Wolverines’ Season Ends in State Quarterfinals

GLIDDEN - East Mills had no answer.

Glidden-Ralston seemingly had them all.

The Wildcats scored touchdowns on four of the first five possessions and held the Wolverines scoreless the first half en route to a dominating 42-6 victory in the Eight-Man quarterfinals Friday night in Glidden.

“They’re good,” said East Mills coach Kevin Schafer of undefeated Glidden-Ralston after the game. “I don’t mind losing to a team better than us. And they were better than us. Could we have played better and maybe made it a little closer? Sure, but we weren’t going to win tonight.”

The Wildcats, 11-0 and ranked among the top 5 Eight-Man teams all season, wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. After taking the opening kick off, tailback Christopher Brown raced into the endzone from 45 yards out. Following the extra-point, Glidden-Ralston led 7-0.

After going three-and-out on their opening possession, the Wolverines looked poised to gain the momentum when Ben Christensen scooped up a Brown fumble and scooted to the Wildcat 31. The Wolverines would drive inside the 13 yard line but there the drive would stall on a Christensen incompletion on fourth-and-seven.

The Wildcats responded with a two play, 68 yard drive capped by a Clayton Christian to Brown 60 yard TD pass.

East Mills would go three-and-out on their next two possessions. Glidden-Ralston answered with two more touchdown drives to take a 28-0 lead with 7:35 to go in the first half.
The halftime numbers told the story for East Mills. The Wildcats held a 317 to 135 yard advantage and did not punt in seven possessions. In six first half possessions, the Wolverines punted three times, turned it over once on an interception and twice on downs.

“They were better than us,” Schafer said. “Give them credit. I hoped we’d play well, and I don’t think we played quite as well as we could have, but they’re a good team and I hope they win the state championship. They’re that kind of team.”

The Wildcats’ size upfront gave the Wolverines trouble on both sides of the ball all night. A big, strong offense limited the East Mills pass rush while a stout defensive line controlled their inside run game, limiting District 8 leading rusher Josh Hopkins to 77 yards on 22 carries.

“We watched the film on them and what they did to Fremont-Mills but we’re more a run-based offense and we pass a little bit and we knew we were in trouble when we couldn’t run it,” Schafer said. “Passing like that isn’t our strength and we knew it’d be tough going after that.”

The Wolverines finished with 208 total yards. Glidden-Ralston, who will face Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn (12-0) Thursday in the state semifinals in the UNIDome, totaled 417 yards, including 223 rushing.

“Their front five is so tough,” Schafer said of the Wildcat’s offense. “They don’t have the typical eight-man football tight ends. Their two tight ends are just so big and you don’t run into that. Their tailback is good whether running it out of the backfield or catching it and their quarterback is a very accurate thrower. They’re very impressive.”

East Mills was able to avoid their first shutout of the season on their final play of the game against the Wildcats’ backups. Hopkins capped the drive with a three yard TD plunge with 1 minute left in the game.

“That was nice of their coach to put some subs in and give us a shot to get one in,” Schafer said. “If we had already put a touchdown in we probably would have put our subs in as well. But that was nice for our seniors and some of our other kids who were in their last year. It was nice of their coach and nice to end the season on that.”

Schafer said the loss, in a season where the Wolverines’ goal was to simply make the playoffs, does nothing to diminish an otherwise great season.

“We beat Stanton, gave F-M all they wanted and we get two big wins in the playoffs that were our two best wins of the season,” Schafer said. “We could have played better but I’m not sure it would have been enough.”

Scoring Summary
EM 00  00  00  06 – 6
GR 21  07  14  00 – 42
 
Game Summary
GR - Chris Brown, 45 run (kick good).
GR - Brown, 60 pass from Clayton Christian (kick good).
GR - Christian, 1 run (kick good).
GR - Brady Danner, 13 pass from Christian (kick good).
GR - Christian, 1 run (kick good).
GR - Oliver Conner 2 run (kick good).
EM - Josh Hopkins, 3 run (conversion failed).