Rossville Wins 3A State

From the Capital-Journal:

— It wasn’t a position Rossville had found itself in this year, but the Bulldawgs had been here before.

Last year, in fact. On the very same field. In nearly the very same spot.

So maybe it was understandable there was a certain sense of déjà vu that came over the Bulldawgs trailing Wichita Collegiate 19-7 at the start of the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game at Hutchinson’s Gowan Stadium.

“In a lot of ways, it was a lot like last year where it was a calming effect when we got down,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said, referring to the 2014 title game when Rossville rallied from a 14-7 deficit in the final seven minutes to upend Scott City for its first state title. “We knew we had to get down to business.”

Just as it did a year ago, Rossville finished what it started. Tucker Horak scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to start the comeback, then returned a fumble 65 yards for the game-winning score less than a minute later and Rossville held on to edge Collegiate 20-19 in a game played mostly in a freezing rain on an ice-covered field.

The title capped a second straight 14-0 season and gave the Bulldawgs their second straight Class 3A title after having never won one in the program’s tradition-rich past. Collegiate finished the season 13-1.

“I just knew we’re a second-half team more than anything,” said Horak, who scored all three of Rossville’s touchdowns and finished with 150 yards rushing and 179 total yards. “I just walked in (to the halftime locker room) and said, ‘Coach, you don’t have anything to worry about. We’re going to win this game.’ ”

Even that belief might have been put to the ultimate test after Collegiate came out and dominated the third quarter. Getting huge plays on screen passes to the backside of the Bulldawg defense, the Spartans struck quickly to break a 7-7 halftime tie.

Austin Waddell broke the tie with a 60-yard throwback pass to Nathan Burgoyne on Collegiate’s first possession of the second half. He then connected with John Egan out of the backfield for a 36-yard play after a block in the back wiped out a 28-yard scoring pass to Burgoyne, setting up Waddell’s 1-yard sneak that made it 19-7 Spartans.

“We watched a lot of film and knew they were very aggressive,” Collegiate coach Mike Gehrer said. “The screen plays were going to be there and they were. We missed two early in the game that were both touchdowns if we catch the ball.”

The touchdowns dealt Rossville in its biggest deficit of the season and to that point, the Bulldawgs’ high-powered offense hadn’t done much. After driving 65 yards for a touchdown on its first possession, capped by a 5-yard run by Horak, Rossville had managed just 105 more yards through the end of the third quarter — 41 on a run by Horak late in the first half.

Another 61 of those yards came on the final drive of the third quarter after Collegiate’s final touchdown, setting up Horak’s 8-yard run to start the fourth. But whatever traction the Bulldawgs gained with that drive, Collegiate seemingly snuffed when Waddell broke a 22-yard run on the Spartans’ first play of their next possession to move the ball back into Rossville territory.

Two plays later, the Bulldawg defense — which has gone largely under-appreciated in Rossville’s record-setting offensive season — came up with the play of the game.

Guess who? Yep, Horak, who really hadn’t been able to bust the big plays he'd done all season en route to becoming the state’s career leader in total offense. Instead, it was a strip of Burgoyne, who had been stacked up by the Bulldawg front.

And once Horak got in the clear, he was on his way to the game-winner.

“As hard as it is to believe, after they scored their third touchdown I told our right tackle (Jackson Reeves), ‘We’re going to score twice and we’re gonna win this thing,’ ” Horak said. “I saw (Burgoyne) was trying to do a little too much and hung it out a little bit. I just did what I could and made a play.”

With 11 minutes left, it was far from over. Not with Collegiate’s offense just as powerful as Rossville’s this season, averaging 54.6 points per game. The Spartans went three-and-out on their next possession following Horak’s scoop and score, but got the ball back with 7:42 left.

Collegiate methodically moved down the field and got a big third-and-9 conversion at its own 22 on a pass interference call. An 11-yard completion to Cody McNerney and 25-yard connection to Burgoyne moved it to the Rossville 16 with less than 30 seconds to play.

But after two straight incompletions and a false start penalty pushed the Spartans back to the 21, Collegiate had one last play for the win — unable to try a game-winning field goal because of the conditions.

Waddell lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone, but Jacob Bradshaw and Horak were both there waiting for it. Bradshaw secured the interception, sealing the championship.

“It seemed like the ball was never going to come down,” Bradshaw said. “I just wanted to make a play on it. I knew if I could go up and get it, it would seal the deal. I was just trying to get the win for my teammates. It was a crazy game and this feels awesome right now.”

Waddell was outstanding otherwise for the Spartans, rushing for 101 yards and throwing for 177. But Rossville bottled up the rest of the Spartan running game, holding three other backs to just 64 yards.

Horak finished the game with 179 total yards, leaving him just 73 yards shy of hitting 5,000 for the season. Instead, he moved to No. 6 on the national career total offense list, finishing with 12,452 combined rushing and passing yards in his career.

“The field conditions didn’t allow either one of us to play the game the way we wanted to play,” Hammes said. “It was just a battle, a game of will and not that they didn’t want it, but our kids wanted it bad. They came up with the plays at the end.”

Wichita Collegiate (13-1) 0 7 12 0 — 19

Rossville (14-0)                7 0 0 13 — 20

Ross — Horak 5 run (Nascimento kick)

WC — Larsen 24 pass from Waddell (Winter kick)

WC — Burgoyne 60 pass from Waddell (run failed)

WC — Waddell 1 run (pass failed)

Ross — Horak 8 run (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Horak 65 fumble return (run failed)

GAME IN FIGURES

WC Ross

First downs 17 15

Rushes-yards 45-165 45-227

Passing 177 29

Comp-Att-Int 12-21-1 4-10-1

Punts 2-12.5 4-26.2

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-0

Penalties-Yards 7-37 6-66

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Wichita Collegiate: Waddell 20-101, Burgoyne 17-50, Egan 4-8, Aldag 4-6. Rossville: Horak 24-150, Hammes 14-53, Balch 6-22, Roduner 1-2.

PASSING — Wichita Collegiate: Waddell 12-21-1, 177 yards. Rossville: Horak 4-10-1, 29.

RECEIVING — Wichita Collegiate: Burgoyne 4-96, Egan 3-38, Larsen 2-30, Root 2-2, McNerney 1-11. Rossville: Hammes 1-8, Balch 1-8, Schumacher 1-7, Roduner 1-6.