Dome, semifinals await Knights

TABOR - Fremont-Mills head coach Jeremy Christiansen’s advice for his team was simple:

“Knock the ball down,” he told his team. “Do something.”

And that’s just what the Knights did, forcing an incomplete pass on a potential game-tying two-point conversion to hold on for a 30-28 win over Cumberland-Anita-Messena in the Eight-Person, state quarterfinals in Tabor Friday.

“We play fast and I think that’s the advantage we do have, we play fast,” Christiansen said after the game. “I think tonight for some reason we were a little winded. I’m not sure what was going on but those guys they played hard and forced  us into situations and hopefully we came out better from it.”

Fremont-Mills (7-1) will face off against defending state champion and top-ranked Don Bosco (9-0) in Thursday’s semifinals at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. The winner advances to next Thursday’s state championship.

The No. 6-ranked Knights looked like they might run the No. 4 ranked Cougars right off the field and into their seventh state semifinals in the last decade but a 16-0 lead after a quarter wasn’t enough.

After going nearly 22 minutes of the opening half without much success moving the ball, CAM finally broke through when Ethan Arp connected with Connor McKee on a 48 yard TD toss. The two-point conversion made it 16-8 on the scoreboard but the momentum flip favored the Cougars.

CAM picked up right where they left off on the opening drive of the third quarter. With running back Lane Spieker working from under center, they drove 64 yards in eight plays with Spieker hitting Colby Rich for a touchdown pass. The two-point conversion tied the game at 16-16.

The Cougars weren’t done.

After stopping the Knights on a fourth and seven at the CAM’s 10, Spieker gave the Cougars their first lead of the game on the very next play. The senior broke three tackles and raced into the endzone from 70 yards. But they would fail to convert the two-point conversion making the score 22-16.

The Knights answered on their very next drive. With running back Seth Malcom working out of the “thudcat” formation from under center, Fremont-Mills ran the ball seven straight times to tie the game at 22-22 on a five-yard Malcom scamper.

The Knights’ defense would come up big on the next series when Taylor Reed picked off a pass by Spieker. Nine plays and 60 yards later, Malcom would again reach the endzone, this time from three yards out. The two-point conversion put F-M ahead 30-22 with 9:38 to go in the game.

Three plays later the Knights would have a chance to salt the game away when Jake Malcom picked off another pass from Spieker. But the Knights’ offense would stall at the Cougars’ 38 forcing a punt.

CAM took over at their own 24 and with a heavy dose of Spieker moved inside the Knights’ 10 yard line and faced a first and goal at the five. But a bad snap resulted in a 17 yards loss and then a penalty set up a third and 22. No problem for Spieker. The junior connected with Rich on a 23 yard gain to set up a first goal at the four. Two plays later Spieker scored right up the middle to set the potential game-tying two-point conversion.

Following a timeout, Spieker rolled to his right and under heavy pressure sailed a pass right over the head of Rich.

With the Cougars having so much success running the ball, a pass on the conversion might have surprised some but not Christiansen.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Two point conversions is kind of like rolling the dice. I think we outsmart ourselves sometimes on two-point conversions, to be honest with you. You just never know.”

With :46 seconds left the Knights took a knee twice and celebrated their first trip to the UNI Dome since 2018.

For the second straight game the Knights used their physical run game and a steady dose of Malcom running out their own version of the wildcat. They ground out 364 yards on the ground and passed just four times. Malcom rushed a career-high 41 times for 308 yards.

“We expected a full-fledged physical ball game,” Christiansen said. “In my opinion two very similar teams, almost mirrors of each other. I mean, it came down to just winning the trenches and I think we won just enough to get there.”

Spieker finished with 246 yards rushing on 33 carries.

Don Bosco awaits the Knights in tomorrow’s semifinals in the Dome.

“It’s obviously exciting,” Christiansen said. “Any time you get there you’ve done something right. Any time you get to this point you’ve done something right. Playing indoors is a very fun and exciting thing and so we’ve got to be prepared to step up.”

Scoring Summary
FM     16  00  06  08  30
CAM  00  08  14  06  28

Game Summary
FM – Seth Malcom from Jake Malcom, 34 pass (two-point conversion good).
FM – Taylor Reed, 15 run (two-point conversion good).
CAM – Connor McKee from Ethan Arp, 48 pass (two-point conversion good).
CAM – Colby Rich from Lane Spieker, 8 pass (two-point conversion good).
CAM – Spieker, 70 run (two-point conversion failed).
FM – Malcom, 5 run (two-point conversion failed).
FM – Malcom, 3 run (two-point conversion good).
CAM – Spieker, 3 run (two-point conversion failed).