East: No. 1 Burlingame (11-0) at No. 4 St. Paul (10-1)
The St. Paul Indians and the Burlingame Bearcats will meet in the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Last year, Burlingame topped St. Paul 58-12 in the quarterfinals.
This time around, the two teams will meet with a spot in next week’s 8-Man Division I state championship on the line. The winner will face the winner of Spearville and Hoxie on Nov. 25 at Fischer Field in Newton.
The undefeated Bearcats have shown they are mortal the past couple of weeks. After allowing only 20 points through the first nine games, Burlingame has surrendered 64 points in the past two outings against playoff competition.
Last week, the Bearcats out-gunned West Elk 63-42. Seth Greenwood rushed for 200 yards and five touchdowns. Montana Giffin, playing in place of injured quarterback Dalton Sporing, passed for nearly 200 yards and two touchdowns.
A year ago, Burlingame fell 62-16 to Osborne in the semifinals, and Osborne went on to win the state title.
The Bearcats are coached by Jeff Slater, who owns a 39-5 record in his fourth season.
St. Paul is in the playoffs for consecutive years after a four-year absence from the postseason.
The Indians fell 36-22 to West Elk in their only loss this season. Last week, St. Paul earned a 35-24 win over Osborne. The Indians scored the game’s final 27 points to rally from a 16-point deficit in the third quarter. Braven Born threw three touchdown passes to spark the comeback.
Sophomore back Adam Albertini leads the Indians with 862 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns. His older brother Anthony is one of the state’s top linemen at the eight-man level.
Coach Keith Wiatrak, who has a 28-12 record in his fourth season, has helped build St. Paul back into a contender. The Indians are 19-3 the past two seasons after posting a 10-16 record the previous three campaigns.
Burlingame 42, St. Paul 28 (Schremmer)
West: No. 5 Hoxie (10-1) at No. 2 Spearville (11-0)
In the last five years, Spearville coach Matt Fowler has turned the Lancers into an elite power with records of 8-2, 10-1, 13-0, 11-1 and 11-0. At the start of the playoffs, the Lancers were well aware they could avenge their last three postseason losses.
In ’16, Spearville fell to St. Francis. In ’14, the Lancers lost to Central Plains. In ’13, Spearville fell to Hodgeman County in the regular season and Hoxie in the playoffs.
This season, Spearville defeated Hodgeman County in Week 2. In the playoffs, the Lancers beat St. Francis, 42-20, then held off Central Plains, 32-28, on the game’s final offensive play last week.
This Friday, the Lancers face Hoxie, into the semifinals for the first time since ’13. Hoxie has two state game appearances, both second-place showings, in ’78 and ’81. Spearville’s crown in ’15 is the lone state title appearance for the Lancers.
In an oddity, Spearville will also host its third straight playoff contest this year.
Last week, both the Lancers and Indians needed comebacks. Spearville faced Central Plains in the quarterfinals for the fourth straight time and won for the third consecutive occasion. A back-and-forth game concluded when Central Plains scored with 62 seconds to go and took a two-point lead.
Then, Spearville went 65 yards and won the game on a pass to senior Waylon Strecker off a bunch formation play. Strecker scored from seven yards out and crossed the goal line with a second left. Spearville had multiple big pass plays on the drive, including a sliding fourth down catch from Bailey Sites.
Sites had a standout game with 316 all-purpose yards and 13 tackles. He set a career-high for all-purpose yards and tied a career high for tackles. For the season, Sites has 102 carries for 1,081 yards and 26 rushing scores. Junior quarterback Kolby Stein has completed 39 of 44 passes for 877 yards with 13 scores against no interceptions. His 89 percent completion rate is on pace to break the state record. The Lancers have averaged 10 yards a play and stand at plus-19 in turnover margin.
Spearville held a big yardage edge of 331-187 against Central Plains, though the Oilers controlled the clock and ran more plays (59-51). Central Plains continually kept possession but had trouble slowing Sites.
The Indians, considered a breakout team at the start of the season, have a four-win improvement to 10-1. Hoxie won District 8 in a three-way tiebreaker over St. Francis and Atwood. The Indians have eight straight winning seasons and traditionally has a very strong defense. This year, Hoxie is No. 1 in scoring defense in Division I with just 83 points permitted. Hoxie has scored 484 points, while Spearville has a total margin of 556-124.
Last week, Hoxie defeated South Central, 30-25, at home after trailing 19-6. South Central ran a spread that Hoxie had not seen on film. However, the game turned when the Indians made a goal-line stand just before the end of the first half. Senior quarterback Latham Schwarz had 130 rushing yards and a 60-yard TD pass out of the wildcat.
Schwarz has 197 carries for 1,275 yards and 28 TDs. Junior Jared Kennedy has completed 40 of 87 passes for 643 yards with an 11/8 TD/INT ratio.
Senior Chris Cox, a first-year transfer from Oakley, has nine rushing TDs as the fullback. Hoxie has 17 offensive turnovers but has forced 33 for a plus-16 turnover margin.
Senior Troyal Burris has picked off seven passes and is one of the state’s top eight-man punters with 39 yards a punt and 12 of 21 pinned inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. Cox and junior Colton Heskett each have 22 TFLs to lead the team, while junior Jarrod Dible has 16.5.
Hoxie has a definite size advantage with junior Taye Washington (6-3, 335), Cox (5-10, 233) and Dible (5-11, 195). Spearville has no player above 200 pounds. The Indians have averaged 6.2 yards per play. Hoxie’s only loss was a 16-8 defeat to St. Francis.
Hoxie can follow a similar formula to Central Plains with its big line and ground game. However, the Indians have to contain Sites, something that’s been nearly impossible for teams in the last four years.
In his career, Sites has 212 offensive touches for 2,547 yards and 49 scores, or a TD every 4.3 touches. In his last 25 games, the only time Sites has not scored a touchdown is the 36-30 loss to St. Francis last year.
Spearville 26, Hoxie 12 (Nicholl)
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