Coming into the quarterfinal round of the Class D-1 state playoffs, head coach Andrew Kuta knew that Sandy Creek’s road battle at Cross County between the two unbeaten, 10-0 football teams was going to be a difficult challenge. As the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard, the Sandy Creek Cougars moved to 11-0 with a dominating 44-24 win to claim the “Clash of the Cougars” as Sandy Creek’s defense was dominant, and their offense piled up the numbers to gain the 20-point victory.
It was no secret that the Cougars in blue had a strong offensive team, as they averaged 57.4 points per game, but that heroic defensive effort by Sandy Creek caused the Cougars in blue to be in and even more “blue mood” with Sandy Creek’s powerful defense holding Cross County to just 24 points.
Sandy Creek’s offense was clicking on all cylinders, as well, even with a couple injuries to the offensive line that hampered the play of senior center, Jack Watts, and junior Hudson Devlin, yet in typical fashion, two young men stepped up in a big way on the line, sophomore Jonas Amos at center for Watts, and freshman Christan Shaw at guard for Devlin.
The offense for Sandy Creek powered their way to 408 total yards with 219 coming on the ground and 189 through the air.
STINGY DEFENSE
Cross County found out how tough Sandy Creek’s defense was on their first drive of the game when Sandy Creek stopped the Cougars in blue on a fourth down and one at Sandy Creek’s 31 yard line.
Additionally, Cross County also found out that Sandy Creek wasn’t an “all run the ball up the middle” kind of team, as junior quarterback Ethan Shaw handed the ball to junior speedster, Connor Rempe, on a jet sweep, and behind some great blocking on the outside, Rempe set sail on a 37-yard touchdown, followed by a Shaw pass to Rempe for the two-point conversion giving Sandy Creek an early 8-0 lead with 6:51 to go in the first quarter.
Cross County came out throwing on their second possession, but quickly found out that the passing game wouldn’t go very far either, as on first, second and third downs of the drive, the Cross County quarterback dropped back to pass to his receiving crew, but on third down, a pass in the flat was met by junior Jack Clark, who put up his arms to tip it down.
Sandy Creek, after taking over for their second possession, at their own 16, acted quickly, as SC had just one play from scrimmage, that being a pass from Shaw to Rempe, covering 64-yards and the Cougars’ second touchdown of the game, with Shaw adding the two-point conversion to make the score 16-0 with 2:51 to go in the first.
Cross County in their third possession of the game, right before the end of the first quarter took a shot at the endzone on fourth down, but freshman Wes Biltoft came up big with an athletic pass breakup to produce a turnover on downs.
Sandy Creek put together a nice long drive on their third possession at the start of the second quarter, but the drive stalled at the Cross County nine-yard line.
Sandy Creek would get a huge stop on defense and in turn, get the ball back with under a minute left in the first half.
The short time did little to faze the Sandy Creek offense, as the Cougars covered 63 yards in two plays, ending with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Shaw to Rempe with Shaw and Jacob Petr hooking up for the two-point conversion to make it 24-0 at the halftime break.
NAILING THE LID SHUT Sandy Creek started with the ball coming out of the half and would go down and score with a seven-yard run by Shaw but a missed two-point conversion set the Cougars up with a 30-0 lead, and Cross County in even deeper shock.
Cross County drove down the field on their first drive of the second half, getting into the redzone and looking to score when Sandy Creek senior Will Claycamp pounced on a fumbled pitch by Cross County, leading to the Claycamp recovery.
Sandy Creek’s second drive of the third quarter started deep in their own territory and wouldn’t go anywhere and was forced to punt. Cross County brought a lot of pressure on the punt attempt, and caught Sandy Creek running a fake from Shaw who tried to throw it to sophomore Oliver Oglesby, but the attempt was off Oglesby’s hands and Cross County would take over in great field position.
The Cougars in blue scored and got the two-point conversion to make it 30-8 with 1:44 to go in the third.
Sandy Creek then ran down the third quarter clock to get to the fourth quarter where they would go down and score again with a 13-yard run by Shaw. Shaw would then pass it to Petr for the twopoint conversion making it 38-8 in the fourth.
Sandy Creek’s defense stopped Cross County again as the Cougars in red and white took over on their own 32 yard line, and a couple run plays later, set up a pass from Shaw to Rempe for a 26-yard touchdown, setting the game at a 44-8 Sandy Creek lead.
Cross County added two scores late in the game, before the end of the “Clash of the Cougars was set in stone with the Sandy Creek 44-24 victory, improving to 11-0 and advancing to the state semifinals for the first time since 1994.
COACH SPEAK
Following the game Coach Kuta was asked how he felt about how some younger players stepped up in this big victory, especially the likes of sophomore Jonas Amos and freshman Christian Shaw saying, “I knew we had the depth in the line position and knew these guys could play at a high level and having that much confidence and being able to do their jobs and do them so well.”
Kuta then spoke about the fast offensive start, and getting scores and stops in the beginning, he said “coming in I thought it was going to be a really difficult game, and they (Cross County) are really big and physical, and our best opportunity was to be really aggressive early. We haven’t done that all year, but I knew that these guys could get it done and step up in huge ways.”
FINAL STATS
The Ethan Shaw to Rempe connection throughout the 48-minute Clash of the Cougars was hotter than a cast iron skillet on an open flame in the win.
Shaw, a week after throwing for just 21 yards in a 22-20 win over Weeping Water scorched Cross County for 189 yards through the air, while completing nine of 19 passes for 189 yards, with his long pass of the night, being the 64 yard touchdown pass to Rempe.
Rempe, who was equally held at bay against Weeping Water, catching just three passes for 21 yards against the Indians, came to full life against Cross County, grabbing seven Shaw passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns, an average of 24-yards per catch.
Junior Jacob Petr grabbed two Shaw passes that covered 21 yards.
On the ground Shaw had 101 yards on 16 carries, brining his offensive totals to 290 yards in all. Rempe toted the ball 10 times, covering 89 yards, while sophomore Kaeden Schmidt had 17 yards on three carries, while the Cougars’ bruising fullback, Ben Sullivan finished with 12 yards on two carries, but had a ton of back breaking lead blocks to spring open Shaw and Rempe.
Four players reached double figures on the final tackle charts, led by sophomore Alston Clark, who was in on 15 stop, to take his team leading season total to 126 stops on the year.
Rempe finished with 14 tackles, while Schmidt gained 13, and Owen Oglesby 11.
Petr chipped in with 8 stops, while Ethan Shaw and freshman Wes Biltoft both had six tackles.
STANTON BRINGS 11-0 RECORD TO SC NOV. 10 The semifinal round of the Class D-1 playoffs will take place Friday, Nov. 10 on the Cougars home turf, as the top-seeded Stanton Mustangs will invade Cougar Territory for a 7 p.m. kick between the two unbeaten that are both looking for a berth in the D-1 state title game, Monday, Nov. 20, at 10:15 a.m., in Lincoln.
Sandy Creek comes into Friday night’s game averaging just under 57 points per game, while the Mustangs stout offense has averaged just over 61 points per game.
Defensively, the Cougars only give up 17.6 points per game, while Stanton’s defense is yielding 19.2 points per contest.
