Published: October 29, 2009 07:00 am      

Big plays too much for Northeast in 1A substate football

By Shannon Heaton

For the Herald

GOOSE LAKE — Tanner Loots was one tired do-everything back Wednesday night.

After rushing for 158 yards on 24 carries, scoring two first-half touchdowns and nearly doubling his rushing yards with a near-equal number of return yards on punts and kickoffs, Loots looked older than high school juniors should.

But, then again, so, too, did his teammates after Eddyville-Blakesburg came into town and put a season-high 44 points on the Rebels, taking a 44-28 Class 1A substate football victory Wednesday and ending Northeast’s season at 7-3.

“The score didn’t reflect it, but it felt closer than it was, kind of,” Loots said. “Except their big plays just killed us. That was the main part of the game. Their big plays hurt us real bad.”

The Rockets’ big plays came at the oddest of times, and made the Rebels pay — big.

There was halfback Dimitri Boyer — showing the strength that made him a Class 1A state wrestling champion and speed enough to hold his own on the track — breaking off a 51-yard touchdown run while going through the Rebels defense as he’ll do with so many missed takedown shots on the mats in just a couple of months. There was quarterback Logan Alexander, unleashing a battery of rockets from long range — 51 yards to Blake Glenn here, 83 to Sam Taylor there — and some shorter-range bombs that proved equally deadly.

The funny thing was, Northeast had often done what it has done so often all season, forcing second-and-longs, third-and-longs, even a fourth-and-10. Almost every time, and certainly every time that the Rebels left open even the smallest hint of vulnerability, there was Alexander ready to step into the breach. He completed 13 of 20 passes for 261 yards, and a lot of those passes were into coverage.

“You find yourself thinking about this play, and that play,” Northeast coach Jeremy Mosier said of trying to contain the E-B offensive attack, which wound up totaling 403 yards from scrimmage. “Our defense did everything we asked it to do ... third-and-4, second-and-long, third-and-long, exactly where we wanted them to be. And then we gave up the big play. I think we just were a touch out of position. We saw (on film) that they thrived on the big play, and that sure was true tonight.”

At the same time, Northeast quarterback Jed Rogis found tough sledding in trying to navigate through the Rockets defense. Rogis often found his targets, but his targets didn’t come through with catches. That meant if the Rebels were going to hang in, they were going to have to hang in via the run and behind the work of Loots, Rogis on roll-outs and fullback Mitchell Bielenberg acting as an effective change-of-pace back. They did mostly.

Before Wednesday night, the most points Northeast had scored against a .500-or-better team was 14, and the Rebels drew first blood when a bad snap on a punt resulted in a very short field, with Loots punching it over from 13 yards out on the next play. The Rebels held E-B off the scoreboard on the Rockets’ first two possessions, fulfilling the script Northeast had hoped to write. But then E-B sent in its rewrites, five of them, on the Rockets’ next five possessions to go up 31-14 at halftime. Northeast had only allowed that many points once before this season, and that was over the course of an entire game.

But the Rebels were unfazed, marching downfield almost at will on their first drive of the second half, with Rogis punching the ball over from 1 yard out to make it 31-21. Northeast then forced two punts and a turnover on downs, and got another drive going behind big yardage from all three of its ground-gainers — Loots, Rogis and Bielenberg — who combined for 269 rushing yards on the night.

But Loots fumbled at the E-B 17, with linebacker Jacob Batterson recovering for the Rockets. It took Alexander just one play to make the Rebels regret what was their second turnover on the night, as he hooked up with Taylor for their 83-yard strike. On Northeast’s next play, Rogis was intercepted, and it took the Rockets just four plays to turn what was a 31-21 game with the Rebels on the march into a 44-21 game and an all-but-decided game left to play out.

“It could have been much closer,” Mosier said. “They don’t turn the ball over, and we turned it over three times. Just not the typical night for the Rebels.”

The Rebels would score one more time, a final hurrah on the football field for seniors Rogis and Spencer Lueders, who hooked up for a 5-yard TD pass with less than a minute to play. Northeast tried an onside kick, hoping to get the ball back, but Batterson recovered the bouncing ball and the Rockets ran out the clock.

“The sophomores, for sure, now they know that the weight room is where it all starts,” Loots said. “Next year, they just have to work amazingly hard. We’re pretty good as a team, as far as chemistry and stuff like that goes, and we should be a pretty good one next year.”

Mosier thinks so, too, but he knows that’s small consolation for the seniors who played their final game on their home field.

“You tell them thank you, for their leadership and for their modeling to the younger players. I don’t know if a lot of people thought we’d be 7-2 (going into the playoffs), he said. “You tell the younger kids to remember how this feels, tell them to let it sting a little bit and be a motivator to work in the offseason and get back to this spot next year.”



EDDYVILLE-BLAKESBURG 44, NORTHEAST 28

Eddyville-B’burg 7 24 0 13 — 44

Northeast 7 7 7 7 — 28

First quarter

NE — Tanner Loots 13 run (Tanner Voss kick), 9:52.

E-B — Dimitri Boyer 51 run (Logan Alexander kick), 6:56.

Second quarter

E-B — Jake Crosby 4 pass from Alexander (Alexander kick), 11:17.

E-B — Jacob Batterson 3 run (kick failed), 6:59.

NE — Loots 3 run (Voss kick), 4:50.

E-B —-Blake Glenn 51 pass from Alexander (Boyer run), 2:49.

E-B — FG, Alexander 31, 0:20.

Third quarter

NE -- Jed Rogis 1 run (Voss kick), 8:19.

Fourth quarter

E-B — Sam Taylor 83 pass from Alexander (Alexander kick), 10:44.

E-B — Crosby 6 pass from Alexander (Alexander kick), 9:02.

NE — Spencer Lueders 5 pass from Rogis (Voss kick), 0:40.



INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Eddyville-Blakesburg, Dimitri Boyer 15-85, Jacob Batterson 18-74, Jake Crosby 2-8, Ethan Conrad 4-3, Jeff Harland 1-3, Logan Alexander 3-1, Nathan VanZante 1-1. Team 1-(-33). Northeast, Tanner Loots 24-158, 2 TDs; Jed Rogis 5-64, 1 TD; Mitchell Bielenberg 9-47.

PASSING — Eddyville-Blakesburg, Alexander 13-20-0, 261 yards. Northeast, Rogis 4-17-2, 17 yards.

RECEIVING — Eddyville-Blakesburg — Sam Taylor 5-111, Crosby 4-65, Blake Glenn 2-60, Batterson 1-15, David Fenton 1-10. Northeast, CJ Herrington 2-21, Spencer Lueders 1-5; Bielenberg 1-(-9).