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Thursday, September 02, 2010
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| Senior GSL defensive backs Alex Jenson (2) and Jorrin Pautz catch a break during last Friday’s Class AAA state semifinal against Mora at the Metrodome. Each player picked off a pass in the Panthers’ 28-0 victory. |
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| GSL quarterback Kyler Anderson (9) runs for a few of his 91 rushing yards during last Friday’s Class AAA state semifinal with Mora. |
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Panthers blank Mora 28-0; Prep Bowl next
by Lee Ostrom
For the seventh time in the first decade of the 21st century, a Glencoe-Silver Lake football team is Prep Bowl bound.
The 2009 Panthers, with a 28-0 victory over Section 7 champ Mora last Friday (Nov. 20) inside the Metrodome in Minneapolis, earned a berth opposite New London-Spicer in the Class AAA championship game. Kickoff for the showdown of 13-0 teams is high noon Saturday, Nov. 28.
Five previous GSL teams have won Prep Bowls, including the 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 squads. In other words, the 2009 Panthers are trying to make it four state crowns in a row for the mighty GSL football program.
"Just keeping up the tradition," said senior linebacker Adam Thom, after nabbing two of the four passes GSL's active defense took off Mora quarterback Andrew Youngblom's right arm last Friday.
"It never gets old," added safety Jorrin Pautz, who as a ninth-grader worked the role of waterboy during the 2006 GSL team's run to glory. As a senior, he ran back an interception 65 yards for GSL's final score against Mora.
The Panthers scored the first time they possessed the ball in their semifinal, but led only 7-0 at halftime. However, a 21-point third quarter dashed any thoughts of a suspenseful finish.
Head coach Scott Tschimperle, "proud" of how his boys "pretty much dominated" the second half against Mora, now asks them to "mentally prepare" to play "the best game (they) can possibly play" in Prep Bowl XXVIII.
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PANTHERS STRIKE EARLY
Last Friday's first of many big plays from GSL's defense platoon came from tackle Nathan Schermann, who dumped Youngblom for a two-yard loss after the Mustang QB took a third-and-one snap from the Panther 48.
On the next play, Mora punted.
Fourteen plays after that, GSL was on the board; the result of halfback Aaron Lueders' 3-yard TD surge.
Looking sharp out of the blocks, the Panther attack converted all three of its third-down situations en route to the Mora end zone. Needing a yard from the Mora 47, Lueders ran for three. Needing six from the Mora 28, quarterback Kyler Anderson ran for seven. Needing 13 from the Mora 24, Anderson got 21 on a pass completion to end Kaine Dummer.
On the pass, GSL flooded the left side of the field at three different levels; with Dummer, running a drag route, eventually popping wide open. But the play takes time to develop, making a key to the completion the protection given Anderson by GSL's offensive line. Despite having both ends out on patterns, Tschimperle said his blockers got the job done.
The Panthers moved the chains six times on their first possession. By intermission, though, they only had nine first downs.
According to Tschimperle, Mora "surprised" the Panthers by scrapping its 53 for the same defense (a 62) DeLaSalle used in the quarterfinals. Further, the Mustangs employed the even-front defense without having to rely on the middle-gap blitzes DeLaSalle used.
"They didn't have to (blitz), because (tackle) Harley (Lindberg) took care of the middle," Tschimperle said.
"He was pretty much destroying us up front," Anderson said about the quick-footed 5-11, 260-pound Mora lineman.
So, during the halftime break, the Panthers made some adjustments.
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BIG 3RD QUARTER
With the opening possession of the second half, GSL's line started coming off the ball better, which allowed the offense to go marching again.
"We just tried to get lower than them," said junior center Justin Kraby, who thought the Panther linemen picked up their "intensity," too.
A big play occurred after Anderson took a first-and-10 snap at the 48. Running to his right on a play called "Split 14 Option Crack," the GSL quarterback picked up what Tschimperle described as a "pancake" block from Lueders on a Mora cornerback. That sent Anderson around the corner and down the sidelines for 32 yards.
A little later, a third-down pass to end Cody Christensen advanced the ball to the 8. Two plays after that, the Panthers reached paydirt - when fullback Ryan Style picked up a Lueders' fumble and hauled it the final yard.
Sixty-one seconds later, the score went from 14-0 to 21-0.
Following Style's TD and Dummer's subsequent kickoff, the Mustangs set out from their own 24. But on second down from the 29, Thom "jumped" a pass route, picking off Youngblom's pass and returning 19 yards to the Mora 19.
"I don't think (Youngblom) saw him," Tschimperle said.
On GSL's first play from scrimmage following the interception, Anderson sold Mora's safety on a play-action fake, stood up and completed a pass to Christensen, who was running all by himself behind the Mustang secondary.
"I think that was pretty much the knock-out punch," said Anderson, who hit Christensen in stride at the goalline.
Not to say Mora threw in the towel.
Indeed, after Christensen's TD, Youngblom completed a 46-yard bomb to Dylan Graves to reach the GSL 20. From there, the Mustangs gained seven additional yards in two plays. But on third down from the 13, Youngblom's pass to the end zone was deflected by Pautz and intercepted by Thom.
When Mora got the ball back nearly 4 minutes later and advanced to the GSL 44, disaster struck again.
This time, Youngblom was intercepted by Pautz, who returned to his left in front of the Panther bench, collected three blocks by end Trevor Lueders, sidestepped a last would-be tackler at the 10, and scored standing as time ran out in the third quarter.
Pautz, who said he bit on a Youngblom run fake at first and made the pickoff while trying to recover "as quick as (he) could," said defensive coordinator Dean Schwirtz wants his boys to score points when they take the ball away from an opponent.
"I'm trying to catch up with Trevor (Lueders)," Pautz said.
For the season, Lueders leads the GSL defense with his three touchdowns. Pautz now is one behind, with two.
"We did a nice job ball-hawking today," Schwirtz said.
***
Read the full story, get the yardstick, and more, inside The Chronicle's Nov. 25, 2009, edition.
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