Kuemper offense too much for Mustangs
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| PCM sophomore Sean O’Connor (right) brings down Carroll Kuemper’s Cody Williams during the first half of Wednesday’s substate matchup in Jefferson. O’Connor had seven tackles in a 36-7 defeat, ending the season at 4-6. (Ben Frotscher/Daily News) |
JEFFERSON — It seemed like when Carroll Kuemper needed a big play offensively Wednesday night against PCM, the Knights got it.
Carroll Kuemper managed 420 yards offensively — 300 more than PCM — as the Knights rolled to a Class 2A substate 36-7 victory over the Mustangs at Jefferson-Scranton High School.
The combination of quarterback Brandon Boldt and running back Cody Williams proved to be too much for PCM, with Boldt gaining 196 yards in total offense while Williams added 97 yards on the ground.
“You could see on film they had some really good speed,” PCM coach Dar Dahms said. “That was a concern. They just ran really well. They just had enough speed that they could do all those things and that made them tough.”
And Boldt’s quickness and elusiveness showed on the first drive for the Knights. Kuemper took its first drive 92 yards on 12 plays — seven by the feet of Boldt — as he capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0 in favor of the home team after the extra point.
The lead expanded to 14-0 midway through the second quarter on a wide open pass play from Boldt to Tyler Heuton for a 14-0 lead. The Knights seemed to make the right play at the right time against PCM.
“It seemed like defensively we’d have a good play — maybe even two — and then they’d have that one that would move the sticks,” Dahms said. “We kind of put a finger in the hole some place and another one would spring some place else. They just did a really nice job of seeing where we were making corrections and finding another weakness.”
The Mustangs struggled offensively in the first half with just four first downs. PCM had four possessions in the first half — three ending with punts and the final one ending on downs.
“We would have one (play) where we’d shoot our toes off a little bit and then we’d have a hole to kind of get out of, and we just couldn’t get out of a hole with these guys,” Dahms said. “We just weren’t getting blocking and it seemed like Josh (Fosenburg) was running for his life way too much.”
And on that fourth drive that ended on downs late in the first half, Kuemper used it to their advantage. The Knights took over on their own 35 and Cody Williams took the opening sweep play and went 35 yards into PCM territory.
After a sack, false start and run play — just as it looked like PCM might make a big stop — Boldt found Heuton for a long pass play to set up first and goal with 6.2 seconds left before halftime.
Williams followed with back-to-back running plays, getting across the goal line on the second attempt with no time remaining. He added the two-point conversion run to make it 22-0 at halftime.
Both teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter, with Boldt finding Heuton for a 21-yard touchdown pass and PCM getting a 12-yard touchdown run from Hutch Burns late in the third quarter to make it 29-7.
The Mustangs were successful with the onside kick, with Joe Gilson grabbing the ball in stride as no Kuemper player made a play at the ball. But, PCM went nowhere on four plays and turned the ball over on downs.
A fourth-and-four procedure penalty really hurt the Mustangs during that series.
“We went backwards there,” Dahms said. “We could manage first-and-10, we can’t manage first-and-15 or anything like that. It’s too much. They are just too good of a team to handle that.”
The Knights added a Tyler Naberhaus 15-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to complete the scoring.
A total of 16 seniors on the varsity roster saw their season end at 4-6, accumulating a 26-15 record over the past four seasons. Dahms was glad to see the fight at the end of the season to make it into the substate round of the playoffs.
“I’ve just been real proud of these kids because coming from 1-5 and going all the way and getting to substate — obviously we had to have a luck from some other people to get in and worked out for them,” Dahms said. “I was really happy with our seniors especially that they got the chance to do this.”
Carroll Kuemper 36,
PCM 7
Score by quarters
PCM 0 0 7 0 — 7
CK 7 15 7 7 — 36
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
CK: Brandon Boldt 1 run (David Hicks kick), 3:22
Second Quarter
CK: Tyler Heuton 44 pass from Boldt (Hicks kick), 5:14
CK: Cody Williams 1 run (Williams run), 0:00
Third Quarter
CK: Heuton 21 pass from Boldt (Hicks kick), 5:21
PCM: Hutch Burns 12 run (Jacob Stein kick), 2:37
Fourth Quarter
CK: Tyler Naberhaus 15 run (Hicks kick), 10:14
Team Statistics PCM Kuemper
First Downs 6 19
Rushes-yards 32-39 49-303
Passing yards 81 117
Passes Att-Comp-Int 18-9-0 6-4-0
Total Offense 120 420
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 3-1
Penalties-Yards 4-15 5-13
Individual Statistics
Rushing (Attempts-Yards): PCM: Joe Gilson 12-28, Hutch Burns 6-16. CK: Cody Williams 10-97, Brandon Boldt 19-79.
Passing (Completions-Attempts-Int-Yards): PCM: Josh Fosenburg 9-18-0-81, Joel Wiggins 0-1. CK: Boldt 4-6-0-117.
Receiving: PCM: Burns 3-34, Tyler Norwood 2-21, Cole Reese 1-12, Danny Buckingham 2-9, Gilson 1-5. CK: Tyler Heuton 3-111, Williams 1-6.
Defensive Tackles (UA-A): PCM: Sean O’Connor 5-2, Brandon Kain 5-1, Joe Gilson 5-1, Tanner Bisline 3-3, Dustin Moore 2-3, Wyatt Lagergren 0-4.
