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A chilly playoff Knight for DC-S Tigers
BASSETT, Neb. — The cold winds of trouble arrived as soon as Jake Heerten started resembling Patrick Mahomes mixed with some Tim Tebow Tuesday night.
Heerten threw two touchdown passes, directed North Central’s season-best ground attack and made who knows how many improvised plays in a 50-14 state quarterfinal victory over Dundy County-Stratton.
“It seemed like we had him wrapped up and then whoo, the ball would be out of his hands,” DC-S coach Mike Spargo observed.
The Tigers (8-3 record) roared into Basett off amazing road playoff wins over No. 2 South Loup (20-14 in overtime) and rival Cambridge (30-29).
Yet the Knights started with a flea-flicker trick pass from Heerten to lead 8-0 just five plays into Tuesday’s game.
Heerten — who threw 35 touchdown passes in 10 previous games — made it 36 when he found Zac Palmer from four yards away. He put a two-point pass perfectly through the winds into Trace Ebert’s arms.
North Central (7-3 record) then turned to what coach Ryan Richey described as the team’s “most consistent rushing game all season.”
Fullback Sage Miller brushed off Tigers for an 11-yard touchdown run and just like that — those Knights led 14-0.
“We’ve come behind before obviously,” Spargo said. “But you can’t keep digging yourself into holes usually.”
Dundy County-Stratton did answer those two early scores with sophomore Serbando Diaz rumbling 58 yards to yet another of his TDs this season.
Diaz would add 140 yards to those nearly 1,800 rushing in his first “featured back” varsity season.
Remember, Diaz missed an entire game against Hitchcock Count y earlier this season — so he’s been averaging about 200 a contest.
Quarterback Quade Myers fired the two-point pass to Lane Shillington that brought DC-S within 14-8.
However, this became the Tigers’ frustrating theme. They had more chances to get closer — especially since Domonic Sis recovered the floating kickoff that dropped inside North Central’s 20.
They were set up to force a quick 14-14 tie or maybe even move ahead.
The Knights instead stopped those next four plays, regained possession and zoomed to a third score.
“We had some chances,” Spargo said. “The game was closer than the score showed at 50-14.”
A chilly sequel arrived soon after halftime as DC-S began rallying from down 30-8.
Myers quarterbacked an impressive 56-yard scoring drive featuring his best run of about 30 yards and a clutch third-down completion to Shillington.
Diaz’s eight-yard TD blast sliced the Knights’ advantage to 30-14.
Barely two plays later, DC-S blitzers blasted through and forced a North Central fumble.
Now the Tigers were in business to possibly make it 30-20 or even 30-22.
They faced fourth down but were almost ready to reach first inside the 15 when...
That icy football slipped loose.
Knights fell on the fumble at their own 14.
Heerten quickly directed a great response where he ran to one huge first down on fourth-and-12.
Rushing TD machine Charlie Gale soon blew across the goal line again, and Heerten easily added another two points as it reached 38-14.
“We knew they were fast, but I think the surprising thing was how they were so physical,” Spargo said about the D-1 West No. 6-seed Knights. “We just didn’t quite match their intensity.”
Miller’s 15-yard scoring burst and one more amazing Heerten play made it 50-14.
He was nearly sacked but got the ball to Ebert for an 11-yard TD.
The Tigers certainly played to that final whistle just like their two playoff wins.
Senior Jacob Krutsinger-Haines made one final tackle behind the line. He’s the only Tiger football player who will be graduating since their remaining roster are all juniors, sophomores and even freshmen.
Diaz delivered two more tough runs of 20 and 10 yards as the running clock expired these Tigers’ superb season.
North Central advances to its first football state semifinal since becoming a co-op of schools in Rock County and Keya Paya County.
Meanwhile, the Tigers should remember no DC-S team had won a football playoff game until this fall.
Now they have two victories and so much experience returning for 2019.
“It used to be something to think about us making the playoffs. Then we went four straight years and didn’t win a game,” Spargo said. “Now we’ve accomplished that twice. We can move on and get that next check off our list. We’d love to be playing (for a state title) at Memorial Stadium before long.”