Rangers avoid W-DC upset bid 35-21
AREA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
CROSBY - The good news for Crosby-Ironton is there will be football practice Wednesday.
The bad news for the players is there will be football practice.
C-I head coach Mike Gindorff will have much to discuss even after his top-seeded Rangers defeated the eighth-seeded Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines 35-21 to advance to the Section 6-2A semifinals.
Five turnovers, 11 penalties for 96 yards, dropped passes, dropped interceptions and lackluster effort had Gindorff wondering where his real team was at. Adding to C-I's frustration was a W-DC team that came ready to play.
"We'll go back to fundamentals this week," said Gindorff. "We'll go back to the two-a-day drills, like ball control, ball security, tackling all those things."
Taylor Bienusa of Wadena-Deer Creek (front) and Mark Hoge of Crosby-Ironton went up for the ball Tuesday in the Section 6-2A quarterfinals. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey» Purchase reprints of this photo.
The Wolverines picked off three Phil Kuhlmann passes and recovered two fumbles.
Senior halfback Aaron Kern rushed for 96 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries. His third touchdown came from two yards out and was set up by Jordan Rentz's second interception of the game. It pulled W-DC within 28-21 with the entire fourth quarter to play.
That wasn't the first time the Wolverines closed the gap to single digits. W-DC took its opening possession of the second half 66 yards on 13 plays. The drive was capped off by Kern's 6-yard run. The drive was prolonged by C-I penalties on fourth and long and third and long.
"We talked at halftime that we had to establish tempo," said W-DC coach Tom Van Erp. "We had to move the football. We couldn't go three and out. I talked to Norm Gallant, one of my long-time assistants, and I said how we do on this opening drive is going to tell me how the rest of the second half is going to go. Are we going to show up and play and be there or are we going to pack it in? They took it down the field and scored.
"But give C-I credit. They came back and answered it."
On the Rangers' first possession of the second half, they drove 64 yards on nine plays. On the ninth play, fourth and 18 from the W-DC 25, Kuhlmann faked an end around to Mark Hoge and threw a dart to Mitch Gutzman for a 28-14 advantage. The same two connected for a 22-yard reception on third and 11 to keep the drive alive.
"That answer was huge," said Gindorff. "They were physically much bigger than we were and could run it at us and I thought our linebackers and defensive line, for as small as they are, played a pretty decent game. That answer was critical in us getting back on top and giving us a little bit of confidence."
Two fumbles stalled C-I's opportunity to build on its lead, until Nathan Hudrlik broke free for a 26-yard score with 2:29 left to give C-I it's final score. Hudrlik, who entered the game with 633 yards and eight touchdowns, rushed for 139 yards on just 10 carries and scored twice. His first TD covered 55 yards and gave C-I a 12-0 lead.
C-I 35, W-DC 21
Key: C-I's defense held W-DC to 187 yards of offense and Nathan Hudrlik rushed for 139 yards and two touchdowns
Overall: C-I 9-0, WDC finishes 1-8
Next: Holdingford at C-I TBA Saturday
Matthew Hudrlik caught a 6-yard TD pass from Kuhlmann to give the Rangers a 20-0 edge before Kern's first touchdown before the half made it 20-6.
Kuhlmann hit Justin Edmundson from 15 yards out for C-I's first score, despite being called for four 15-yard penalties and one 10-yard hold. C-I's defense held W-DC to 187 yards of offense, but allowed the Wolverines to convert 3 of 6 fourth downs in the second half.
Kern added an interception and recovered a fumble and Isaac Lustila also recovered a fumble for W-DC.
"There are three things we talked about all year and they are effort, enthusiasm and assignment," said Van Erp. "In our last three or four games we've done those. The assignments haven't always been there, but the effort and enthusiasm have been.
"We don't have a lot of seniors, but they brought this team together. A lot of people say we're better than a 1-8 team and I think we are. That's for debate after the season, though."
Hoge and Reed Olander had C-I's two interceptions.
"We want to cause turnovers, not commit them," said Gindorff. "The first part of it is I think we looked past them a little bit. We might have believed a little bit of the hype. Then we started pressing, which made it worse. Like on the second fumble, Nathan was fighting for more yards and he ends up getting stripped. We dropped a lot of balls and committed a lot of dumb penalties that we don't normally commit.
"Part of that was lack of focus in the beginning."
Wadena-Deer Creek 0 6 15 0 - 21
Crosby-Ironton 6 14 8 7 - 35
First quarter
CI-Justin Edmundson 15 pass from Phil Kuhlmann (kick failed) 9:23
Second quarter
CI-Nathan Hudrlik 55 run (pass failed) 10:05
CI-Matthew Hudrlik 6 pass from Kuhlmann (Mark Hoge pass from Kuhlmann) 4:45
WDC-Aaron Kern 5 run (kick failed) 44.4
Third quarter
WDC-Kern 6 run (Zack Kelderman pass from Kevin Tumberg) 6:06
CI-Mitch Gutzman 25 pass from Kuhlmann (M. Hudrlik pass from Kuhlmann) 2:31
WDC-Aaron Kern 2 run (Kenny Sakry kick) 14.1
Fourth quarter
CI-Nathan Hudrlik 26 run (Tyler Heinlin kick) 2:29
Team statistics
First downs: CI 20, WDC 16
Rushes-yards: CI 33-258, WDC 46-131
Pass comp-att-int-yards: CI 5-17-3-93, WDC 7-22-2-56
Total offense: CI 50-351, WDC 68-187
Fumbles-lost: CI 3-2, WDC 1-0
Penalties-yds lost: CI 11-96, WDC 4-46
Individual statistics
Rushing: CI-Matthew Hudrlik 15-75, Nathan Hudrlik 10-139, Phil Kuhlmann 5-8, Logan Patrick 1-6, Mark Hoge 2-30, WDC-Aaron Kern 32-96, Logan Meyer 9-30, Kevin Tumberg 4-5, Jacob Wegscheid 1-0
Passing: CI-Kuhlmann 5-15-93, M. Hudrlik 0-1-0, Hoge 0-1-0, WDC-Tumberg 7-21-56, Kern 0-1-0
Receiving: CI-Mark Hoge 1-25, M. Hudrlik 1-6, Mitch Gutzman 2-47, Justin Edmundson 1-15, WDC-Josh Sherman 3-26, Kern 2-0, Zack Kelderman 1-18, Colter Pettit 1-12
JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5856