OSBORNE – Pike Valley and Osborne never had a margin larger than eight points Friday night. The game featured three ties, including at 26-all entering the fourth quarter. The two combined for six lead changes.
Osborne senior Cullen Grabast tallied 23 carries for 121 yards and three touchdowns, threw a 39-yard score, and intercepted the final down of the third quarter on a wild play that changed momentum.
For Grabast, his top moment of a physical, entertaining contest between a pair of ranked teams came with 1 minute, 25 seconds left. Pike Valley scored on a four-yard run from junior quarterback Davante Hammer that cut Osborne’s lead to 34-32.
On the two-point conversion, the Panthers handed off to standout junior running back Lane Peters, who finished with 25 carries for 189 yards and three scores. Osborne’s defense met Peters and stopped him short. Pike Valley’s onside kick went out of bounds, and the Bulldogs held on for the two-point victory.
“We took a stand and stopped them,” Grabast said. “That’s what stands out. When our backs were against the wall, I thought we were able to step up and make a play. I think we knew Peters was going to get the ball.”
Osborne, ranked No. 5 in Eight-Man, Division I, won its Homecoming contest and improved to 4-0, matching last season’s 4-5 mark. Pike Valley, No. 3 in Division II, dropped to 3-1 in the Northern Plains League matchup.
“The kids believed that they could push it in, and Osborne stood up and got them stopped up, and pushed him back before he gets in the end zone,” Pike Valley coach Don Melby said. “A matter of wills. I know we were tired. Lane was really tired. He left it all on the field. All of our kids did.”
For PV, Hammer completed 7 of 11 passes for 131 yards and a score and rushed for 34 yards. Junior Cole Strickler collected eight offensive touches for 161 yards, including a 65-yard TD catch. However, Pike Valley converted just one of five two-point conversions.
“We preach hard on PATs,” Melby said. “One for five – and we lose by two, and they know that. That’s the first thing the kids said. We know that, but I was proud. I know they were trying to step up and stop Lane Peters, and I thought our other kids stepped up and played really well. I am hoping that we can take this and take positives out of it. We’ve got to get a little tougher, and we’ve got to eliminate some of those mistakes.”
The Bulldogs trailed 18-14 at halftime but heavily relied on Grabast and junior running back Denton Schurr in the second half.
“For awhile, we have been a fourth quarter team, and it really showed today,” senior guard/defensive end Derek Naegele said. “But they are a really, really good team. But at the end, everyone tried hard. We had sophomores playing like seniors, and juniors playing like seniors, and seniors playing like it was their last game.”
In the first half, Grabast and Schurr combined for 16 offensive touches for 80 yards.
Schurr suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter and needed assistance off the field at game’s end. In the second half, Schurr and Grabast combined for 23 touches for 168 yards, mainly off a read option play, a longtime staple of the Bulldogs’ offense.
“I was impressed with our kids’ ability just to fight to the death,” Osborne coach Cullen Riner said. “They didn’t give in. Pike Valley is bigger than us, and they are stronger than us. We were able there in the fourth quarter to kind of wear on them a little bit, and I think our boys stuck with it.”
Naegele, playing with a torn meniscus, rarely played defense in Week 3. He led the team with 17 tackles, while senior defensive end Landon Lackey contributed six tackles, including three TFLs and a fumble recovery.
“Kind of just got to tough it through, I guess,” Naegele said. “If it hurts, it hurts. It can’t get much worse, but just think of the team is about all I do.”
Osborne had problems early in what Riner labeled a “fairly poor” first half. Peters ran for 136 yards and all three of his scores before intermission.
“We played really well on both sides of the ball, just had a few mistakes, and PATs really killed us,” Hammer said.
The Bulldogs had a short punt that was nearly blocked, an interception and a lost fumble. Before the second half started, Riner offered a message to his team.
“Stick your nose down,’” Riner said. “’Let’s fight this whole second half and let’s look up and see where we are at,’ and I think they did that.”
Three rare plays helped Osborne. The Bulldogs quickly took a 20-18 lead when Grabast, in the Wildcat, faked to run, then threw a 39-yard TD pass to Schurr, his first throw of the year.
On the final play of the third quarter, Pike Valley faced fourth-and-10 from the Osborne 17. Hammer, under pressure, ran back several yards and then found senior Isaiah Deneault open across the middle.
The ball, though, deflected off Deneault’s hands and straight to Grabast, who intercepted in the end zone. Osborne converted the turnover into a Grabast 6-yard touchdown and a 34-26 lead.
“One we could have had, but it wasn’t a single player’s fault,” Hammer said.
“It was a big turning point in the game,” Riner added.
Then, the Bulldogs converted a perfect pooch kick, recovered the ball and milked more than three minutes off the clock, a play that Melby believed Osborne would run.
“We have a young man on the kick return team, and he just froze,” Melby said. “Young kids do that, and I was hard on him, and I shouldn’t have been, and I apologized to him after the game, because he didn’t mean it. He said, ‘I didn’t know what to do,’ and I understand that.”
Pike Valley eventually got the ball with 5:27 remaining and drove 58 yards in nine plays that ended with Hammer’s touchdown run. Then, the Bulldogs stopped Peters and earned the victory.
“We can step up when push comes to shove,” Grabast said.
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