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Bears beat Sigourney-Keota to advance
by Gregory R. Norfleet · Sports · November 01, 2014
Putting up massive yardage with a slew of big plays, including a 94-yard touchdown run by sophomore Luke Lenoch, West Branch drained the venom from the visiting Savage Cobras in the opening round of the state playoffs with a 49-22 win.
After the Oct. 29 win, the Bears move on to host Dike-New Hartford in the second round 7 p.m. Monday.
Big plays by the Bears included Nick Westcott recovering a Bear punt, Lenoch’s record-setting touchdown run, a 28-yard Lenoch run, a 46-yard touchdown reception by Mason Hays, an interception by Sam “Stick Hands” Aspelmeier, and a 41-yard reception by Devin Kindon. West Branch finished the night with 546 yards of total offense.
On the Sigourney-Keota side, Peyton Crawford had a 28-yard interception return, Blaine Gretter caught a 46-yard pass, Cole Streigle had a 25-yard run, and Nate Sieren had a 65-yard touchdown run. Sigourney-Keota finished with 342 yards.
“I was happy with the effort,” Bears Head Coach Butch Pedersen told the team in the post-game huddle.
The Bears’ offense played well throughout the game and defense did well but improved in the second half, he said.
“It’s always great when you get into the playoffs,” the coach said. “I thought we fought a lot of elements. … (Sigourney) did something different than we thought they would do, but the defense adjusted and it seemed to pay off in the second half.”
Cobra Head Coach Jared Jensen said his team was ready to play and play with effort.
“We just didn’t execute,” he said. “With what West Branch brings on the defensive side and the offensive side of the ball, when you don’t execute they’re going to capitalize on your mistakes.”
He said the Sigourney-Keota team was “a step behind.”
“We haven’t seen a team of this caliber for awhile, probably since we played Regina,” he said. “I give them all the credit in the world. West Branch is a great football team and we just didn’t have it tonight. We knew we needed to keep it competitive and we let them get out of the gates a little bit early, which we struggled with, which faltered us in the first half.”
The Cobras’ biggest threat is its single-wing spinner-back offense which relies on tricks and misdirection in hopes of thinning out defenders for bigger gains. Part of that involves snapping the ball to as many as three possible quarterbacks. Bears Co-Captain and defensive end Nick Westcott had the job of going after the quarterback, whomever it was, and said it was not easy.
“We had to make some adjustments at halftime, and we got a good push from the defensive line and secondary,” he said.
Lenoch ran for a 93-yard touchdown earlier this season to tie the school record, so his 94-yard touchdown against the Cobras bested himself by a yard. Oddly enough, the Bears ended up on their own 6 due to a holding penalty on the punt return just before. The ball had been on their 12, but was set back half the distance to the goal line.
“We laid out some really good blocks up front and I noticed Jon (St. John) had a really good cutback block I could just take to the outside and there was just nobody outside Big Jon — it was just wide open,” the sophomore running back said.
But that was not Lenoch’s only school record that night. Rushing for 303 yards in the game, he became the only player in school history to rush for more than 300 yards in two games in their high school career, much more to do it in a single season. He ran for 324 yards against North Cedar in Week Four.
With that, his season total rose to 1,972 yards of rushing, placing him second in the school record books to Cole Kelly, who had 1,994 yards in 2009.
Lenoch said he took some hard hits in those 24 rushing attempts.
“Pretty sure I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and it won’t be that fun,” he smiled.
Pedersen said Lenoch and the offensive line work very well together.
“He’s a tremendous back, he has great balance and vision and he has an offensive line who really believes in what he’s trying to do,” the coach said. “And he understands that his success comes directly from the offensive line.”
Near the end of the first quarter, Sigourney scored their first touchdown and narrowed the gap to 14-6. That momentum carried over into the second quarter as they held the Bears to a three-and-out, forcing the home team to punt. But the punt slipped through the Cobra receiver’s hands and West Branch’s Westcott landed on it on the Cobra 33.
