Vansice’s big night rallies Baxter football past rival Colo-NESCO

COLO — It was a struggle in the first half for the Baxter football team during its non-district contest against Colo-NESCO on Friday.

But the Bolts forced three turnovers and came up with a huge goal-line stand in the second half, and Stadan Vansice’s career night at quarterback powered them to a come-from-behind 44-40 road victory.

“We challenged the guys at halftime,” Baxter head football coach Zach Hasselbrink said. “We know what we can do, but we just weren’t showing it. We weren’t disciplined enough. We were taking the easy way out defensively. It’s supposed to be hard, and you have to take the hard way there.

“The second half was much better. The guys battled, fought harder and wanted to win.”

Baxter trailed the Royals 28-22 at halftime and fell behind 34-22 in the third quarter.

But Vansice carried the ball a career-most 40 times and rushed for a career-high 312 yards in the victory. He also accounted for six total touchdowns and three 2-point conversions.

Vansice’s touchdown fifth rushing touchdown of the game put the Bolts in front 44-34 with 2:01 to play. And they held on after the Royals took the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown.

“We couldn’t stop them and didn’t force any turnovers in the first half,” Vansice said. “It was just really hard for us to get stops. We turned it up in the second half though.

“Our offensive line really stepped up and started moving the defensive guys back, which opened things up in the run game. Our defense started getting stops, too.”

After Colo-NESCO scored on its opening possession of the second half to go up 12, Baxter’s defense forced two fumbles and Vansice snagged his second career interception after a tipped pass near the line of scrimmage by Hayden Burdess.

Vansice turned the first turnover into eight points after he scored on a TD and added the 2-point conversion.

The senior quarterback then gave the Bolts the lead at 38-34 following a 41-yard TD run.

The one miscue in the second half happened after Vansice was forced to leave the field by the officials because of safety concerns.

The one play Vansice missed resulted in a bad snap and turnover. Colo-NESCO recovered the fumble near the goal line, but lost yardage on the play as the Bolts came up with a goal-line stand to preserve the lead.

“Any goal line stand in 8-man is an unbelievable effort,” Hasselbrink said. “That was a complete game changer. Credit to the guys. That was all them. That was all energy and effort.”

Baxter improved to 6-2 against the Royals (2-5) since 2018, but the win snapped a two-game skid in the series.

Vansice finished 14-of-20 through the air for 151 yards and a touchdown. He added 7.5 tackles and the interception on defense. It was the team’s first pick this fall.

“We haven’t gotten a whole lot of (turnovers) this year, but we needed them tonight,” Hasselbrink said. “Turnovers change the game.”

Eli Dee was 1-for-1 through the air for 14 yards, and he caught five passes for 60 yards. He also totaled 2.5 tackles and recovered one of the Royals’ second-half fumbles.

Burdess grabbed five passes for 51 yards and a TD and added a career-best 13.5 tackles and one fumble recovery on defense. He leads Baxter with 53 tackles.

Liam Trent gained 33 yards on his three catches, Miles McCord had one catch for 18 yards and Colten Damman grabbed one pass for eight yards. Both McCord and Damman had 3.5 tackles.

Cody Spurgeon contributed 6.5 tackles and Trevor Hamilton finished with three tackles.

Spurgeon practiced at nose guard all week but was moved to defensive end during the game because of an injury. He played much better in the second half.

“I didn’t play that great in the first half,” Spurgeon said. “The position is different, but I figured it out. We just battled through some adversity as a team. I tried my best to hype up the guys. We just had to wake up.”