Bergan shuts down Elmwood-Murdock’s run game in upset

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BY TOM SIMONS / For the Lincoln Journal Star

FREMONT — Sophomore quarterback Riley Gross of Archbishop Bergan sparked two second-half touchdown drives Saturday night at Memorial Field, and the unranked Knights rallied for an 18-7 win against second-ranked Elmwood-Murdock in a Class C-2 semifinal playoff game.

The 5-foot-8, 137-pound Gross  scored on a 48-yard run to give Bergan a 12-7 lead with 4 minutes and 36 seconds left in the third quarter. He threw a 26-yard TD  pass to sophomore wide receiver Connor Hotovy on the first play of the fourth quarter for an 18-7 lead. The latter touchdown capped a nine-play, 86-yard drive in which Gross completed a 37-yard pass to senior Jim Wilmes on third-and-17 and had a 15-yard run to set up the scoring play.

“We knew we had to execute better (in the second half),” said Gross, who rushed 19 times for 155 yards and completed 12 of 21 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to Hotovy early in the second quarter. “We didn’t think we executed very well in the first half, so we came out with a lot of energy and played how we wanted to play.”

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Bergan advances to the state final for the third time and for the first time since it lost to Geneva in the 1990 Class C-1 title game. The Knights (10-2) will face fourth-ranked Blue Hill (11-1) at 10:30 a.m. Friday at Memorial Stadium. They’ll be seeking their second title and the first since winning the C-1 crown in 1979.

Bergan got to the championship game with quarterfinal and semifinal wins against Stanton and Elmwood-Murdock, the teams it lost to in the regular season.

Gross said that was part of what made advancing to the title game so sweet.

“It’s been our goal to make it to the state championship and we knew what we had to do to get there, and there’s nothing better than to beat the two teams that beat you earlier in the season,” he said.

“It’s been my dream my whole life. It’s pretty exciting to get there with a bunch of guys I love.”

For Elmwood-Murdock, the loss ended a dream season at 11-1, and it came because of an inability to move the ball on the ground and failure to take advantage of first-half scoring opportunities.

Elmwood-Murdock’s normally powerful running attack was held to a measly 20 yards, and senior quarterback Jon Luetchens’ 198 passing yards on 13 completions in 28 attempts weren’t enough to make up for it.

Largely because of its inability to run the ball, Elmwood-Murdock had first-half possessions stall at the Bergan 3-, 22- and 21-yard lines. Its only score came on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Luetchens to Tyler Schmale with 8 seconds left in the first half, giving it a 7-6 halftime lead.

“That was really frustrating,” said Elmwood-Murdock coach Leigh Schmale. “Bergan had an advantage up front. We had an injury (all-conference center Austin Barnes) and we started two freshmen up front, and a sophomore, tonight. I was really proud of them for the effort they gave, but not being able to cash in on the 3-yard line, and the other opportunities that we had, you just can’t let those kind of opportunities slip by.

“Their (Bergan’s) defense is tremendous. The thing that hurt us is that we were not able to move the ball on the ground, and we’re a team that really would prefer to do that. We had a decent passing game, but that’s not our strength. I have to credit Bergan’s defensive line not letting us get on track.”