“That was a huge play at that time,” Pedersen said. “That gave us great field position and a great lift. When you can have that type of turnaround, you’ll be very successful. That was key to our early success.”
Crawford’s interception in the second quarter caused a temporary shift in the game’s momentum back to Sigourney.
“That was big,” Jensen said. “We talked about creating turnovers and capitalizing on them. We knew we weren’t going to be able to shut West Branch down, we had to create some turnovers. … We got a little momentum and a little hype out of it. It was a good play.”
Crawford and Nate Sieren accounted for a 235 yards of Sigourney-Keota’s 342 yards on offense.
“We’ve been riding those two guys all year long,” Jensen said. “It’s kind of a tandem backfield … with Nate being our wingback and Peyton as our tailback and it’s worked out well. You can’t really just focus on Peyton because you’ve got that backside counter with Nate. But they had a pretty good scheme shutting the door on the counter with Nate.”
Sieren broke away in the fourth quarter for that 65-yard touchdown, which allowed him to show the Bears his full speed.
“Both those guys have been phenomenal all year,” the Cobra coach said. “They were kind of our workload.”
Pedersen said the Bears had to play “gap-solid, and not peek into the backfield” to defend against that attack.
“A few times we peeked and we were not aggressive on the corners,” he said. “We didn’t set the edge like we should have. But we encouraged the kids to be more aggressive setting the edge and they did a better job.”
Pedersen said that “nerves can get to you sometimes” in playoff games, and the Bears “can play better than we did.”
“We made too many penalties,” he said.
The final statistics on penalties quite different for the two teams: Sigourney-Keota was called for 2 penalties that cost them 10 yards, while West Branch was called for 11 penalties costing them 102 yards.
Pedersen said he saw the home team make some “foolish penalties,” but found the lopsided penalty count “a peculiar statistic.”
Aspelmeier’s interception came in the fourth quarter with the Bears leading 42-14. The subsequent touchdown drive gave West Branch a 35-point lead, kicked in the “continuous clock” rule and allowed the Bears to send in their second team for more experience.
“He read the play and stepped over and made a nice interception,” Pedersen said. “That was a good coverage job.”
Quarterback Lucas Lamont completed eight of 13 passing attempts, about 61.5 percent, yet still gained 142 yards passing on the night, or 17.75 yards per throw, as well as another 74 yards of rushing.
“He’s a great quarterback and does a lot well,” Pedersen said. “He manages the offense in an efficient manner and is a good thrower. And he showed last night he can also run the ball.”
For whatever reason, the Cobras focused so much on covering running backs and receivers that they often left large gaps right in front of Lamont. So he ran through them.
“He took advantage of those he can do that in a consistent manner,” the coach said.
Lenoch said the team “played really great” and, after fixing a few things on defense, the Bears will be ready to go for Monday’s round two.
“Once we get those things worked out, which we will, we’ll be pretty solid,” he said. “We’ll just take it one game at a time.”
Westcott called it a “huge honor” to advance in the playoffs.
“We get to move on instead of handing in our shoulder pads,” he said.
Dike-New Hartford next
The No. 10 Wolverines come into Monday’s game at the Little Rose Bowl with an 8-2 record, suffering losses to unranked Gladbrook-Reinbeck and No. 2 South Winneshiek.
“They are a very, very excellent football team,” Pedersen said. “They are very balanced in the run and the throw. They will be a real handful.”
Dike-Hew Hartford has a longrunning football tradition like West Branch.
“I’m eager to be in this position,” the Bears coach said. “We’re a November team now. And I’m proud of the fact that we’ll be playing in West Branch.”
Quarterback Jacob Moore completes about 54 percent of his throws and has about 635 yards passing this season. His top targets are Connor Neuroth with 466 yards and 14.6 yards per catch and Preston Wheat with 236 yards and 19.7 yards per catch.
Wheat is also the teams’ No. 2 rusher with 491 yards and 9.3 yards per play. The team’s top running back is Trent Johnson with 1,612 yards and an average 9.2 yards per play.
Pedersen encouraged fans to fill the stands — and to get loud.
