The Cougars win and move onto the next round of the state playoffs with a tough 22-20 win over the Weeping Water Indians.
Sandy Creek came into the game undefeated at 9-0, with Weeping Water coming in with a 7-2 record, as the Cougars being the fifth-seed and Weeping Water the 12th-seed. This game was a dog fight from the beginning to the very end of the game. It was back and forth at the beginning, but the Cougars would hold off and move onto the next round.
On the victory, head coach Andrew Kuta shared what it means to him as a coach, and an alumni to get to the third round of playoffs, since it hasn’t been since the 2003 Cougars got this deep in the playoffs, falling to Lawrence-Nelson 21-14 in overtime. He said, “its been 20 years since we’ve been there so it means a lot to me, and it means a lot to see the way these young men bought into this program and the culture, it’s just a little more special to me being an alumni from here and playing here.”
INDIANS CHEW UP CLOCK Weeping Water would start out the game with the football and they knew their assignments to keep the rolling offense of the Cougars off the field, as Indians did just that, using up 11 minutes, 38 seconds in the first quarter to go all the way down and score to make it 6-0 Weeping Water with just 22 seconds left in the first quarter.
That seemingly didn’t even fazed the Cougars, as they would go down and score with a seven-yard run by Ethan Shaw to tie the game at 6-6 following a missed two-point conversion.
Weeping Water’s next drive would see the Cougar defense force a turnover on downs, as Sandy Creek began their second drive of the game from their own endzone and not get far as they would punt on this possession with a nice punt to midfield.
The defenses for both teams were excellent, as Sandy Creek would get another turnover on downs right before the half and would start marching down the field until a Weeping Water defender picked off a Shaw pass and would get to the Cougar 20yard line where the Cougar defense held strong to close out the half with the 6-6 tie.
THIRD QUARTER SPARK In the second half, the Cougars started out with the football and had a nice drive with a couple fourth down conversions and strong runs by Shaw and Connor Rempe, with the Cougars scoring on a Shaw one-yard run, and with the added two-point conversion claimed a 14-6 lead with 4:23 left to go in the third stanza.
The Cougars had some momentum after their long drive, and it would carry over onto the defensive side of the ball on the next series as Rempe picked off a Weeping Water pass, returning it 38 yards for six points. Shaw added the two-point conversion to give Sandy Creek a 14 point, 22-6 lead.
With much of the momentum now on Sandy Creek’s side, Weeping Water found an answer with a touchdown on their next drive and with the added two-point conversion, the Indians trimmed the Cougar lead to just eight points, 22-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.
Sandy Creek punted on their next possesssion, with Weeping Water taking over at their own 25-yard line.
The Indians had another long drive down the field with the help of some key penalties on the Cougars, as Weeping Water drove down the field to score, Leaving the Indians down 22-20 with 2:29 left in the game.
The Cougars, who have been in a tense situation before, earlier in the year against Exter-Milligan/Friend, needed a big stop on the Indians two-point conversion attempt, and the Cougars did just that, holding Weeping Water short of the goal line to leave the Cougars with the 22-20 lead.
Weeping Water attempted an on-side kick, but the Cougars “good hand squad” came up with the recovery, at which time, the Cougars just needed a couple first downs to end the game and the Cougars did just that, taking a knee a couple of times to preserve the two-point victory.
KUTA NOTED
After the game Kuta was asked about some key injuries that oc- young guys step up and hopefully our guys that got banged up will be able to get healthy, but these younger guys compete against those guys every day in practice, so they know how to compete.”
Kuta went on to talk about the leadership that Shaw demonstrates on and off the field, “Ethan has an uncanny ability to lead, as he does things the right way, and leads by example, and we have 27 other young men on this team that are allowing him to lead and are able to take constructive criticism and learn from that, and we have many other men on this team that are able to lead.”
FINAL STATS
The Cougars stat line wasn’t a normal stat line for them as they only had 21 yards passing, and 159 yards rushing yards.
Shaw was 3-7 passing the ball for 21 yards through the air.
Shaw also led the Cougars rushing attack with 22 carries for 130 yards and two touchdowns. Ben Sullivan had three carries for 23 yards, while Rempe had one carry for six yards.
Rempe was the only receiver with any catches as he hauled in three Shaw passes for 21 yards.
The Cougars defense had 86 tackles with one sack and one interception.
Alston Clark had an impressive night on defense with a team-high 21 tackles. Wes Biltoft totaled 13 stops, while Kaeden Schmidt gained nine, and Jacob Petr, eight.
Additionally, Rempe had seven stops, Hudson Devlin, six, Jack Watts and Shaw both had five tackles. Will Claycamp was in on three stops, with Owen Oglesby, Jack Clark, and Oliver Brannlund gaining two each.
Owen Oglesby had the one Cougar sack and Rempe had the one Cougar interception.
BATTLE OF THE COUGARS IS UP NEXT Round three, the quarterfinal round will take Sandy Creek on a 70-plus mile journey from their home field, as the 10-0 Cougars head north to Cross County High School, also 10-0 on the year in the round of eight teams remaining in the Class D-1 Playoffs.
The Cross County Cougars are coming in as the fourthseed in the playoffs, and crushed the 13 seed, Perkins County (Grant) in the second round 58-6.
The battle between the two Cougar teams is setting up to be a playoff classic, as the blue Cougars come in averaging just over 60 points per game, while the red Cougars will hit the turf at Cross County putting up an average of 58 points per game.
Defensively, Cross County only allows 11.6 points per game, while Sandy Creek gives up just 17.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 3.
