Week Four Nebraska High School Football Heroes - Part I

Ashland-Greenwood's Connor Sapp stiff arms a Wahoo Neumann defender. *photo courtesy of Journal-Star

The 2010 regular season is half over for many Nebraska football teams and in week 4 there were some pretty impressive performances from one end of the state to the other. No, there is not a back that has hit the 1000 yard rushing mark as of yet, but at this time next week a Brock Sherman of Crete or a Chase Wurdeman of Seward may crack the mark. Let's get things underway and I certainly hope you're sitting down for this baby because there are a ton of great efforts from last weekend.

*Jimmie Forsythe-Omaha Burke -- Was the driving force for the Bulldogs as he has been the past three years. The magical Forsythe rushed for 176 yards on 17 carries and scored on runs of 12, 14, 15 and 24 yards. He was 6 of 14 in the passing department for an even 100 yards with one touchdown as Burke took down previously unbeaten Papillion LaVista 41-20. Forsythe now has rushed for 707 yards in 2010.

*Connor Sapp-Ashland-Greenwood -- Athletic signal caller had no mercy on a Wahoo Neumann squad who had 16 players suspended, including 9 starters. Sapp was 10-13 in the air for 286 big ones and three scores. Previously unbeaten and highly ranked Neumann played against AG's subs the entire 4th quarter and as the Bluejays rolled 41-0.

*Blake Merritt-Lincoln Pius X -- Now that he's healthy again, the Thunderbolts are better than ever. Last Friday Merritt ran for 104 yds and 2 TD's and threw for 123 and another score as the 'Bolts win a 28-24 thriller over 7th rated Ralston. Zach Schuppan was on the receiving end of 95 yards worth of those Merritt strikes. In addition, Taylor Kreifels continued his 1000 yard pace by running for 141 yards on 26 tries. Taylor is at 647 for the year in the rushing category.

*Chase Wurdeman-Seward -- Slippery, powerful IB exploded for an astounding 342 yards on 34 carries against hapless York. Wurdeman waltzed his way to the house on runs of 8, 13, 2, and 38 yards and returned a punt 56 yards for another score. Bluejays frolicked in the game 52-14 and Wurdeman swelled his yearly rushing total to 866. Think he'll hit a 1000?

*Todd Quick-Arcadia -- Super coach garnered his 100th career win as his 6-Man Huskie team outscored Minatare in a 52-48 thriller. Someone may have nailed a couple of free throws with time running out to put that baby away.

*Justin Terry-McCook -- Bison unleashed another fine running back last Friday against GI Northwest as Terry ran for 145 yards on 16 varies in McCook's 29-0 win at Viking field. Something in the water down there in Bison land, no doubt.

*Cody Rotert-Omaha Brownell-Talbot -- Not a week goes by without mentioning Cody's name , win or lose. Rotert skipped for 228 yards and scored on runs of 9, 4 and 42 yards. He also caught a 20 yard TD pass in BT's 35-6 win over Louisville. Cody is at 783 rushing for this 2010 season.

*Sam Hillman-Syracuse -- Finally kicked it into high gear last week against Omaha Roncalli. Injured all of last season, Hillman piled up 165 total yards and scored on TD scoots of 36 and 11 yards as the guys in green beat Falls City 28-20.

*Tanner Fate-High Plains -- Sophomore quarterback is not playing like a 10th grader by a long shot. Fate rushed for FIVE Tds on jaunts of 4, 21, 5, 2, and 5 yards in a basketball type 60-42 score win over Nebraska Christian of Central City. Fate also tossed a 65 yard scoring pass to Ian Carson. Nebr. Christian wasn't without a great performance either. Luke Woods scored on runs of 40, 8, 8, 1, and 44 yards while rushing for 93 yards on 11 carries. FIVE Tds on 11 carries "ain't" bad, friends.

*Troy McQuistion-Newman Grove -- QB rushed for 225 yards and scored on runs of 10, 1 and 20 yards in the Bluejay's 42-6 route of slumping Fullerton. Teammate Ben Jacobson ran for 119 yards and another 2 scores for the winners, but Newman Grove's boys were naughty to the tune of 132 yards in penalties for the contest. I'm sure they'll encounter a long practice Monday with Bill Mimick directing things. Get the running shoes on, fellas.

*Jacob Shaffer-Aurora -- All-State candidate hauled in 2 scoring strikes from magical man, Tyson Broekemeier as the Huskies won their 14th straight game. In the 48-7 pasting of Waverly, the wiry Shaffer caught 6 passes for 99 yards. His TD catches were of 53 and 21 yards.

*Tanner Lieck-Fillmore Central -- Ran for 154-15 carries in the Panther's 34-13 win over Lincoln Lutheran. Fillmore piled up 476 total yards in the victory which pushed their record to 3-1 for the season. This Friday is the big match-up with district foe, Milford. It's a home game for Fillmore.

*Tiras 'Boltin' Bolton-Omaha Westside -- Struck again, this time with 173 yards on 24 carries in a 24-13 "W" against Omaha North. The Westside rambler now has 685 yards for the year and the Warriors are in a complete turnaround from last season.....very cool.

*Chance Younger-Bertrand -- And talk about a turnaround, Bertrand has done it too. The 2010 Vikings are 4-0 after winning only once in 2009. Last week in a 40-14 win over Amherst, Younger rushed for 148-30 carries and scored 4 times. Chance now has run for 525 yards for the season.

*Trent Mastny-Howells -- Oh look, another great runner from Howells! Couldn't be the line blocking could it? In a battle of the unbeatens, the Bobcats trounced Humphrey Public, 42-14 and Mastny rushed for 221 yards on 30 totes, running for scores of 24, 1 and 8 yards. Dexter Hanzel of Humphrey did his best to stop the Howells juggernaut by recording an astronomical 28 tackles in the loss.

*Mikah Fullner-Wisner-Pilger -- In a 26-13 loss to Cross County and not much help in the way of blocking, the good looking junior powered his way to 142 yards on 24 carries. Fuller, after running for 740 yards a year ago, raised his 2010 total to 802 yards. Thousand yards, here we come.

Part Two will immediately follow. I told you to be sitting down for a while.