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Friday Playoff Chaos

Tony ChapmanBy
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THE OUTFIELD, YORK — In an old-school setting for a hard hitting old-school football game, you couldn’t help but have some technology in your hands to try to manhandle the chaos on Friday night in the NSAA football playoffs.

Oh, and sure, York’s 23-20 win over Seward was worth your money on Friday night. But, man was everything else around the state worth it as well. You betcha. That’s why football is so great. Let’s try to give you a blow-by-blow from all of the games.

The afternoon started with some western Nebraska 6-Man action.

4:18 PM Harvard is the first winner of the day, punching their ticket to a second straight 6-Man semifinal.


4:37 PM Minatare gets a 58-18 win to advance to the semifinals, where they will eventually learn that they will travel to Hay Springs, a later 51-8 winner over Spalding Academy. The Omaha World-Herald’s Stu Pospisil, on a whirlwind panhandle tour, filed this game report where Indian junior Kaleb Gonzales ran for 265 yards and kicked a 6-man record 42-yard field goal in the win.

*****

6:00 PM Games begin in McCook, Hildreth and Wahoo. They would end, not how most expected. You’d need to follow them on your phone to stay with them.

Six-Man: After scoring 100 points in a first round win, Wilcox-Hildreth found themselves in a world of hurt trailing McCool Junction 37-10 early in the third quarter.

Even Dave Griek thought they were done, but then…

Full game recap from the York News-Times.

Class C-1: Meanwhile, in Wahoo, the Neumann Cavaliers were upset-minded.

But, Pierce wouldn’t give up. The second-ranked Bluejays took a late lead.

By halftime of the 7:00 games word was spreading. And, we saw this from Neumann kicker David Lilly — who didn’t attempt a field goal all year, or an extra point during regulation. Wow.

Class B: About that same time, we heard of Waverly hanging with and running on third-ranked McCook. Down 23-21 at half (20-7 in the first quarter), the Vikings got a huge game from quarterback Rhett Jordan, who ran for 297 yards on 26 attempts in the 36-30 win.

*****

The 7:00 games were too nuts, most notably, the classic in York. But, at Buell Stadium, Grand Island made a furious comeback to advance their third Class A semifinal since 2013. In Class C-2, top-seeded and top-ranked Centennial came from behind late to advance past BRLD.

Class A: Burke handles Lincoln Southeast (still without all-state linebacker Nick Heinrich). Bellevue West and Elkhorn South play a doozie, as do Millard West and Westside. But, the play and game of the night game from Millard South and Grand Island.

The Patriots led 17-7 in the third quarter, when the Islanders hit for the Bounce-A-Rooski. That’s Cole Evans to Carson Cahoy to Broc Douglass. Douglass had two touchdown grabs in the win for GISH and Caleb Francl the winner with under two minutes left, for a 27-24 win.

Class B: While one Class B game was a yawner (Skutt’s 61-6 win over Blair), the other remaining games left us with our eyes open and our jaws dropped. Roncalli was having their with Scottsbluff until quarterback Jack Dotzler went down with injury that required an overnight stay at a local hospital. With each score update, we scratched our head just a little bit more. The Bearcats had allowed just 20 points twice all season.

Leading 38-14 when Dotzler left near halftime, ‘Bluff scored 46 unanswered points on a record-setting night by Keegan Reifschnieder in a 60-38 win. The best part was Saturday morning when Dotzler took to Twitter after some visitors.

Meanwhile in York, the Dukes and Bluejays were putting on another one for the ages. York led 14-13 at the half, tied the game at 20 on a Jacob Diaz run on the first play of the fourth quarter but Thomas Ivey missed the extra point.

With 24 seconds left, “Ice Man Thomas” redeemed himself.

And, it wouldn’t be a close Seward football game — the Jay’s lost their three games by nine points total — without them making the other team play all the way to the final whistle.

Class C-1: The top seeds held after Neumann’s stunner. Aurora started slow, but took control against Gothenburg. Wahoo got past Adams Central and Ord played a complete game against Ashland-Greenwood.

Class C-2: Seeds held in Class C-2 as well, the top-four advancing to the semifinals. But, Centennial needed a late Caleb Horne run and a Jackson Hirschfeld interception to escape 33-28 over the Wolverines. In David City, second-ranked Sutton had a little easier time than most expected with David City Aquinas.

That Sutton win sets up a much anticipated semifinal with defending Class C-1 champion Norfolk Catholic, who defeated St. Paul. Centennial gets Oakland-Craig, who took a 35-21 win over Wilber-Clatonia.

The chaos complete; it’s time for another Friday. This time with a trip to Lincoln on the line. We’ll see you on the sidelines, or our Twitter feed. Either is good by us.

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