HUMPHREY — When it was over, Humphrey St. Francis quarterback Trevor Pfeifer was overcome with tears of joy Monday night at the Foltz Sports Complex.
Falls City Sacred Heart was 12 yards and a few seconds short of possibly turning those emotions completely around.
In a game that lived up to its billing, top-ranked St. Francis built a 16-point lead with the strong west-northwest wind to its backs in the second and third quarters. The Flyers then held off a furious Sacred Heart fourth-quarter rally to take a 24-16 Class D-2 semifinal football victory over the No. 2 Irish before a standing-room-only crowd.
The final few minutes “felt like forever,†said an emotional Pfeifer, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior who rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns and threw TD passes of 5 and 71 yards to lead the Flyers (12-0). Their next stop is the state championship game next Monday at 2:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.
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“The guys and I have been dreaming about this since we started playing together in fourth grade,†Pfeifer added. “This doesn’t seem real right now.â€
All the points were scored in the east end zone, and Sacred Heart (11-1) had the wind to its back to start the game, taking an 8-0 lead on a 3-yard run by Jake Hoy on the Irish’s first drive.
St. Francis scored the next 24 points in the second and third quarters with the wind in its favor. Two plays after Pfeifer connected on a 25-yard bomb to sophomore Tanner Pfeifer on the first snap of the second quarter, the two connected for a 5-yard TD pass to make it 8-6.
The Flyers took a 12-8 lead into intermission on a 9-yard quarterback keeper by Trevor Pfeifer with 24 seconds left in the half. On Humphrey St. Francis’ second offensive play of the third quarter, Trevor Pfeifer scrambled to avoid the rush, then threw deep to an open Taylor Wemhoff who took it to the house.
“After I got flushed, I knew Taylor would be faster than their outside linebacker, so I just threw it up there and let him make a play,†said Trevor Pfeifer, who was 4-of-9 passing for 119 yards. He also had an interception defensively early in the fourth quarter.
St. Francis coach Eric Kessler said the Flyers’ seldom-used passing game might’ve been the difference.
“Trevor is a good thrower and he has the ability to buy time,†Kessler said. “Sacred Heart did a good job covering our bootlegs and shutting down Taylor (Wemhoff), but we made just enough plays.â€
Trevor Pfeifer added a 1-yard TD run with 54 seconds left in the third period to make it 24-8. The Flyers failed to convert any of their two-point conversions, and the pass breakup on the last one kept it a two-score game.
Irish sophomore quarterback Jakob Jordan rushed for 50 yards and passed for 66 more in the fourth quarter to key Sacred Heart’s late surge. He engineered a 75-yard, 11-play drive that Hoy capped with a 1-yard run off a direct snap with 7:05 left in the game.
A two-point conversion pass from Jordan to Jarrot Simon then produced the final score.
On St. Francis’ next possession, the Flyers drove from their own 15 to the Sacred Heart 10. On third-and-goal, Trevor Pfeifer broke free off the left side and appeared headed for a touchdown before Irish defender Del Casteel got his helmet on the ball just outside the end zone and the Irish’s Branson Darveau recovered it for touchback with 3:11 left.
The teams then exchanged possessions, giving Sacred Heart the ball at its own 11 with 1:03 left. Jordan ran for 15 yards, connected on passes for 13 and 11 yards to Casteel, then scrambled for 10 more to get the ball to the St. Francis 20 with 12 seconds left.
Jordan hit Jamie Stice with an 8-yard pass over the middle, but Tanner Pfeifer and Justin Leifeld tackled him inside the hash marks and Sacred Heart couldn’t get lined up to spike the ball before time expired.
“We could’ve used a few more seconds,†Sacred Heart coach Doug Goltz said. “They (St. Francis) pretty much shut us down in the second and third quarters, we couldn’t get anything going against that defense. I liked the way our kids battled and put themselves in a position to possibly win it at the end.â€
Pleasanton 12, Overton 6:Â The Bulldogs overcame a 6-0 halftime deficit, and finally cashed in on offense after showing its defensive prowess in Overton on Monday to advance to the D-2 state championship to face St. Francis.
Pleasanton (10-2) senior Jakson Keaschall had a pair of fumble recoveries in the second half, including a 9-yard fumble return that knotted the score 6-6.
After three quarters, Keaschall found the end zone a second time with a 1-yard run following a bad snap on an Overton punt that gave the Bulldogs the ball at the Eagles' 4-yard line.