The Crofton Warriors made the State Playoffs beating the Wakefield Trojans on Friday, October 14, 52-38.
With the State Playoff berth, the Warriors (5-3) will host the Freeman Falcons (5-3) from Adams, Nebr. The Warriors received the seventh seeded spot, and Freeman was seeded #10.
The game will be played in Crofton this Thursday, Oct. 20 with a kickoff time of 7 p.m.
Vs. Wakefield
The Warriors started the game kicking off to the Trojans and getting a touchback. The Trojans marched down the field without being stopped and scored the first touchdown of the game, but they couldn’t complete the two-point conversion. The Warriors had a tough time on offense and were forced to punt the ball. Senior Simon McFarland intercepted the ball and ran to about the eight-yard line to end the first quarter, Wakefield leading 6-0.
To start the second quarter McFarland punched the ball into the end zone. The Trojans’ offense couldn’t move anywhere, so they had to punt it. McFarland ran right down the middle five times in a row and scored a touchdown. He also scored the two-point conversion. Junior Will Steffen got an interception, but on the next play McFarland fumbled the ball and it went back to the Trojans. For the rest of the quarter, both teams couldn’t get into the end zone. At the end of the second quarter the Warriors lead 14-6.
The Warriors started the third quarter off strong, and McFarland scored a touchdown on the third drive. McFarland also scored the extra two points. The Trojans couldn’t move the ball on offense, so they punted it. McFarland scored another touchdown three plays later along with freshman Jace Panning scoring the two-point conversion. On the kickoff, Wakefield called a reverse and almost scored a touchdown, but sophomore Braxton Foxhoven took Wakefield’s Mason Lamprecht down.
The Trojans still ended up scoring a touchdown later in the drives, plus the two extra points. The Warriors weren’t going anywhere so they lined up for a punt, but Foxhoven faked it and ran the ball for a first down.
The Warriors used that first down, and McFarland scored a touchdown. Panning scored the two-point conversion. The Trojans did a fake reverse on the kickoff and almost scored on it again, but Panning came up with a key tackle to stop Lamprecht. Wakefield still ended up scoring a touchdown with the two-point conversion. At the end of the third quarter the Warriors were leading 38-22.
At the start of the fourth quarter senior Wesley Lucht received a handoff from McFarland and ran down the middle of Wakefield's defense and scored a touchdown. Senior Ty Tramp scored the two-point conversion.
The Trojans answered, marching down the field, scoring a touchdown and passing it in for the extra two points. The Trojans defense couldn’t stop Lucht on his runs, but on one of the handoffs, Lucht and McFarland fumbled it and Wakefield recovered it. The Warriors got the ball back and Lucht redeemed himself, running down the middle and scoring a touchdown. The two-point conversion was no good. The final score of the game was 52-38
With this win, the Warriors clinched a spot in the class D1 playoffs. They now will turn their attention to preparing to face Freeman. McFarland said, “We did well at running the ball, and heading into the playoffs we need to work on kickoff more.”
McFarland ran the ball 28 times and had 180 rushing yards. Following McFarland was Lucht with 99 yards. Foxhoven had a total of 11 tackles including one sack and junior Robbie Fisher followed with nine.
Senior Simon McFarland was named the Kuchuar Chiropractic Star Athlete of the Week
Senior Ty Tramp catches the ball and scores a two-point conversion