SA back in sectional final

UNION CITY — Both teams made some big plays. The Starfires just made more of them.
The Class 1A No. 4 South Adams High School football team had three scoring plays of more than 70 yards Friday as it earned a sectional-championship berth for the second straight season with a 40-26 victory over the Union City Indians.
“It was a good football game,” said SAHS coach Jason Arnold. “You have two really good teams who have some athletes. …
“I thought we played pretty well. We executed when we needed to. We made some mistakes, but we were able to overcome them.
“That took a team effort tonight.”
The Starfires, who overcame an early fumble and a 63-yard kickoff return by Union City, advance to host Sheridan in the Sectional 36 title game Friday. Sheridan improved to 8-3 on the season with a 48-16 semifinal victory over Lapel.
South Adams (10-1), which fell to Churubusco in the 2010 sectional finale, cashed in on a trio of big plays, the first of which gave them the lead for good.
After his team fell behind following a fumble on the opening kickoff, Marcus Rich turned the game with 1:08 left in the first quarter. The senior running back fumbled a punt, picked the ball back up and returned it all the way down the left sideline in front of the Starfire bench for an 80-yard touchdown.
Rich added a 77-yard touchdown reception from Dustin Wanner on the next SAHS possession. And following a Union City score on an end-around option pass to cut the margin to two points, Rich reached the end zone again on a 33-yard pass from Wanner with just over a minute to go in the opening half.
Wanner added a 42-yard run five minutes into the second half to extend the Starfires’ lead, and later hit Cole Farlow on another 77-yard TD pass up the right sideline.
“Those guys have been huge for us all year,” said Arnold of Rich and Wanner. “They’re special players. … They’ve been very key in getting this program turned around. … Great players play big in big games, and I think those guys did that.”
Rich racked up 116 yards on just three receptions, and added another 56 yards on five carries.
Wanner finished 6-of-10 passing for 215 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran the ball 14 times for 146 yards, and scored his team’s final TD on a 17-yard run.
It was the second straight 200-yard passing game for Wanner in the tournament after the Starfires spent the regular season pounding teams with their running game.
“We did a great job defensively putting them in third-and-long and then we’d let them get behind our D backs,” said Union City coach Keith Maloy, whose team finished at 9-2 with the other loss coming by six points to Centerville.
“Our game plan was to force them to throw the ball, and we did that. But we didn’t stop the pass …”
The Indians had chances to stay close as they moved the ball on a pair of third-quarter drives, but SAHS stood up each time.
After allowing Union City to drive all the way to their 18-yard line on the opening possession of the second half, the Starfires pushed them back and then Kyle Raugh came up with an interception on third down. The Indians’ third drive of the second half also moved deep into South Adams territory before stalling out on a fourth-and-5 play from the 25.
“That’s been our defense all year. I hate calling it a bend but don’t break defense … but that’s what it’s been,” said Arnold. “Our guys have found ways to make plays when the chips have been on the table.
“The number of yards don’t matter, it’s the points. When you can make stops deep inside your territory, that shows a lot of character and guts and we did that a couple of times tonight.”
Union City finished with 319 yards of total offense, led by a 13-of-28 passing effort by Grant Shoemaker. He tossed for 150 yards, but was also intercepted twice.
James Antonoglou ran 24 times for 80 yards, and Duran Bocanegra picked up 61 yards and two TDs on 14 carries.
“They’re not going to give up, and that’s part of changing the culture,” said Maloy, whose team scored late and recovered an onside kick before running out of time. “These seniors … have decided we’re not going to be the old Union City. We’re going to do things differently. …
“I told the kids I feel like we played at least the sectional champs, maybe even the state champs tonight. And we played them very well.”[[In-content Ad]]