Gary III needed only two touchdowns to advance out of the first round of the men’s open league flag-football playoffs Tuesday night. A third-quarter touchdown catch by sophomore Mike Witt gave the team the go-ahead score to defeat a young Red Fury squad, 12-7, at the Hawkeye Recreation Fields.

After allowing a touchdown and an extra point on the first drive of the game, Gary III stiffened up on defense to claw back in to the contest before managing the game-winning score.

“Our defense played really well,” Gary III senior Nick Edwards said. The team’s offense was not playing its usual style early on, he said, and a change in the second half propelled the comeback. “We were trying to go deep a bunch in the first half, but second half we just got back to doing a little dink and dunk kind of thing.”

Much of the success could also be attributed to capitalizing on opportunities. On fourth and goal at the 1-yard line, quarterback Edwards threw an incomplete pass to senior Robbie Foley. But the referee threw a flag for pass interference, leading to a first down.

On second down, Edwards found senior Rob Culbertson for a 1-yard touchdown. However, a missed extra point attempt kept the score 7-6 in Red Fury’s favor at halftime.

Just as in the second quarter, Red Fury could not get anything going on offense, pestered by the play of Foley.

On a fourth-and-short situation in the middle of the field, Foley snagged an interception on a tipped ball and ran back to the Red Fury 30-yard line.

“I didn’t want to just get the ball back in our own zone,” he said. “So if it was up in the air, I was going to go for the pick instead of knocking it down.”

Converting on the turnover, Witt scored on the last play of the third quarter to give his team the lead. Another late interception by Foley on a Red Fury drive secured the game for Gary III.

Red Fury members were frustrated by how the game progressed. But they conceded the loss partly fell on them.

“It was the breaks,” quarterback Sean Tidet said. “They got that tip interception, the fourth-down call in the end zone, and [us] not catching interceptions.”

Brothers Clayton and Justin Boltz led Red Fury with an interception and touchdown on the night, respectively. The two probably didn’t realize they were going up against a Division-I quality prospect.

Foley, who played at Dubuque Hempstead High School, said he had an offer to play at Iowa State. His loyalty to Iowa forced him to turn it down, however.

“I’m a die-hard Hawkeye fan,” he said. “I could just never find myself at Iowa State … I would never second guess myself. I love Iowa.”

Foley, Gary III’s statistical leader, said his team’s offense needs to improve if it wants to keep moving.

“We definitely need to score more points the next game,” he said. “Those better teams [in later rounds] aren’t going to be putting up seven points a game.”