Rossville faces major hurdle in unbeaten Nemaha Central
brent.maycock@cjonline.com
ROSSVILLE — Until meeting Wichita Collegiate in last year’s Class 3A state championship game, there really wasn’t a question in Rossville coach Derick Hammes’ mind which team was the toughest his Bulldawgs had seen on their way to a second straight state crown.
It was Nemaha Central. Yeah, the same Nemaha Central team Rossville blitzed 61-20 in the second round of the playoffs behind 538 yards of total offense from All-State quarterback.
“Hands down, they were a state caliber team last season,” Hammes said of Nemaha Central, which finished 10-1 after the loss to Rossville. “We got hot and I don’t really believe that the final score of that game was a true measure of the teams. It certainly doesn’t indicate how tough they were and how good they were.”
When the two meet again Friday night, the stage will be different but Hammes expects the challenge to be the same. A win away from playing in its third straight state championship game, Rossville (11-1) must once again get past Nemaha Central, which comes to town for Friday’s Class 3A semifinal showdown with a 12-0 mark.
“I’ve been telling the kids, we’re going to see a motivated football team,” Hammes said. “I think they’re a confident bunch right now and there’s a little extra on their part to want to show us that last year wasn’t as indicative of what the game really was a year ago. We’re going to have a great challenge in front of us.”
While the final score of last year’s meeting suggests Rossville was in control from start to finish, delving into the boxscore proves otherwise. Despite Horak’s monster performance, which included an 80-yard touchdown run on the Bulldawgs’ first offensive play of the game, Rossville led just 21-12 at halftime with Horak’s 64-yard touchdown run late in the half producing the nine-point cushion.
Rossville then scored the first 40 points of the second half to turn the tight game into a rout.
“Obviously we thought the game was going to be closer and felt like it really was closer than what the final score indicated,” Nemaha coach Warren Seitz said. “They’ve beaten us a couple times here lately, but that doesn’t play into it as much as the fact how well coached they are and the offensive and defensive players they have back are pretty good.
“This team, we’ve played in some big games this year and we’ve won those big games. We just consider this another one of those.”
In its biggest games this year, Nemaha Central has shown the ability to get the job done, particularly in the clutch with a trio of wins coming down to the Thunder having to make a play late in the fourth quarter for the victory.
Nemaha Central rallied from a 34-21 deficit to beat Holton 43-42 on a touchdown and two-point conversion run by quarterback Ryan Hasenkamp with 37 seconds left. In district play, the Thunder scored with 57.9 seconds left to beat arch rival Sabetha 20-14.
And in the second round of the playoffs, Nemaha made a defensive stand on fourth-and-inches in the final minute to preserve a 21-14 win over No. 1 Silver Lake, the only team to beat Rossville this season.
“That gives us a lot of confidence that we’ve had to overcome deficits and come through when we’ve faced adversity,” Seitz said. “You know the kids aren’t just going to chuck it, they’re going to keep playing and good things are going to happen.”
That experience will be beneficial as Nemaha Central ventures into uncharted territory this week. The Thunder haven’t advanced this far in the playoffs since 1975 when Nemaha Valley fall to Cherryvale in the 2A semifinals. Nemaha’s only appearance in a state championship game came in 1973 when it finished runner-up to Moundridge in 2A.
Rossville, meanwhile, is in the 3A semifinals for the fifth straight season and sixth time in the last seven years. Though hardly old hat, the stage is one the Bulldawgs are used to performing on.
“I think it helps,” Hammes said. “We’ve got a lot of kids who did play in the sub-state game last year and felt they were a part of these last two titles. They’ve gone through the preparation and that more than anything is meaningful. But we’re still going to have to go out there and execute and do some great things, so I don’t know how far it really carries you.”
Both Rossville and Nemaha Central have seen their quarterbacks carry them this season, at least offensively. Stepping for Horak, Jacob Bradshaw has been nothing short of spectacular. The senior has rushed for 2,324 yards and 28 touchdowns and thrown for 1,521 yards and 20 more scores, a huge season punctuated with last week’s performance when he ran for 349 yards on just 10 carries in the first half of a 67-31 rout of Caney Valley.
Nemaha counters with its own dual-threat quarterback Ryan Hasenkamp, who has thrown for 1,501 yards and 17 touchdowns and run for another 629 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The X-factors could be the complementary players to the standout signal callers. Nemaha tailback Jacob Koelzer scores a touchdown every fourth time he touches the ball, rushing for 973 yards and 23 touchdowns on just 84 carries, and four different receivers have at least 13 catches and three touchdowns led by Mitchell Henry’s 25 catches for 426 yards and three scores. Rossville, meanwhile, has gotten a combined 1,159 yards from backs Dawson Hammes and Perry Foster and receiver Cole Schumacher has 48 catches for 951 yards and 16 touchdowns.
“The thing that makes their offense really good is the things that keep you off balance,” Hammes said of Nemaha. “They have so many off balance things where you can’t focus on one thing or take one guy away. It’s a multiple offense and has a lot of possibilities that keep you from zeroing in on one thing.”
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