Oliver Leads Oakville Past Mehlville

Check out more photos of the game and the fans on the Patch Facebook page!

Oakville sophomore Andy Oliver has only been playing the quarterback position for a year and a half.

And the last thing that he expected was to be under center for the big rivalry game against Mehlville.

But Oliver, a former wide receiver, was indeed the starting quarterback Friday night and he had a game he will remember forever. Oliver completed eight of 17 passes for 225 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Oliver also scored a rushing touchdown as Oakville won 34-17 at home.

"I didn't expect to be playing this year, but I got my opportunity when Javon (Henderson) got injured in the first game and I am just trying to make the best of it," Oliver said.

Oliver has the luxury of targets such as Javon and Jaron Henderson, who were on the receiving ends of the two Oliver touchdown throws. Javon's went for 53 yards while Jaron's was an 83-yarder. Both came in the third quarter. Javon finished the game with 185 yards of total offense. He rushed six times for 101 yards and caught four passes for 84 yards.

"I just kept throwing it up there and they came down with the catches," Oliver said. "It just feels great. The Mehlville game is the most important game of the season for us."

Oakville had a 16-3 halftime advantage on the strength of touchdown runs by Oliver and Moe LaGrand along with a field goal by Andrew Bick.

Mehlville gained some late momentum after a 69-yard drive culminated in a 34-yard field goal by Brandon Zufall on the last play of the first half.

Oakville seemed in complete control after the long touchdown passes to the Hendersons gave the Tigers a 28-3 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

It seemed like everything that could go wrong for the Panthers did go wrong as they had a touchdown called back early in the fourth quarter.

But the Panthers did not go down without a fight as Jeff White hit Zufall for a 19-yard touchdown pass with 7:43 to play.

Mehlville recovered the ensuing onside kick and scored two minutes later on a four-yard pass from White to Daniel Dixon.

The next onside kick attempt did not travel the necessary 10 yards. Oakville started in Panther territory and eventually scored the insurance touchdown on a four-yard quarterback sneak by Brendan Jost.

"Andy Oliver is a young guy who just keeps getting better," Oakville coach Arlee Conners said. "And the Hendersons are playmakers. It's nice to have the 6' 3'', 200-pound target. We try to find a way to get the ball in their hands.

"I think one of the keys tonight was the improved play of the offensive line. They gave us time to throw the ball downfield. The guys sell out everything in a rivalry game. Hopefully this will be a big confidence boost."

Oakville improves to 2-2 on the season while Mehlville fell for the third time in a row after an opening night win against Northwest.

"We just made a million mistakes tonight," Panther coach Eric Meyer said. "They played better than we did."

The Panthers played without standout running back Chayse Brown, who injured his knee against Lafayette. He had an MRI Friday. The results of that are not known as of now.