Fremont Bergan junior Brian Liekhus made sure his first playoff start was one he wouldn’t soon forget.
The outside linebacker and quarterback turned in football’s version of the trifecta as he lead Bergan to a 31-15 win over Wilber-Clatonia Thursday at Memorial Field.
Liekhus was involved in touchdown plays on offense, defense and special teams. He ran back an interception, threw a touchdown pass and blocked a punt that was returned by teammate Jordan Mruz for a score.
“It was my first start in a playoff game so I was a little nervous in the first half,” Liekhus admitted. “After a while I started to realize it’s just another game. We all calmed down and played our game.”
According Bergan coach Ron Beacom, Liekhus is continuing to develop as a team leader late in the season.
“Even though we’re in the first week of the playoffs, he’s only in his fourth week of being our starting quarterback and starting outside linebacker,” Beacom said. “Game by game he’s just going to keep getting better.”
While the ending was favorable, Thursday night’s game didn’t have the start Liekhus and his Bergan teammates were looking for. The Wolverines put together a 10-play, 76-yard touchdown drive on their first offensive possession.
On the ensuing drive, Liekhus failed to connect with a wide open Isaac Morrissey in the end zone off a fake field goal attempt. However, Bergan took control of the game after that play.
The Knights forced Wilber-Clatonia to punt out of its own end zone following a sack by John Melies. Adam Walz deflected the kick and Bergan recovered the ball at the Wolverine 13-yard line. Bernie Nicola tied the game on a 7-yard touchdown run up the middle. He rushed for 105 yards on 19 carries.
“The first drive wasn’t so hot but after that (the line) got their minds set right, and they were driving people 5 yards back on every play,” Nicola said. “That made it real easy to run.”
Following Nicola’s score, Liekhus dropped back in coverage and extended vertically to intercept Wolverine quarterback Logan Oliva. He returned the ball 18-yards to give Bergan a 14-7 edge.
“Coach told me to drop more into my zone,” Liekhus said. “I dropped into the zone, got a good read on the ball and went for it.”
On Bergan’s next offensive drive it was Liekhus’ arm that opened things up. He connected with Adam Walz on a 9-yard touchdown pass.
In the second half, the Knight defense continued to render Wilber-Clatonia helpless. Liekhus picked off another pass and Travis Brown had two interceptions. Wilber didn’t move the ball into Bergan territory until its final drive of the game.
“We thought we had a physical mismatch up front and we exploited it,” Beacom said. “I think both the defense and special teams provided some good field position for us. When you spend the game on their half of the field, good things are going to happen for you.”
Kicker Matt Schmitz gave Bergan a 24-7 lead in the third quarter with a 37-yard field goal. The Knights went up 31-7 on Liekhus’ blocked kick. Wilber-Clatonia scored with 30 seconds left in the game.
Fremont Bergan will return to Memorial Field at 6:30 Wednesday night as it hosts East Butler in the second round of the Class C-2 playoffs. The teams played earlier in the season with the Knights winning 21-6. East Butler downed David City Aquinas 7-3 in its playoff opener.
Fremont Bergan 0 21 3 7 n 31
Wilber-Clatonia 7 0 0 8 n 15
Scoring
WC n Sasek run 1 (Attestog kick)
FB n Nicola run 7 (Schmitz kick)
FB n Liekhus 18 int. return (Schmitz kick)
FB n Walz 9 pass from Liekhus (Schmitz kick)
FB n Schmitz 37 FG
FB n Mruz 5 return (Schmitz kick)
WC n Mammen 8 run (Barnas conversion)
Team Statistics
First downs: FB 10, WC 7. Rushing yards: FB 181, WC 102. Passing yards: FB 25, WC 73. Total yards: FB 206, WC 175. Fumbles-Lost: FB 4-0, WC 0-0. Penalties-Yards: FB 6-55, WC 4-39.
Individual Leaders
Rushing n FB Nicola 19-105, Bottorff 11-59, Mruz 9-41; WC Mammen 9-47, Barnas 4-26, Sasek 7-11.
Passing n FB Liekhus 3-9-1-25; WC Oliva 6-10-1-65, Munro 1-6-3-8.
Receiving n FB Nicola 1-10, Walz 1-9, Brown 1-6; WC Munro 4-56, Oliva 2-7, Sasek 1-3.
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