Three points and three seconds. It could not have much closer, unless maybe it had been 1 point and 1 second.
Either way, East Greene suffered a heartbreaking loss to longtime rival Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids Friday night as the Crusaders scored with just 3 seconds left to beat EG 29-26 and remain unbeaten in Division 7 at 6-0 while the Hawks fell to 4-2.
Of course, the loss was tempered somewhat by EG having clinched a spot in the 8-Man Football playoffs. It’s the Hawks’ first-ever playoff appearance in 8-Man football and the first since qualifying 21 years ago after three straight appearances (1987-89) in Class A (11 man).
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East Greene came up short, 15-2, in last year's game at Ar-We-Va, but running back Schyler Bardole, one of the all-time leading career rushers in 8-man football in Iowa, will look to lead the Hawks to a win tonight in Westside. (Photo from AWVCSD.com) |
Coon Rapids-Bayard takes a perfect D7 mark (7-1 overall) to Glidden where it will face Glidden-Ralston (also 6-0 in D7 and 7-1 overall) to determine the Division winner and top-seed in the playoffs. First-place bragging rights will be determined in the “Lincoln League” (D7) right on the Original Lincoln Highway (today’s U.S. 30), where the GR gridders play, although both teams will host playoff games next week against the No. 3 and 4 seeds from Division 8.
Boyer Valley has already nailed down the No. 4 spot in Division 7 and will head to the top-seeded team in D8 on Wednesday.
CRB 29, EG 26: East Greene has had a fierce rivalry in boys and girls sports with CRB over the years, and this game was more of the same. It was a thriller from start to finish. According to the website of KCIM radio station in Carroll, CRB QB Michael Schwenk left the game in the first half with an injury, but returned to action in the second half. His top receiver, Jacob Esdohr, filled in at QB during his absence.
East Greene went into halftime with a 1 point lead but CRB went back in front after the break. But the Hawks kept battling and it looked like victory was in hand when they scored with just 35 seconds left in the game to go up 26-21. A two-point conversion would put them up by eight points forcing CRB to run the field in just 35 seconds, score a TD and then either kick to tie or add a two-point conversion to win.
But EG’s two-point conversion attempt was stopped and then the unthinkable happened. The Crusaders drove the length of the field in just 5 plays and scored with just 3 seconds on the clock. They added insult to injury by succeeding on their two-point conversion.
The Hawks only had time left to get the kickoff after the touchdown and return the ball all the way to payday, but that did not happen, so CRB got the win and the chance to host a playoff spot at home, in addition to setting up a somewhat expected CRB-GR finale for the Division title.
EG did everything it could to keep itself in the driver’s seat for a possible three-way tie atop D7. The Hawks certainly had the firepower, amassing a whopping 465 total yards to CRB’s 298. EG was clearly moving the ball as it had 27 first downs compared to just 12 for the Crusaders.
But four fumbles and an interception by QB Tory Beger really did the Hawks in. This is a problem that plagued the Hawks last year throughout the season but not as much this year, so that level of miscues in a big game was troubling.
The Hawk defense again rose to the occasion, limiting Schwenk to 13 completions in 27 attempts for 210 yards and intercepting him twice. Schwenk is one of the state’s all-time leading quarterbacks, and these numbers were way below his season average. EG’s Schyler Bardole showed why he is one of the state’s all-time best running backs as he racked up 268 yards on 48 carries and scored three touchdowns and a two-point conversion.
QB Tory Beger went 5-9 for 73 yards and the interception. Beger also carried the ball 18 times for 53 yards and a TD. Tyler Cooklin rounded out the offense with 12 carries for 68 yards.
Bardole, Beger and Cooklin all had good efforts on defense. Bardole led the Hawks with 9 tackles and he intercepted a pass and ran it back 12 yards. Cooklin intercepted a pass and ran it back 22 yards while Beger recovered a fumble.
HAWKS vs. AR-WE-VA: The Hawks will need to bounce back for a road trip to Westside to take on a tough Ar-We-Va Rockets squad. Ar-We-Va has a strong tradition, having qualified for the playoffs four straight years in 8-Man (2006-2009) and three times in the 1990s in Class A.
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Nic Nicoliasen heads down the sideline toward the goal line after hauling in a pass deep in Rocket territory in last year's game at Ar-We-Va. (Photo from AWVCSD.com) |
Ar-We-Va was eliminated from a playoff spot a few weeks ago, but will be playing for pride and upholding its advantage over EG, as the Hawks have never beaten the Rockets since Ar-We-Va moved to 8-Man in 2002, a year after EG made the switch.
Ar-We-Va gave D7 co-leader Glidden-Ralston a very tough game on Oct. 8, losing 24-13, and the Rockets fell to Boyer Valley by just one, 28-27, earlier in the season. The Rockets are 2-4 in Division 7 and 3-5 overall.
Most of the attention in D7 will be on the game in Glidden however, as the Wildcats are ranked 8th in state by the D.M. Register and the Crusaders are among a handful of teams right behind the top 10.
