In a game heard yesterday on Double Q Country 105.9, the #1 ranked Hemingford Bobcats beat Blue Hill 12-6 in the 2nd round of the Class D-1 playoffs.
All the scoring occurred in a 2:40 span late in the 3Q. Hemingford got on the board 1st with 58-yd pass from Matt wood to Colt Foster, but after a 5-yd penalty missed on a 2-pt conversion.
Blue Hill, last year’s C-2 runnerup before dropping to 8-man this year, answered immediately on a 50-yd pass from Jason Poe to Keithen Drury, but Hemingford blocked the PAT kick.
Hemingford…both teams are the Bobcats…needed only about :90 to go back on top for good with a pair of runs by Ehtan Skinner setting a 1-yd TD plunge by Wood. A 2-pt try failed after another 5 yd penalty.
The Hemingford defense had to make one final stand late in the game as Blue Hill reached the 15 before giving up the ball on downs with an incompletion in the end zone.
As usual, Skinner led Hemingford offensively, rushing 33 times for 188 yards. Wood was 3-6 passing. Defensively, Foster led the way with 7 tackles while Brady Turek had an interception and Jamey Wood recovered 2 fumbles.
10-0 Hemingford now travels for the quarterfinals next Tuesday to Fullerton, who edged Amherst 40-39. Game time is expected to be announced later today.
Oshkosh-Garden County is also 10-0 and in the quarterfinals, but in D-2, after edging Brady 44-40 yesterday in Oshkosh.
Brady scored first, but it was 36-20 Garden County at the half. Brady closed to 36-32 going into the 4th quarter, then took the lead 40-36 on a 3-yard touchdown run and a 2-point run with just 77-seconds left in the game.
Garden County needed only 35-seconds to retake tha lead when Mason Zorn hit Dustin Bleidt from 10-yards out for a touchdown and from 2-yards for the PAT.
Brady used two long passes and a pass interference penalty to reach the Eagles 6-yard line as time expired, but the officials put 1-second back on the clock for 1 more play. Brady threw into the end zone, but the pass was batted away and Garden County took the victory.
Elliot Epp scored 3 rushing touchdowns for Garden County while Zorn threw for 3 scores with Bleidt catching 2 of them and Matt McCarthy the other. McCarthy and Epp each added a 2-pt run while Bleidt caught a pair of 2-pt passes.
Garden County will host Maxwell in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round in a rematch of a regular season game September 12 in Oshkosh won by the Eagles 30-27. Maxwell beat Bertrand 72-32 yesterday.
Class D-1
Second Round
Bruning-Davenport/Shickley 60, Bloomfield 20
Creighton 50, Neligh-Oakdale 35
Elm Creek 33, Burwell 20
Friend 60, Diller-Odell 19
Fullerton 40, Amherst 39
Guardian Angels 26, Howells/Dodge 14
Heartland 74, Clarkson/Leigh 30
Hemingford 12, Blue Hill 6
Class D-2
Second Round
Anselmo-Merna 74, Paxton 13
Exeter/Milligan 58, CWC 18
Falls City Sacred Heart 44, Stuart 20
Garden County 44, Brady 40
Humphrey St. Francis 38, Giltner 6
Kenesaw 53, Randolph 40
Maxwell 72, Bertrand 32
Sandhills/Thedford 55, Elwood 22