Horak And Dawgs Blast Nemaha

From the Capital-Journal

SENECA — Every chance he gets, Rossville quarterback Tucker Horak doles out heaps for his success to his teammates, and in particular, bragging on his offensive line.

And to be sure, those guys have been stellar as Horak has put up video game-like numbers during his career.

There’s also something to be said for Horak’s ability to make a play on his own when he has to. And that trait was a huge reason Rossville turned Saturday night’s Class 3A playoff showdown with fellow unbeaten Nemaha Central from a nip-and-tuck affair into a 61-20 blowout win for the Bulldawgs.

“I don’t even know where he’s going sometimes,” Rossville senior lineman Gabe Marney said of Horak, who ran for 328 yards and four touchdowns and threw for 210 yards and two scores. “I think I even may have tackled him once because he cut back into me. He just runs so hard and sees things before they happen.”

Two Horak runs in particular seemed to break Nemaha Central’s spirit after the Thunder trailed just 21-12 at halftime. They weren’t Horak’s 80-yard run on Rossville’s first offensive play of the game nor his 64-yard scamper one play after Nemaha Central had cut Rossville’s second-quarter lead to 14-12.

Nope, these were plays that seemed to defy logic and leave almost everyone in the massive crowd in Seneca asking, “How’d he do that?”

Deep in Nemaha territory on Rossville’s opening drive of the second half, the Thunder had Horak dead to rights in the backfield for a big loss. Instead, he stiff-armed and threw the first would-be tackler to the turf, broke through another tackle in the backfield and then busted free for a 23-yard touchdown burst.

If that was highlight worthy enough, Horak may have topped it later in the quarter. Going left on a sweep, no fewer than five Thunder tacklers had their hands firmly on Horak. He fought through each of the tackles and dove to the pylon for a back-breaking 43-yard touchdown run that made it 42-12.

“Tucker can make one miss,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said. “What we really do a good job of is we’re good up front, but our down-field blocking is good as well. I think that attributes to some of his success as well. If we can put a body on 10, he can make one miss and that’s usually what happens. They understand if they get a hat on their guy, Tucker can take it to the house at any time.”

Rossville scored 40 straight points in the second half — 28 in the third quarter alone — to put away a Nemaha Central team that had stood toe-to-toe with the Bulldawgs in the first half.

The Thunder saw their opening drive of the game thwarted by a Jacob Bradshaw interception in the end zone, but then answered Horak’s 80-yard touchdown with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Hasenkamp to Dalton Hiltibrand.

After Horak hit Dawson Hammes for an 11-yard score, Nemaha came right back and Dylan Steinlage hit Tristan Allen for a juggling 38-yard receiver touchdown pass to make it 14-12.

Horak took over from there, hitting the Thunder with a 64-yard scoring run to complete a half where he ran for 202 yards and then devastating them with the superhuman touchdown runs in the second half.

“We went in at half and Coach Hammes wrote some stuff on the board that we’d gone over,” Marney said. “Once we got it figured out, everything started clicking on offense.”

Hasenkamp threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns for the Thunder, who saw their season end at 10-1 — its best record since 1973.

Rossville (10-0) has now won 25 straight games and will play host to Colgan (9-2) in the state quarterfinals after the Panthers topped Galena 28-14.

Rossville (11-0) 7 14 28 12 — 61

Nemaha Central (10-1) 6 6 0 8 — 20

Ross — Horak 80 run (Nascimento kick)

NC — Hiltibrand 48 pass from Hasenkamp (kick failed)

Ross — Hammes 11 pass from Horak (Nascimento kick)

NC — Allen 38 pass from Steinlage (run failed)

Ross — Horak 64 run (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Horak 23 run (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Roduner 50 pass from Horak (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Horak 43 run (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Roduner 10 run (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Balch 14 run (kick failed)

Ross — Hammes 3 run (kick failed)

NC — Allen 48 pass from Hasenkamp (Hiltibrand pass from Hasenkamp)

GAME IN FIGURES

Ross NC

First downs 26 12

Rushes-yards 41-415 28-63

Passing 210 212

Comp-Att-Int 19-25-0 12-22-3

Punts 0-0 4-26.2

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0

Penalties-Yards 4-25 1-5

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Rossville: Horak 25-328, Roduner 3-11, Hammes 6-28, Balch 4-28, Bradshaw 1-36, Cavanaugh 1-1, Team 1-minus 17. Nemaha Central: Rethman 13-48, Hasenkamp 10-7, Henry 2-1, Koelzer 3-7.

PASSING — Rossville: 19-25-0, 210 yards. Nemaha Central: Hasenkamp 10-20-3, 169 yards, Steinlage 1-1-0, 38 yards, Allen 1-1-0, 5 yards.

RECEIVING — Rossville: Schumacher 4-13, Roduner 7-96, Bradshaw 5-58, Hammes 3-43. Nemaha Central: Allen 6-122, Henry 3-10,, Hiltibrand 1-48, Steinlage 2-32.