NORFOLK - The Fremont Bergan Knights are looking forward to the postseason after shutting down Lutheran High Northeast 24-0 Friday night in both team’s regular season finale.
The Knights (6-2) expect to be the third seed in the east, drawing a home opponent for Thursday night’s first round of the Class C-2 state playoffs.
Bergan’s defense was stout and the Knights sprinkled in enough big plays to end LHNE’s season at 4-4, keeping the Eagles out of the playoffs.
"I thought we did a good job up front and I thought our linebackers played well," Bergan coach Ron Beacom said. "It makes a big difference when you can make a team one dimensional, especially when they want to run the ball and they can’t run it very well."
Beacom said defense coordinators Chris Paulson and T.J. Folkers had the Knights ready for a shutdown performance.
"They do a great job of preparing our kids," he said. "I’ve got a great staff, they work hard and our kids respond to their challenges."
Their challenge Friday was Lutheran High senior quarterback Jordan Coolidge, coming off a 366-yard rushing performance the week before. Coolidge managed 102 yards on 21 carries against the Knights, but was unable to get his team on the scoreboard.
"We knew he was a pretty good player, he looked like a good athlete on film," Beacom said. "We try real hard not to focus on just one kid, if you do that you can get yourself in a lot of trouble, but every team has a key and he obviously was a key we had to be aware of."
LHNE’s biggest scoring threat came in the third quarter as the Eagles drove from their own 25-yard line to the Bergan 7, only to turn the ball over when T.J. Bottorff’s hit knocked the ball loose from Coolidge and Tom Wendt recovered.
Bergan quarterback Riley Gross, meanwhile, threw for 189 yards and ran for 125, although he only spent about half the game under center with Nicholas Paulson taking the rest of the snaps. Gross had a hand in each of Bergan’s scoring plays.
Beacom said allowing Paulson more snaps at quarterback was an effort to get Gross and speedster Josh Boggs both on the perimeter at the same time.
"We wanted to see what would happen if we got Riley in space a little more and we wanted to take a look at what would happen if we got Riley and Josh out there together and on the same side. I think that stresses teams a little bit to have that much speed out there," Beacom said.
The Knights scored a touchdown in each quarter but misfired on all their extra-point tries.
Bergan took the opening possession 85 yards, helped by a 27-yard Christian Victor run and a 31-yard pass from Gross to Tanner Anderson, eventually scoring on a four-yard Gross run.
Victor turned a short Gross pass to the right flat into a 58-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Eagle punter Garret Pasold had been intentionally booting the ball out of bounds early in the game to prevent Boggs from staging a long return, but he gave Boggs a chance in the third quarter and Boggs took advantage. His 39-yard run back set the Knights up at LHNE’s 24-yard line. Three plays later Gross bolted through a gaping hole on the left side of his line for a 20-yard touchdown run.
Boggs had a 77-yard kick return called back by a clipping call early in the fourth quarter, then scored anyway two plays later when Gross hit him streaking down the left sideline on an 87-yard fly pattern.
Fremont Bergan 6 6 6 6 - 24
Lutheran High NE 0 0 0 0 - 0
FB - Riley Gross, 4 run (kick blocked).
FB - Christian Victor, 58 pass from Gross (pass failed).
FB - Gross, 20 run (pass failed).
FB - Josh Boggs, 87 pass from Gross (pass failed).
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