October 29, 2016 at 6:22 a.m.
Wood-burned
SAHS stuns No. 1 Warriors
Wood-burned
BERNE — South Adams’ faithful waited patiently for their team to shake hands with the Warriors. Then, as the players turned toward the home sideline, the fans rushed the field.
Standing at the 50-yard line, away from the boisterous celebration, coach Grant Moser cried.
His Starfires won one game last year. Friday night, they beat No. 1.
An onside kick to start the second half provided the spark. A 29-yard pass from Marcus Teeter to Nic Wurster resulted in the winning points. And a forced fumble ended Woodlan’s desperation drive with 10 seconds left.
All host South Adams needed to do after that was take a knee to finish off a 20-14 victory over top-ranked Woodlan in their Class 2A sectional semifinal game.
“It goes back to guys who truly believe and buy in to what we’re trying to do,” said Moser, an SAHS graduate in his second season at the helm. “It’s a brotherhood and guys who care so much about each other.
“Pre-game speech we talked about, ‘Hey, this is a game you’ll remember the rest of your life if you’re a senior. And how many times in life do you get to go to battle with guys who are going to be your best friends for the rest of your life?’
Standing at the 50-yard line, away from the boisterous celebration, coach Grant Moser cried.
His Starfires won one game last year. Friday night, they beat No. 1.
An onside kick to start the second half provided the spark. A 29-yard pass from Marcus Teeter to Nic Wurster resulted in the winning points. And a forced fumble ended Woodlan’s desperation drive with 10 seconds left.
All host South Adams needed to do after that was take a knee to finish off a 20-14 victory over top-ranked Woodlan in their Class 2A sectional semifinal game.
“It goes back to guys who truly believe and buy in to what we’re trying to do,” said Moser, an SAHS graduate in his second season at the helm. “It’s a brotherhood and guys who care so much about each other.
“Pre-game speech we talked about, ‘Hey, this is a game you’ll remember the rest of your life if you’re a senior. And how many times in life do you get to go to battle with guys who are going to be your best friends for the rest of your life?’
And we made a promise to each other in there that we were going to leave this game leaving absolutely nothing on the field no matter what happens.”
The Starfires (7-4) never trailed in the second half, but, no matter what happens, no undefeated team is going to fall easily. And that was true of Woodlan (10-1).
Despite having no timeouts when they took the ball after an SAHS missed field goal with 50 seconds left, the Warriors still had life. A pass followed by several broken tackles got the ball to the 50-yard line, and on the next play quarterback Justin Durkes found receiver Donald Guerrant over the middle.
Howard ran upfield, but was wrapped up by Blade Zeitvogel at the 25-yard line. As Zeitvogel tried to hold on for the tackle, Terry Dawn ripped the ball away from Howard. It bounced to the 20-yard line, where JD Groh fell on it.
The South Adams sideline erupted, Moser letting out screams that would later give way to tears. Meanwhile, Guerrant was left laying flat on the turf, hands over his facemask, crying tears of a different variety.
“I just think they were hungrier,” said Woodlan coach Sherwood Haydock, whose team’s last defeat came in the 2015 semi-state against Whiting. “We didn’t overlook them. We talked about this all week. You had to come out and play.
“We started off bad. They had a good game plan. They beat us up front the whole first half. They just beat us. We have no excuses.”
The Starfires advance to their third sectional championship game in four years and will host Churubusco at 7 p.m. Friday. They lost to the Eagles 34-3 in last season’s sectional opener.
South Adams set the tone for the second half when it opened with an onside kick, recovering the ball as the Warriors were caught off guard. The next play went for a 30-yard gain to Isaiah Baumgartner, who lined up as a tackle eligible and caught a pass from quarterback Marcus Teeter.
The Starfires later managed to convert a fourth-and-2 with just an inch to spare, leading to a Baumgartner 1-yard touchdown run for the lead.
Woodlan, which defeated SAHS 36-3 on Oct. 7, pulled even when Malik Murray reached the end zone on a 1-yard run of his own early in the final period.
