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'Blue Wall' stops Bison oh-so-close from state win
PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. — While the Devils made them do it, McCook’s second game without a touchdown since 2010 looked like an excellent playoff win until...
“They suckered up the corner to get in scoring position,” coach Jeff Gross said about a 32-yard Plattsmouth pass to McCook’s 23.
“Then we JUST missed a tackle on the final play,” he said about Owen Prince’s 11-yard catch-and-run that gave the Blue Devils a 13-9 Class B playoff victory Friday evening.
No. 9-seed McCook still had 35 seconds left to retaliate but one long strong pass from senior quarterback Mark Arp was batted down with .1 second remaining.
McCook’s final lateral-the-ball-like-a-hot-potato pass play went nowhere and the Bison season was finished at 6-3 overall.
The Bison fell short despite more than doubling Plattsmouth’s rushing total, 185-84.
Class B rushing leader Christian Meneses was held to more than 70 yards below his average of 162 per game.
“We really didn’t give them (Plattsmouth) anything to speak most of the night,” Gross said about a Bison ‘D’ that held seven of nine opponents to 14 points or less this season.
Meanwhile, sophomore Jacob Gomez-Wilson’s 135 rush yards helped drive the Bison twice to first-and-goals inside those Blue Devils’ 10.
Senior Alec Langan’s rumbling 12-yard run highlighted an opening second-half Bison drive.
The Bison seemed unstoppable behind an offensive line earning a nickhame of “hog mollies” from radio voice Mark Searcy.
Yet the Devils stuffed a Langan first-down run and third down saw Arp sacked near Plattsmouth’s nine.
Rather than an expected go-ahead TD, the Bison tied their hosts 6-6 on senior Luke Maris’ 26-yard field goal.
“They (Devils) tightened up and we couldn’t get across the goal,” Gross observed.
Maris finished an awesome three-for-three in his final high school game.
However, Arp’s 24-yard dash to the Plattsmouth 18 set up another expected Bison TD.
They reached first-and-goal with about four minutes remaining — only to see an incomplete pass and seven-yard loss mean another kick.
Maris’ 33-yard kick gave McCook a 9-6 lead when it felt like the score could have been 17 or even 20-6.
“I thought we had the better offense,” Gross confirmed. “We did not convert any of those three scoring opportunities into touchdowns — and that was the difference in the game.”
The previous Bison TD-less playoff game was almost exactly 10 years ago: 27-0 vs. Aurora on Nov. 5, 2010.
Otherwise, their only Friday night without visiting pigskin paradise was 20-3 at Grand Island Northwest last fall.
Plattsmouth’s victory chances still seemed about as likely as Joe Biden saying he’ll get the pandemic under control (Trump 2020!).
The Blue Devils lofted an early 30-yard pass completion to ignite their game-opening drive.
Yet Bison defense pushed them into a fourth down and senior Mason Schmoker broke up that next Plattsmouth pass.
Seniors Dylan Paschall and Leighton Fisher jumped into huge tackles that thwarted other first-half Devil drives.
Plattsmouth finally punted a ball inside McCook’s 1o — and the Bison missed two chances to gain one key first down.
With barely 20 seconds remaining before halftime, Devil senior Adam Egger fielded a punt and broke outside to his left. He dashed and darted 56 yards to the first home-team score.
Though Bison blocked the ensuing PAT kick, Plattsmouth took a 6-3 lead into intermission.
“I put that punt return on our offensive line,” Gross said. “We had a second-and-three. We should have been able to get a first down and at least run out the half.”
McCook promptly began its impressive second-half march that still resulted in just a second Maris field goal.
The Bison missed a potential chance to host Class B No. 1-seed Bennington during this week’s Class B quarterfinals.
Instead, the Blue Devils will visit Bennington (9-1) Friday evening.
“It was still a great bounce-back year for us,” Gross concluded. “Honestly, last year (5-5 record) left a real bad taste in our mouths. I just didn’t feel like last year when they wanted to.”
“To go 6-2 in the regular season with everything we were up against is a good year,” he concluded.
The Bison played only three games at Weiland Field while topping 2,000 travel miles to six contests at York, Seward, Alliance, Gering, Hastings and Plattsmouth.