“The crowd can be a factor,” he said. “It helps our kids emotionally. We ask the fans to be boisterous.”
Highlights
Sigourney-Keota kicked off to open the game and West Branch’s Cole Lacina returned the sort kick to the Bear 41.
Lenoch barreled 17 yards for his first touch of the ball, then nine more yards two plays later. He picked up another 33 yards until a defender dragged him down at the Cobra 3. Three plays later, Lamont did the honors by punching it in from a yard away for the first points on the board after a 59-yard, 7-play drive.
An extra-point kick by Devin Kindon and West Branch led 7-0 with 9:09 on the clock.
Sigourney’s Sieren caught the kickoff, but dished it off to Crawford on a reverse, which got the ball to the Cobra 34 to start the drive.
But the visitors had a hard time getting things started. If it had not have been for a five-yard offsides penalty against the Bears, the Cobras would have only gained four yards on the drive with both Sieren and Crawford trying to carry the ball. West Branch took over on downs on the Sigourney 43.
West Branch got things moving quickly again as Lamont started with a 12-yard run, followed by another seven by Kindon and five by Lenoch. Then Lamont added another 15 yards and West Branch stood only four yards out. Lenoch finished the drive at the 5:01 mark and Kindon’s kick soared straight in. Bears now led 14-0 in the first quarter of the first round of the playoffs.
Sigourney looked like they would have trouble again on this drive. Starting on their own 27, they lost four yards on a bad snap, then got called for a false start to set them back another 10. But Crawford picked up 11 yards on his next rush, then caught a 29-yard scene-stealing pass to get the first down and put the Cobras near midfield.
An offsides penalty against the Bears helped Sigourney cross midfield, then Crawford broke away for a 36-yard pickup. Two plays later, he could take it in from 14 yards out by sweeping left to catch the corner and put the first Sigourney points on the board with 1:23 left to the quarter. The extra-point kick swung too far left, but the Cobras narrowed the lead 14-6.
Mason Hays returned the kick to the Bear 25 for a drive that overlapped into the second quarter.
The drive stalled on the Bear 29 and West Branch chose to punt. And while the Cobra receiver waved for a fair catch, the ball slipped through his hands with a Bear-benefitting bounce. A second Sigourney defender took a swipe at the ball but could not control it and West Branch’s Wescott fell on the ball to give it back to the Bears some 38 yards downfield from where they started.
Just 33 yards from the end zone, West Branch needed five plays to cover the distance. Lenoch did the work of moving the ball, starting with runs of 13 and 9 yards before a five-yard walkoff on an offsides penalty. His last run was from three yards out, followed by another successful kick by Kindon. With 9:17 left in the half, the Bears led the Savage Cobras 21-6.
Crawford returned the kick for Sigourney-Keota to their 31. Two plays later, West Branch was penalized for pass interference, which gave the visitors 15 yards and a first-down. Now at their 48, the Cobras got across midfield to the West Branch 46 but switched to the punt, which rolled to the Bears 12.
Flags went up again and West Branch was called for holding on the punt and the ball was set back half the distance to the goal line.
Now at the 6, Lamont handed the ball off to Lenoch, who broke left, got off a tackle, slipped through a gap at about the 10 and found open field at the 15. Zig-zagging no longer necessary, Lenoch set his feet on “high” for the last 85 yards, with two Sigourney defenders in hot pursuit. But the Cobras could not bridge the distance as the sophomore burned up the real estate and shot into the end zone for the record-setting 94-yard rushing touchdown.
On the kickoff, West Branch was called for a facemask and that gave the Cobras the ball on the West Branch 45. Facing a third-and nine, Crawford broke away for an 18-yard gain, then followed with three more to put the ball on the Bears 26. Sieren, Crawford and Streigle pressed the ball forward to the Bear 7, but two incomplete passes ended the threat, and West Branch took over on downs.
Turning things around, the Bears plugged away, advancing with rushing plays by Kindon and Lamont, set back by an illegal motion penalty, then forward again with a 10-yard reception by Hays.
