North Side at Concordia
Final Score: 35-7 Concordia
We have reached the time of year where it’s easy to look ahead, with sectional matchups already set. Both teams knew who they would be playing in the postseason days before this game would be played. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on your final opponent when there are bigger things on the horizon.
Perhaps, that’s what happened to North Side, who fell to Concordia on Friday after winning 4 of their last 5 coming into this game. The Legends have had everything go their way over those last 5 games. They were able to come from behind and beat South Side, hold off a Luers comeback, and gave Homestead a good effort by scoring 21 against their defense.
Things looked good for them early on. The defense came up with a few stops, including an interception, and the offense scored a touchdown. But, once Concordia scored a touchdown themselves, things got out of hand. The Legends committed 3 turnovers, killing many promising drives that could have ended in touchdowns. The defense couldn’t hold Concordia’s offense any longer in the second half and allowed 22 points in that half alone.
It was a much more celebratory scene for the Cadets who got a much-needed confidence boost in their final game of the season, on senior night. But, on this night, it was a junior who made the difference. QB Brandon Davis has been effective this year with his 14 TD passes, but his 15 INT’s have made him somewhat of a liability at the same time. He wasn’t a liability at all against North Side as he threw for 188 yds, ran for another 60 yds, and had 3 total TD.
“They run a man defense so we talked about this during practice a lot,” Davis said. “We executed well against their man defense and got big plays, took it one play at a time, and had a good game.”
Of course, with Davis playing at a high level the whole team was able to benefit. RB Amir Drew ran for 85 yds and 2 TD. WR Jalen Vanderbosch only had 2 catches, but made the most of them with 76 yds and 1 TD. The Concordia defense also showed up with 3 big turnovers, as mentioned above. All in all, it was a very important win that couldn’t have come at a better time for the Cadets, as Coach Mannigel knows very well.
“Well I think the real key to the game was the turnovers,” he said. “They had 3, we had 1. I don’t know that we stopped them per se, but we were able to limit their big plays. When we got down into the red zone, it was really the bend but don’t break philosophy in action. And so again I don’t know that we stopped them, but we were able to get a few turnovers and that was huge for us.”
Now that the regular season has come to an end, teams will be able to look ahead to their matchups. North Side won’t play for another week, when they meet up with Dwenger. Concordia, though, does not get a bye week and will face the Maconaquah Braves on the road this upcoming Friday. According to Mannigel, the Braves are a very good team.
“They rush for 350 yds a game. They pack 11 guys in the box offensively. That’s not something we ever see here, so that in of itself is difficult. So now you got to play a team that knows what they’re doing and they do it really well. Their running back is a preseason all-state player and he rushes for the majority of those 350 yds. They just want to grind it out so we’re going to have to be men. If we can stop the run then we’re in good shape, but no one’s stopped the run this year.”
“It is difficult since we don’t have any common opponents and we don’t know how they’d do in the SAC. All I know is they’re really good and really solid in what they do, their fundamentals, so we’ll have to play well.”
As it stands now, at the end of the regular season, Concordia is 5th in the standings at 4-5, while North Side is 6th, also at 4-5.
Bishop Dwenger at Northrop
Final Score: 9-7 Bishop Dwenger
High school football tends to be more predictable than college or the NFL. But every once in a while we see a score that’s a little shocking. This game fits the bill as Dwenger was expected to steamroll the Bruins, using all their starters. It didn’t happen. Northrop almost pulled the upset of the year, had it not been for an eventual game-winning field goal by Joe Bulanda from 30 yds out. Neither offense was very successful, as can be seen from the score. The real killer for Dwenger was turnovers. They had 2 fumbles that ended their drives. As a team that prefers to run a lot and eat up clock, you can’t expect to win if you commit turnovers. It’s the risk that the Saints take, knowing that each drive is precious with their style of football. While Northrop suffers another disappointing loss, Dwenger won’t be too happy with their performance either, especially with sectionals on the way. We’ll have to see in a few weeks if Dwenger is able to clean it all up and win more convincingly next time.
South Side at Homestead
Final Score: 56-0 Homestead
There isn’t much to say as Homestead took care of a visibly overmatched South Side team on Friday. QB Luke Goode has now eclipsed 2,000 yds this season, after he threw for 204 yds and 3 TD against the Archers. The leading receiver in this game for the Spartans was Jake Archbold who had 3 rec, for 84 yds, and 2 TD. And, probably the most important statistic for Homestead, RB Ryan Burton has remained consistent with 92 yds and 1 TD, with the team totaling 282 yds and 5 TD on the ground. The Spartans would still love to have RB Braeden Hardwick back, but have managed good rushing totals in his absence.
Snider at Bishop Luers
Final Score: 35-0 Snider
Snider got another nice win on Friday, shutting out Luers, and can now prepare for their sectional game, a rematch with Carroll. QB Jon Barnes Jr had 133 yds through the air and went crazy on the ground, gobbling up 90 yds and 1 TD. RB’s Lenny Bennett and Kameron Trotter also helped out on the ground. Bennett had 90 yds and 1 TD and Trotter had 79 yds and 2 TD. A lot went well for the Panthers this game and they’ll need to pick up where they left off against the Chargers.
Wayne at Carroll
Final Score: 20-12 Carroll
Carroll was feeling the same way that Dwenger was, after they realized they were only beating Wayne 13-12 heading into the 4th quarter. QB Jeff Becker played well, with 179 yds passing, 42 yds rushing, and 2 TD, but the rest of the team was slacking, especially on defense. They gave up 173 yds to QB Aidan Meek and a long 80 yd touchdown to RB Keshaun Fields, who had 157 yds total. Wayne had 472 yds of total offense in this game, to just 311 total yds for Carroll, and it almost resulted in their first win of the year. Carroll will need to play with much more fire when they meet the Panthers in a couple of weeks, or else their season will be over.
