Wolverines Upset Lenox, Move on to Quarterfinals
LENOX - Nursing a 22-18 lead, the East Mills football team seized the momentum with a touchdown on the final play of the first half and exploded for 28 points in the third quarter to blow past previously unbeaten Lenox 58-34 in the second round of the Eight-Man state football playoffs Monday.
In a 13 minute span bridging the second and third quarters, East Mills, who lost 38-12 to this same Lenox team four weeks ago, out-scored the Tigers 42-0. In the third quarter alone the Wolverines scored on three straight possessions and a blocked punt while limiting Lenox to no points and a net minus-42 yards of offense.
“We had all the momentum early, then they the flipped it on us and they changed defenses and it took us a while to get the momentum back,” said East Mills Co-head coach Kevin Schafer after the game. “We made adjustments in the second half to the defense they were running and it really helped. I think we wore them down.”
East Mills (9-2) will face Glidden-Ralston (11-0) in Friday’s state quarterfinals.
After Ben Christensen scored on a 65-yard quarterback keeper on the first play from scrimmage against Lenox, the Wolverines led 16-6 after a quarter and appeared to be driving for a third TD but a turnover in the end zone flipped the momentum to the Tigers. Lenox scored four plays later to narrow the gap to 16-12 after the failed two-point conversion.
The Tigers forced a Wolverine punt on the ensuing possession and Carson Cline’s took advantage of the short field to score on a five yard scamper five plays later. The Tigers would miss the two-points conversion but had their first lead of the game at 18-16 with 7:17 to go before halftime.
The score would remain that way until East Mills found its offense again and Christensen connected with Miguel Sanchez on a 55 yard scoring toss. A failed two-point conversion had the Wolverines leading 22-18 with 1:18 to go in the half.
Lenox had no intention of settling before intermission, however, and drove down to the Wolverine 17 yard line with less than 24 seconds to go. But there the drive would stop as Noah Richter’s interception set up East Mills at the Tigers 10 yard line. Two plays later Josh Hopkins burst in for his second touchdown of the half and the Wolverines led 28-18.
After forcing a punt on the Tigers’ first possession, Christensen again answered with a TD toss to Richter on a 35 yard dart down the seam to blow the game open. The two-point conversion would fail but the Wolverines would push their lead to 36-18.
“We hadn’t run that before,” Schafer said of the play action pass to Richter. “We put it in at halftime. And the kids ran it to perfection.”
In the third quarter, the Wolverine defense took over, dominating the line of scrimmage and harassing Cline.
“Defensively, we played great,” Schafer said. “We gave up some yards passing but we stopped their running game. You’re going to give up some pass plays to them with their quick kids and (Spencer) Brown at 6-foot-8. And then our pass rush got better as the game wore on. I think we took the will out of them in the third quarter.”
Hopkins was a workhorse for the Wolverines, rushing for 168 yards and three TDs.
East Mills 54, Exira/EHK 15
“A perfect storm.”
That’s how East Mills co-head football coach Kevin Schafer described his team’s first half in last Wednesday’s opening round playoff game at Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton.
A perfect storm that blew the Wolverines’ direction as they took advantage of six Spartan turnovers and multiple penalties and built a 30-6 lead after two quarters on the state’s No. 6 ranked Eight-Man team en route to a 54-15 victory.
“The first half, we got almost every break,” Schafer said. “They had a number of turnovers. When they did have a good offensive play, they had penalties. It was just a perfect storm for us. Everything seemed to go our way. We capitalized on their mistakes and our confidence kept growing as the game went on.”
After a slow start offensively, the Wolverines’ running game took over.
“Our line got better (as we went along) and we hit some passes that loosened them up. That let us run the ball better,” Schafer said.
The Wolverines were an efficient 6-of-8 passing for 117 yards but three of those completions went for touchdowns, two by quarterback Ben Christensen and one by running back Josh Hopkins on a halfback pass. East Mills out-gained the Spartans 380 to 307 thanks to a few tweaks to the offense just for this match up.
“In 11 man football they’d call it going off tackle, but in eight man, its going off the tight end,” Schafer said. “We ran a little bit wider that normal. I told (fullback) Luke Stortenbecker he had his best blocking game of the year. He really attacked their defensive ends. We blocked very well and moved people. We ask our running back and our quarterback to block. It’s not just the line but they did a real good job.”
East Mills nearly had the game into a continuous clock before halftime, leading 30-7.
The Wolverines opened the second half with a pair of touchdown drives, sandwiched around a Spartan turnover, to open the second half.
Hopkins was a force all night for the Wolverines. The senior rushed for 177 yards on 18 carries, scoring four touchdowns on the ground to go with his touchdown toss. He also picked off a second quarter pass and returned it for an 18 yard TD and wrapped up 9.5 tackles.
“You could tell, they (Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton) came in with a defense designed to stop Josh Hopkins. That was their game plan. And we did have to throw early in the game to back them off and that opened up the running game. Pass blocking, the line, the receivers, they did great job. If we can get everybody blocking one-on-one, we like our chances. He (Josh) blocks, catches passes and is great on defense. He is just a really good football player.”