Now on the West Branch 22, the Bears called time-out with 1:18 left to the half to try to come up with a plan to score before the break. Coming back, Lenoch ran for eight, Hays caught for 12, then Aspelmeier caught a big pass for another 21 yards to get to the Cobra 36.
West Branch called time-out again with 56.7 seconds left on the clock. Lemont ran the next two plays for 12 more yards to get to the Sigourney 24.
With 40.8 seconds left, West Branch went to the air, but Sigourney’s Crawford picked of the pass and returned it 28 yards to their 34.
With 29.9 seconds left, Crawford ran for another nine and Nate Owen caught a pass to get to midfield. A flick pass and lateral was dropped for a three-yard loss, and West Branch’s Jacob Giese sacked quarterback Blake Gretter for another yard backward.
Facing a third-and-12 at the Cobra 48, a pass fell incomplete and the time ran out with West Branch ahead 28-6.
After halftime, West Branch kicked off and Crawford returned it for the Cobras to their 36. Crawford ran the ball for the next five plays, crossing midfield to the Bears 43. Sieren tried a rush on fourth-and-two but could not get past the West Branch line, giving the ball to the home team with just under 9 minutes in the third quarter.
Lenoch made big yardage on his first touch of the ball with a 28-yard gain to cross midfield and cut deep into Cobra territory to the 29. Three plays later, Lamont broke away for a 17-yard gain to the Sigourney 8. Lenoch completed the drive and Kindon capped it off just under 2 minutes after getting the ball back.
West Branch led 35-6.
Crawford ran back another kickoff to get Sigourney to their 25. Switching roles for another trick play, Crawford passed the ball to Gretter for a 46-yard gain that put the ball on the West Branch 29.
Crawford picked up 11 yards on the next two rushing plays, then broke left to sweep around to the far corner, for an 18-yard run.
To make up for the missed extra-point in the first half, Sigourney set up for a two-point conversion, with Crawford connecting with Owen for the score. Point total: 35-14, West Branch.
The momentum appeared to shift, as West Branch’s returned drive stalled after just gaining four yards. The punt rolled to the Cobra 10.
But the Bears drew a line against the momentum, and Sigourney went three-and-out. West Branch was called for a personal foul on the punt and had to start on their own 30.
Lenoch ran 15 yards on the second play, then Cooper Kabela caught a pass for five yards, followed by another Lenoch run of 18 yards. With 24 yards to go. Lenoch ran the next 12 yards pinball-style with hits and spins and broken tackles as the drive overlapped into the fourth quarter.
Lamont covered eight yards in two rushing plays to get the ball to the Cobra 4. Now facing a fourth-and-two, Lenoch swept right but the Sigourney defense only allowed a yard and took the ball back on downs.
The Cobras had a hard time moving the ball, but benefitted from a holding penalty against West Branch that gave Sigourney 10 yards.
Cawford ran for 11, then Streigle broke away for another 25-yard pickup. West Branch was then penalized for standing too close to the sideline, giving the Cobras another five yards and put the ball on the West Branch 49.
Two plays later, a Sigourney fumble cost them six yards. A fourth-and-15 pass was caught, but the referees said the receiver’s foot was out-of-bounds and the Bears took over again with 7 minutes left to the game and 46 yards to the end zone.
Lamont went right to the long pass, connecting with Hays at about the 15-yard line. Hays, with a Sigourney defender right on his heels, got dragged down, but not before crossing into the end zone for the touchdown.
Kindon’s point-after-touchdown kick went between the uprights and West Branch now led 42-14 with 6:49 left on the clock.
The Cobras, now even more desperate, tried another trick play on the kickoff. Crawford again caught the ball, and as West Branch defenders shifted in his direction, Crawford turned and threw the ball across the field to Luke Greiner. Referees blew the whistle on the illegal forward pass and Sigourney started on their own 17.
Owen picked up a first-down with an 18-yard reception to help the Cobras get to midfield. On a second-and-six, the Cobras went to the air, looking to again find Owen. However, West Branch’s Aspelmeier jumped up to snatch the pass away at about the West Branch 45, running it back to the Sigourney 44.
