Second-year St. Francis coach Nick Fawcett is 16-1 in his career. The Indians’ only loss came in the Eight-Man, Division I sub-state title game to Central Plains last fall. The Oilers finished 13-0 and had the top eight-man scoring defense in at least 15 seasons.
Last week, St. Francis held off rival Hoxie, 30-28, in an extremely unusual, wild finish that brought superlatives on both ends of the spectrum from Fawcett. The Indians moved to 5-0 and continue to rank second in the class, the same spot they finished ’18.
“That was probably the worst that we have ever executed,” Fawcett said. “Just from our Xs and Os standpoint, but I told the boys, that was probably the best effort and the best heart we have ever displayed. So I’ve just been really proud of them in that aspect.”
On Friday, St. Francis plays host to Leoti-Wichita County in a key Eight-Man, Division I, District 8 contest that will likely decide the district’s top-two spots. Both squads are 5-0, 2-0 in district play.
St. Francis is 38-1 in the regular season since the start of ’15. Wichita County stands at 11-3 under second-year coach Brant Douglas and has enjoyed a massive turnaround after more than a decade of struggle. St. Francis won 44-6 versus Wichita County last year.
While St. Francis played Hoxie close, Wichita County defeated Hoxie, 56-26. Wichita County lost to Hoxie last year. This could be the first of two meetings this season between Wichita County and St Francis.
“Our confidence in what we are doing offensively and defensive-wise,” Douglas said. “And just against some schools that we kind of went into games not as confident with last year. This year, we are a lot more confident going in. Instead of kind of hoping we can win, now we have this expectation of winning, so that’s what I am most pleased with so far.”
Junior AC Hermosillo is a returning starter on the Wichita County line. The Indians have two new starters on the offensive line.
Junior Kayde Rietzke has enjoyed another big year with 58 of 77 passing for 716 yards with a 14/1 TD/INT ratio. Rietzke has 79 carries for 637 yards and 10 scores. Hoxie coach Lance Baar told Douglas that Rietzke is “hard to tackle.”
Douglas is pleased with Rietzke’s improvement. He has looked to a second read and has pulled the ball more often in the read-option. Wichita County leads eight-man with 328 points, while St. Francis is second with just 30 points allowed.
“Everyone just understands the offense a lot better,” Douglas said. “And instead of just going with our first read every time like we kind of did last year.”
Junior Sheldon Whalen has delivered a big season with 21 catches for 324 yards and five touchdowns. He is in a three-way tie for the team-high with 18 tackles and has picked off five passes. The 6-foot, 155-pound Whalen is a state hurdle champion and ranges well at safety. Last week, he was on the opposite side and flew across the field to make a play versus WaKeeney-Trego.
“Defensively is more where he is a threat I would say, because if you see him on film, he is sideline to sideline,” Douglas said. “He’s full speed all the time.”
St. Francis has an experienced line, notably with juniors Colton Neitzel (6-foot-3, 230) and Jesse Baxter (6-3, 210), that ranks as one of eight-man’s best. Fawcett believes Neitzel is one of the state’s top-five linemen. He went out with injury in the second half against Hoxie, a pivotal point in the game.
As well, senior quarterback Brady Dinkel and junior fullback/outside linebacker Shadyron Blanka (562 rushing yards, 29.5 tackles) both missed several plays.
St. Francis replaced Neitzel with junior Josiah Sims. He had never played center before.
Sims is 5-10 and weighs around 140 pounds. He had to match up against Hoxie’s massive junior Harlan Obioha (6-9, 305). Sims had previously played wingback and cornerback and had only snapped for the scout team offense a couple times in practice. On defense, St. Francis played a 135-pound freshman against Obioha. The Indians had three bad snaps.
“Just wanted them to play hard, because we knew they didn’t exactly know what they were doing,” Fawcett said. “But they hustled and tried hard, so can’t ask more than that in that situation.”
Baxter and junior Adam Krien, the starting defensive ends, have combined for 14 sacks to lead the squad. Last year, they collectively tallied 18.5 sacks. Fawcett believed Krien played “probably the worst game he’s ever had” in the last two years. Yet at the end, Krien made a game-changing play.
Hoxie faced second-and-goal from the five-yard line and third-and-goal from the one in the final seconds. Hoxie went up the middle on third down but St. Francis stopped them short. On fourth down, Hoxie quarterback Ashton Dowell ran left and Krien made a tackle for loss.
“That was one of the best plays he has ever had,” Fawcett said. “He just rose to the occasion.”
St. Francis took over with 12.4 seconds left. After a knee, Hoxie quickly called timeout with 11.4 seconds remaining. A few plays before, Fawcett said the officials called an injury timeout on Hoxie senior Andrew Foote.
“The kid never left the play, never left the game,” Fawcett said. “The very next play he was in, so I thought that they called a timeout, got him back in there. Because otherwise, there is no way he should be allowed to play the very next play when there is an official injury timeout. There’s a lot of confusion by the refs. Then, I was confused.”
“Because after we kneeled it on first down, they told me, ‘Well, they have all three timeouts,’” Fawcett added. “We called a timeout before we snapped the ball – so it was before first down – just to talk about what we are going to do. We actually moved Jesse Baxter from guard to center just to get the snaps.”
Hoxie was then able to burn its last two timeouts with 11.1 and 10 seconds left. St. Francis faced fourth down. Fawcett was concerned about the quarterback/center exchange. Dinkel is a three-year starter at quarterback, four-year starter at defensive back. Dinkel has 707 rushing yards and 17 total scores, and picked off four passes on defense, all team-highs.
“After the first down, we kneel it, they call a timeout, and they tell us, (Hoxie) has all three timeouts left,” Fawcett said. “And I was just like, ‘Wow, how does that happen?’ So after that point, I was like, ‘Well, we will just keep kneeling it.’”
On the fourth down play, Fawcett told Dinkel told run around and try to get a first down. If Dinkel couldn’t get a first down, then he needed to milk as much clock as possible. Fawcett didn’t want to punt. The fourth down snap was poor, and Dinkel bobbled it. Obioha sacked Dinkel, and Hoxie took over with first and goal.
“My thoughts there were just do not allow a safety,” Fawcett said. “I figured if we tried to punt, it would be a guaranteed safety, then it would be tied. And I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.”
On the game’s final play, Hoxie went spread and ran a jet sweep handoff with Dylan Weimer running from the right to the left. Weimer had an opening, but fumbled. The ball bounded backwards approximately 20 yards and St. Francis recovered.
“Our heart and effort just won that game for us,” Fawcett said. “Because from an execution standpoint it was probably our worst game that we’ve ever played – and plus having one of your best players go out in Colton Neitzel, it was tough.”
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