds. "It's surreal," Evert said. "Last year we started to turn it around a little bit to go 5-6, now we start the season 1-0. It was a super fun game, and I'm super excited to go celebrate with my teammates and friends." Papuchak hit Reece for two scores early and a 14-0 lead before Gamboa's rushing touchdown. After Jamison hit Evert for his first touchdown, a 45-yarder, to tie, Berea-Midpark went up 28-14 with 1:15 in the first half. Papuchak (15-for-20, 347 yards, 4 TDs) hit back-to-back touchdowns. The Blue Devils avoided disaster late in the half after they failed to grab a high-hanging short kickoff. Luke Leichliter recovered a forced fumble to set up a touchdown strike to Evert with two seconds left in the first half. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Brunswick 47, Berea-Midpark 42 BRUNSWICK&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; 0 21 6 20 — 47 BEREA-MIDPARK&emsp; 7 21 7 14 — 42 First B-M — Nick Reece 33 pass from Dylan Papuchak (kick blocked), 2:50. Second B-M — Reece 40 from Papuchak (Xaviere Harden run), 11:13. B — Anthony Gamboa 10 run (Logan Evans kick), 8:08. B — Adin Evert 45 pass from Connor Jamison (Evans kick), 5:26. B-M — Andre Alexander 30 pass from Papuchak (Dusan Novakovic kick), 4:05. B-M — Reece 8 pass from Papuchak (Novakovic kick), 1:15. B — Evert 9 pass from Jamison (Evans kick), 0:02. Third B-M — Harden 2 run (Novakovic kick), 8:23. B — Gavin Ballok 15 pass from Jamison (pass failed), 1:35. Fourth B-M — Reece 58 run (Novakovic kick), 7:36. B — Jamison 1 run (run failed), 5:25. B — Ballok 6 pass from Jamison (Evans kick), 1:31. B — Jake Tamosiunas 47 pass from Jamison (Evans kick), 0:33. &emsp;&emsp;B&emsp; B-M First downs&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;23 &emsp;15 Rushing&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;35/96&emsp;27/151 Rushing average&emsp;2.7&emsp;5.6 Passing&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;30/46&emsp;15/20 Passing yards&emsp;407&emsp;347 Total offense&emsp;81/503&emsp;47/498 Punting&emsp;3/41.3&emsp;4/36.7 Penalties&emsp;11/75&emsp;21/154 Fumbles&emsp;3/0&emsp;1/1 RUSHING: Brunswick — Ballok 13-73, Gamboa 10-24, Ajay Rebraca 4-21, Tyler Burk 1-8, Jamison 4-(-7), Team 3-(-23). Berea-Midpark — Harden 19-75, Reece 1-58, Papuchak 8-18. PASSING: Brunswick — Jamison 30-46-407-1. Berea-Midpark — Papuchak 15-20-347-1 RECEIVING: Brunswick — Evert 9-165, Gamboa 11-91, Tamosiunas 2-86, Burk 6-44, Ballok 2-21. Berea-Midpark — Alexander 4-135, Reece 6-108, Denym Gray 1-46, Adonis Shider 2-33, Harden 2-25.