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Football: Mooseheart’s playoff run ends
Updated: November 5, 2011 8:58PM
Through 10 magical weeks, Mooseheart’s football team was the stuff of fairy tales.
The smallest, and most unique program in Illinois rattled off a 10-0 record, won a first-round Class 1A playoff game and was able to host Saturday’s second-round game against Peru St. Bede.
But the Bruins came up to Mooseheart and emphatically closed the storybook on the Red Ramblers.
St. Bede dominated Mooseheart, 34-0, to advance to the Class 1A quarterfinals against Freeport Aquin. Mooseheart’s season ends at 10-1.
“We had a chance to be at home a lot (seven times) and play good football and get our fans excited,” Mooseheart coach Gary Urwiler said. “It’s nice to be able to say that we were one of the top 16 teams (in Class 1A). Being the smallest football team in the state of Illinois, that’s not a bad accomplishment.”
Mooseheart had a chance early on to set the tone. The Red Ramblers forced a three-and-out defensively and marched to the St. Bede 39-yard line. But on a third-and-five play, senior Isaiah Brigman threw an interception on a halfback option pass to end the drive. Nine plays later, St. Bede senior Adam Burgess plunged in from a yard out and Logan Willand’s two-point conversion made it 8-0. The Bruins (9-2) never looked back.
“It’s easy to look back afterward and review everything and question it,” Urwiler said. “Looking back, should I have really run that play? To be honest with you, I thought their outside linebacker would come hard and we’d have a one-on-one shot on the outside. We just wanted to keep them on their toes and say, ‘Hey, we’re a threat moving the ball.’”
St. Bede led 16-0 at the half after Willand scored from a yard out and ran in another two-point conversion. The Bruins weren’t dominating the running game at that point, running for 92 yards on 26 carries, but the groundwork was set for an explosion in the second half.
Running behind an offensive line that does not play both ways, the refreshed Bruins ran for 153 yards and a touchdown in the second half to put the game away.
“I’m going to hand it to St. Bede,” Urwiler said. “They kicked our butts in just about every facet of the game. They were definitely a lot stronger, a lot faster than we were tonight. It’s really hard for me to swallow. They had a great game plan and they did a really nice job of stuffing us. We didn’t play well. That’s not an excuse. They took us right out of our game.”
Thanks to a late 60-yard completion to Daniel Tucker, Mooseheart junior quarterback Jon Hart finished 15-of-21 passing for 104 yards, but he threw two interceptions. St. Bede played turnover-free ball. The Red Ramblers ran for only 41 yards.
“They did great,” said St. Bede junior Bobby Morrow, who led the Bruins with 82 rushing yards and had two interceptions on defense. “They’re one of the best teams we’ve played. We were kind of nervous going into this game, but now our confidence is high.”
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