Payton Feiden shucks a would-be Panther tackler on an early return.
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Brinley Vandiver threw for five touchdowns, including four to Isaac Bird.
The Polo Panthers turned the ball over 3 times in the fourth quarter and Gallatin made them pay each and every time … twice with touchdowns and lastly an interception that allowed the Bulldogs to run the clock down under 2 minutes left in the game.
Gallatin rallied from deficits of 13-0 and 21-6, scoring 42 of the game’s final points on their way to a 48-27 victory over Polo last Friday night. Quarterback Brinley Vandiver tossed 5 touchdown passes, 4 to Isaac Bird, and Kevin Meeks scored two pivotal TDs in the fourth quarter to put the game away for the Bulldogs.
Gavin Fitzwater staked the Panthers to an early lead when he took a perfectly executed inside counter 53 yards for the score. Killian Roark added the extra point kick.
The Panthers picked up a fourth and one with a Caleb Thompson quarterback keeper covering 20 yards to Gallatin’s 22 yard line late in the first period. Thompson found Logan Chapman all alone on the left side for a 21-yard scoring strike that threatened to blow the game open for the Panthers.
The Bulldogs countered with their first scoring play at 9:37 of the second quarter, set up by a Vandiver to Sperry pass of 54 yards. Facing fourth and 12, Vandiver connected with Bird in the back corner of the end zone. The conversion run failed.
Gallatin failed to cash in on a Vandiver interception and Polo upped the ante to 21-6 with a Thompson 7-yard pass to Mason Chapman and a Cody Blackwell 2-point conversion run
Meeks ran back the ensuing kickoff to the Panther 33. Stout running from Sperry advanced the ball to the 10 where Jagger Gray took over for a touchdown scamper. The score stood 21-12 after the failed conversion run.
With just over a minute left on the second quarter clock, Vandiver tossed a soft pass to Sperry coming out of the backfield and he fought up the sideline for 31 yards to the Panther 22. Bird hauled in his second TD pass of the game to narrow the GHS deficit to 21-18 at the half.
The Bulldogs grabbed the lead with their first possession of the second half when Bird came back for an underthrown ball and juked past a defender 49 yards down the sideline to the end zone. A Vandiver to Sperry pass gave the Dogs a 26-21 cushion.
A big defensive play of the night for the Bulldogs came with the Panthers facing 4th and 3 from Gallatin’s 24 yard line. Thompson dropped back looking for an open receiver, only to see Draygan Schweizer in his face. The Bulldog junior blasted Thompson as he threw and the pass sailed harmlessly wide of any Panther receiver.
Hard running by Sperry and Gray put Gallatin on the brink of another score with a minute left in the third period. Vandiver repeated an earlier TD toss to Bird and then connected with Feiden for the 2 points conversion that increased the Bulldog lead to 34-21.
A touchdown run by Blackwell pulled Polo to within one touchdown of the lead early in the fourth quarter but Gallatin would counter with 2 scores in just over 2 minutes of action, the first a 75-yard reception and run by Meeks and the second a 48-yard Meeks run set up by a forced fumble by Sperry.