South Adams wasted no time responding as it pushed the ball quickly into Warrior territory. On second-and-long from the 29-yard line, Teeter faked a handoff. Cornerback Ah’Lan Howard was sucked in by the fake and Wurster darted past him, waited to haul in a pass from Teeter at the 6-yard line and trotted easily into the end zone for what ended up being the winning points with 8:03 to go.
Moser had wanted to run on the ball on what became the second Teeter-to-Wurster touchdown of the game. His assistant coaches convinced him the play-action would work.
“It was right there,” said Moser. “The corner bit, Wurster ran him off perfectly and Teeter made a great pass for a touchdown. That was a huge play.”
Groh picked off a deep Durkes pass to end the next Woodlan drive, and the Starfires were able to run off all but 50 seconds before their field-goal try missed.
Teeter finished 9-of-16 for 143 yards with his other TD connection to Wurster coming with 1:54 to go in the first half to tie the score at 7-7. Baumgartner added 62 yards on 14 carries, and Corbin Blomeke paced the defense with eight tackles and a sack.
The Starfires (7-4) never trailed in the second half, but, no matter what happens, no undefeated team is going to fall easily. And that was true of Woodlan (10-1).
Despite having no timeouts when they took the ball after an SAHS missed field goal with 50 seconds left, the Warriors still had life. A pass followed by several broken tackles got the ball to the 50-yard line, and on the next play quarterback Justin Durkes found receiver Donald Guerrant over the middle.
Howard ran upfield, but was wrapped up by Blade Zeitvogel at the 25-yard line. As Zeitvogel tried to hold on for the tackle, Terry Dawn ripped the ball away from Howard. It bounced to the 20-yard line, where JD Groh fell on it.
The South Adams sideline erupted, Moser letting out screams that would later give way to tears. Meanwhile, Guerrant was left laying flat on the turf, hands over his facemask, crying tears of a different variety.
“I just think they were hungrier,” said Woodlan coach Sherwood Haydock, whose team’s last defeat came in the 2015 semi-state against Whiting. “We didn’t overlook them. We talked about this all week. You had to come out and play.
“We started off bad. They had a good game plan. They beat us up front the whole first half. They just beat us. We have no excuses.”
The Starfires advance to their third sectional championship game in four years and will host Churubusco at 7 p.m. Friday. They lost to the Eagles 34-3 in last season’s sectional opener.
South Adams set the tone for the second half when it opened with an onside kick, recovering the ball as the Warriors were caught off guard. The next play went for a 30-yard gain to Isaiah Baumgartner, who lined up as a tackle eligible and caught a pass from quarterback Marcus Teeter.
The Starfires later managed to convert a fourth-and-2 with just an inch to spare, leading to a Baumgartner 1-yard touchdown run for the lead.
Woodlan, which defeated SAHS 36-3 on Oct. 7, pulled even when Malik Murray reached the end zone on a 1-yard run of his own early in the final period.
South Adams wasted no time responding as it pushed the ball quickly into Warrior territory. On second-and-long from the 29-yard line, Teeter faked a handoff. Cornerback Ah’Lan Howard was sucked in by the fake and Wurster darted past him, waited to haul in a pass from Teeter at the 6-yard line and trotted easily into the end zone for what ended up being the winning points with 8:03 to go.
Moser had wanted to run on the ball on what became the second Teeter-to-Wurster touchdown of the game. His assistant coaches convinced him the play-action would work.
“It was right there,” said Moser. “The corner bit, Wurster ran him off perfectly and Teeter made a great pass for a touchdown. That was a huge play.”
Groh picked off a deep Durkes pass to end the next Woodlan drive, and the Starfires were able to run off all but 50 seconds before their field-goal try missed.
Teeter finished 9-of-16 for 143 yards with his other TD connection to Wurster coming with 1:54 to go in the first half to tie the score at 7-7. Baumgartner added 62 yards on 14 carries, and Corbin Blomeke paced the defense with eight tackles and a sack.
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