ELMWOOD -- Fremont Bergan coach Ron Beacom saw something earlier in the game.
On Bergan’s first touchdown of the night Elmwood-Murdock’s end crashed hard on the PAT kick. So when Bergan quarterback Riley Gross hit Josh Boggs with a 35-yard touchdown pass with less than three minutes left to pull to within 14-13, Beacom made the call for a fake PAT kick.
The fake failed due to a miscommunication, but Beacom said he takes full responsibility for Bergan’s 14-13 loss to Elmwood-Murdock in a Class C-2 second-round playoff game Wednesday night.
“That was a bad decision on my part,” Beacom said. “The fake was communicated to everyone but to be honest I don’t think it would’ve worked anyway because the kid didn’t come near as hard as he did on the previous one.
“All week I though I had a pretty good read on what they were going to do and we didn’t take advantage of some situations that I thought we could have. I don’t fault our kids; I thought our kids and coaches did a great job again tonight ... this one’s on me.”
The game was a stalemate until a string of big plays over the final 18 minutes.
E-M came out in the third quarter with a 51-yard drive but it ended at the Bergan 21-yard line after a Gross interception.
Bergan though went three-and-out and were forced to punt from deep in its own territory. The punt snap one-hopped Nicholas Paulson and that made enough time for Austin Kuenning to come in from the right side for the block and the ball at the Bergan 16.
E-M converted on a big fourth-and-three play from the Bergan 8 and then two plays later junior Adam Neels plowed up the middle from the 2 to open the scoring. The PAT kick was wide leaving E-M with a 6-0 lead with 2:34 to play in the third quarter.
“In a game like this sometimes it’s going to come down to special teams and big plays,” E-M head coach Leigh Schmale said. “Bergan had some problems with low snaps before that and I was upset we didn’t get in there before, but Austin got a good jump. Wow, what a big play that was.”
On E-M’s first possession of the fourth quarter a penalty and fumble led to fourth-and-19 from its 18.
The punt sailed over the head of Boggs who ran back to pick up the ball and headed to his right before handed off to Gross who was streaking the other way. Gross took the reverse and, after a fine downfield block by Christian Victor, scored on the 63-yard punt return for a 7-6 lead 2:30 into the fourth quarter.
Bergan kept the momentum going on E-M’s next possession as Boggs picked off his second interception of the game stepping in front of Lance Steffen near midfield.
E-M, however, stole the momentum right back as Kuenning perfectly read an option play to the right side and stole the pitch from Gross to Victor and sprinted 56 yards the other way for the score. Zach Zobel hit Sam Burtch in the left flat for the 2-point conversion and a 14-7 lead with 8:07 to play in the game.
“I saw both Gross and Victor run out to my side and I just shed the block and tried to stop the play,” Kuenning said. “I ended up doing a good job on the play I guess.”
Two Bergan possessions later Gross found Boggs on a post pattern up the middle from 35 yards out to pull to within 14-13.
Then came Bergan’s fake PAT which was stopped well short of the goal line.
The first half was all defense on both sides of the ball.
Bergan managed just 63 yards of total offense and four first downs in the first half while E-M had 116 yards and five first downs.
Bergan’s Victor and E-M’s Neels were the top rushers in the game. Victor gained 78 yards on 15 carries while Neels ended with 7 yards on 18 carries.
Boggs had 32 yards on five carries and also caught four passes for 69 yards. Gross had 83 yards on 7-of-17 passing as Bergan ends its season at 7-3.
E-M is now 8-2 on the season travels to Ponca to take on the Indians Tuesday in a C-2 quarterfinal game.
Fremont Bergan 0 0 0 13 -- 13
Elmwood-Murdock 0 0 6 8 -- 14
EM - Neels 2 run (kick failed)
FB - Gross 63 punt return (Tanner Anderson kick)
EM - Kuenning 56 fumble return (Sam Burtch from Zach Zobel)
FB - Boggs 35 from Gross (run failed)
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