UPDATING THE RECORD BOOKS: Bardole ranks No. 4 for all-time career touchdowns in 8-man football, and the three scored at CRB moved him to 88, just one TD behind Shane Nicholson who played at Melcher-Dallas from 2005 to 2008. One touchdown against Ar-We-Va will move him into a tie and two or more touchdowns will move him past Nicholson into the No. 3 slot. Bardole is fifth in most points scored in a career (574) and four more points will move him to No. 4 past Jared Bruce (577) who played at Aurelia from 2007 to 2009. Nine points scored will move him into the No. 3 slot, now filled by Nicholson at 582. In career rushing yards, Bardole is fourth at 4,296 and closing in on Jeff Struecker (4,377) who played for Sentral (Fenton) from 2000 to 2003. Bardole has a been a starter in the backfield since his freshman season in 2007.
District 7 Standings
Coon Rapids-Bayard 6-0, 7-1
Glidden-Ralston 6-0, 7-1
East Greene 4-2, 6-2
Boyer Valley 3-3, 5-3
Woodbine 2-4, 3-5
Ar-We-Va 2-4, 3-5
Walnut 1-5, 1-7
Charter Oak-Ute 0-6, 0-8
Oct. 22 Results:
Ar-We-Va (Westside) 55, Walnut 22
Boyer Valley (Dunlap) 54, Woodbine 13
Glidden-Ralston 92, Charter Oak-Ute 6
Coon Rapids-Bayard 29, East Greene 26
Oct. 29 Games:
Coon Rapids-Bayard at Glidden-Ralston
East Greene at Ar-We-Va
Walnut at Boyer Valley
Woodbine at Charter Oak-Ute
EYE ON GJ SAYS: If the Hawks need any incentive for tonight’s game, they need only think back to July and the susbstate baseball championship game in Denison where Ar-We-Va edged the Hawks 3-2 and advanced to the state tourney at Principal Park in Des Moines. Most of the Hawk starters—Beger, Cooklin, Aaron Lyons, Zach Dearborn and Wes Onken with the exception of Bardole, a non-baseball player—played key roles on that Hawk baseball squad.
Or some of the pummelings taken in years past at the hands of the Rockets should get them psyched up. In 2007, when Bardole was a freshman, the Hawks were whipped 57-7 as Ar-We-Va rolled up an 8-1 record and 4-1 in Division 2, losing only to GR. Both teams qualified for the playoffs that year and posted first-round wins. In a quarterfinal rematch, Ar-We-Va drubbed the Wildcats 44-6 to get revenge for the regular season loss and advance to the semifinal round, where they lost a heartbreaker to Armstrong-Ringsted, 45-42, in overtime. In 2008, EG closed the gap, falling to AWV 39-20 in a non-division game in Grand Junction. Last year, the Hawks traveled to Westside in the season opener, but fell in a tough, hard-fought game, 15-2. The game goes back to Westside again this year as both teams are back in the same division again, this time it’s D7 whereas in the mid 00s it was D2. Next year the Hawks will host.
EG @ ?? ON WED.: Teams vying for the top spots in Division 8 are first-place Fremont-Mills (6-0, 8-0), along with East Mills (5-1, 6-2) and Stanton (5-1). Fremont-Mills hosts East Mills tonight in Tabor while Stanton is at home against winless South Page (College Springs). The most likely scenario tonight is that Fremont-Mills prevails over East Mills, claiming the D8 crown at 7-0 and dropping East Mills to 5-2 and third place in the district with Stanton easily dispensing of South Page to grab the No. 2 spot at 6-1. EG would then travel to Stanton next Wednesday in a first-round playoff game.
If, however, East Mills should beat FM, ranked seventh in the state in 8-man, one spot ahead of Glidden-Ralston, and Stanton should prevail, then all three of those teams would end up deadlocked for first at 6-1 and they would have to go the points differential tie-breaker. FM has an advantage there, however, as they have won all their games by 13 points or more, so a close loss would not drop their points down too much. Stanton’s point difference is presently at 8.17 but most likely they will beat South Page by more than 13, so their differential would increase slightly while a win by EM, which stands at 9.17 with the tie-breaker, would also increase, based on how many points it would score in the win against the points it would give up, so a 2-, 3- or 6-point win might not really shift its differential by much, so it really all comes down to the points, and that might leave FM in first, and allow EM to keep it advantage over Stanton.
But seriously, EG fans might want to get their maps out and start planning their route down to Stanton, which is in southeastern Montgomery County, six miles from Red Oak, the county seat.
Interestingly, no matter which D8 team EG takes on, should the Hawks win, they would then meet the winner of the first-round game matching the D7 winner (CRB or GR) with the D8 No. 4 team, which is Nishnabotna, presently at 3-3 in fourth place with a game tonight at Essex (1-5, 1-7). Villisca and Sidney are both 2-4 and they face off in Sidney, but even if Nishna were to lose tonight and drop to a tie with the Villisca-Sidney winner, Nishna would get the No. 4 spot in the head-to-head tiebreaker, as it has beaten both teams this season.
Clearly, EG matches up well with CRB as noted in the 29-26 squeaker from last week but the incentive would be there to get one back from GR, too, as the Hawks are a much better team than the squad that ended up at the wrong end of this year’s Homecoming game with the Wildcats, 40-8.
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