Kindon took the ball 10 yards on a run, but West Branch got called for holding, costing them 10 yards. The Bears called time-out with 3:55 left in the game and returned to throw it to Kindon instead. Unfortunately for the Cobras, Kindon got in front of his defender and caught the ball at about the 15 and made it another 12 yards before getting dragged down.
Lamont handed it off the Kindon to finish the drive with another six-point score, then Kindon kicked the extra-point to put the home team ahead 49-14.
With West Branch leading by 35 points, the “continuous clock” began running down the rest of the game at the 3:24 mark and the Bears sent in second team players to finish off the visitors after the kickoff.
Cobra sophomore Avery Moore brought the ball back to the Sigourney 35. With the clock still ticking away, the handoff went to Sieren, who angled right, headed to the sideline, broke a tackle at the West Branch 40 and had an open field after that.
A pass to Owen and Sigourney narrowed the lead to 49-22, thus stopping the continuous clock at the 2:22 mark.
West Branch’s first team went back in on offense. Two plays into the drive, Lamont scampered for a 15-yard gain to get the first down. After that, he took two knees to run out the clock and lock down the first-round playoff victory.
West Branch 49,
Sigourney-Keota 22
Scoring
Sig-Keota 6 0 8 8 22
West Branch 14 14 7 14 49
First quarter
WB: Lucas Lamont 1 run, Devin Kindon kick; 9:09
WB: Luke Lenoch 4 run, Kindon kick; 5:01
S-K: Peyton Crawford 14 run, kick fails; 1:23
Second quarter
WB: Lenoch 3 run, Kindon kick; 9:17
WB: Lenoch 94 run, Kindon kick; 6:16
Third quarter
WB: Lenoch 8 run, Kindon kick; 7:08
S-K: Crawford 18 run; Blaine Gretter pass to Nate Owen; 5:30
Fourth quarter
WB: Lamont 46-yard pass to Mason Hays, Kindon kick; 6:49
WB: Kindon 3 run, Kindon kick; 3:24
S-K: Nate Sieren 65 run, Gretter pass to Nate Owen; 2:22
S-K WB
First downs 14 25
Rush-pass-penalty 9-4-1 21-4-0
Rushing yards 241 404
Passing: Comp-Att 5-13 8-13
Passing yards 101 142
Passing: TD-INT 1-1 1-1
Total plays 48 55
Offensive yards 342 546
Fumbles-lost 3-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 2-10 11-102
Def sacks-yards lost 0-0 0-0
Time of possession 24:51 23:09
3rd down efficiency 4 of 12 5 of 8
4th down efficiency 0 of 4 0 of 1
Punts-ave yards 2-36.5 2-44.5
Passing — Lucas Lamont 8-142, 1 TD
Rushing — Devin Kindon 5-27, 1 TD; Lucas Lamont 12-74, 1 TD; Luke Lenoch 25-303, 4 TD
Receiving — Mason Hays 4-68, 1 TD; Devin Kindon 2-47; Sam Aspelmeier 2-22; Cooper Kabela 1-5
Tackles (solos-assists-sacks) — Mason Hays 0-3-0; Devin Kindon 4-6-0; Lucas Lamont 1-0-0; Sam Aspelmeier 3-3-0; Hunter Wargo 1-6-0; Travis Wolf 0-5-0; Cooper Kabela 0-3-0; Austin Black 0-6-0; Cole Lacina 1-2-0; Nick Westcott 1-4-0; Cale Donovan 0-1-0; Drew Finnegan 4-4-0; Matt McIlrath 2-13-0; Jacob Giese 1-5-0; Ryan Grosvenor 1-0-0; Jon St. John 3-2-0
Kick returns: Mason Hays 2-16; Hunter Wargo 1-18; Cole Lacina 1-0
Punt returns-Yards: Austin Black 1-33
Punting: Devin Kindon 2-89
Kickoffs: Devin Kindon 1-49; Lucas Lamont 7-316
PATs: Devin Kindon 7-7
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