By JIM GRIES
Herald sports editor
THORNBURG
November 03, 2009 05:30 pm
—
With two of the more prolific offenses going at it, the winner was probably going to be the one that had the ball last.
For much of the the first round 8-Man playoff game between Ankeny Christian Academy and Tri-County, that was the case.
The lead changed hands four times in the first half, but the Trojan defense contained the ninth-ranked Eagles to one touchdown in the final 17 minutes to come away with a wild 64-43 victory Monday night.
The win sends the fourth-ranked Trojans (11-0) into Friday night’s quarterfinal at No. 1 ranked Lenox. The 11-0 Tigers posted a 40-23 victory over Grandview Park Baptist. Ankeny Christian Academy ends the season at 9-2.
It will be the fourth straight year the teams have met in the playoffs with Lenox winning the last two meetings.
In Monday night’s battle, the teams went up-and-down the field with relative ease as they combined for 870 yards of offense, scoring quite often.
Colt Brumbaugh racked up 275 yards on the ground on 36 carries and got the scoring barrage going hardly 3 minutes into the game on a 45-yard scamper as Andy Thomas ran in the 2-point conversion.
But the Eagles came right back as Tim Olejniczak connected with Andy Harmsen on a 37-yard TD pass barely more than a minute later to trail 8-7 after the first quarter.
The teams traded touchdowns in the second quarter as Brumbaugh’s 20-yard gallop with 4:01 left put the Trojans ahead 22-21 and appeared ready to take that lead into intermission.
But the Eagles had a different take on that as Isaac Lopez booted a 31-yard field goal at the halftime buzzer for a 24-22 advantage.
Ankeny Christian Academy put a shock to the crowd as Lopez picked up a Trojan punt, bobbled it for a moment, than raced 44 yards for the touchdown. He added the PAT and the Eagles led 31-22 with 10:23 to go in the third quarter.
Tri-County coach Scott Edmundson knew the Eagles could move the ball, averagng more than 400 yards of offense coming into the game. He just wanted his team not to make mistakes so it could keep pace woth the explosive Eagles.
“We knew they could move the ball, it was just a matter if we were not going to make mistakes,” he said. “We made some mistakes by putting the ball on the ground and did some things that hurt us.
“We made some big plays on defense that got the ball back and that was what we needed to do, not give them the opportunity to have the ball. We felt confident if we had the ball, we could put points on the board. The defense stepped up, made some nice plays. The secondary made some plays we weren’t getting in the first quarter.”
Like picking off a pair of Olejniczak passes amd converting them into scores.
Ike Schmidt, who intercepted a pass in the first half, pilfered his second Olejniczak toss in the end zone late in the third quarter to give the ball back to the Trojans. It was his 10th interception of the season.
It didn’t take long for them to strike — just three plays — as Schmidt, who had all three pass receptions for Tri-County, hauled in a 49-yard scoring strike from Thomas as the third quarter ended and a 42-37 lead. It would be a lead they would not give up.
After Brumbaugh scored on a 4-yard run with 5:56 remaining in the game, Austin Rogers picked off a pass and two plays late, Thomas ran it in from 4 yards out for the final Tri-County points on the night.
The Eagles came out in a formation with most of the team off to one side away from the ball with only the center and the quarterback behind the ball.
It didn’t fool Rogers or the Trojans,
“They tried to catch us with a little trick play,” Edmundson said. “Luckily our linebacker (Riogers) recognized the eligible receiver. We actually tried practice for those types of plays a little bit in practice and we had people do their jobs and good things happen.”
Edmundson said the Trojans have to play better if they’re going to beat the No. 1-ranked Tigers.
“We got to comew back Friday and do things better than we did tonight (in the) first half,” he said. “Early in the game, we had people who weren’t doing what they were supposed to do and they caught us out of position and made some big plays. We got to eliminate the big plays next week.”
Tri-County 64, Ankeny Christian Academy 23
ACA 7 15 15 6 — 43
T-C 8 13 21 22 — 64
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
T-C — Colt Brumbaugh 45 run (Andy Thomas run), 9:09
ACA — Andy Harmsen 37 pass from Tim Olejniczak (Isaac Lopez kick), 7:57
Second Quarter
ACA — Harmsen 41 run (Lopez kick), 9:24
T-C — Thomas 20 run (Brumbaugh run), 7:29
ACA — Jason Cameron 6 pass fromalejniczak (Lopez kick), 6:17
T-C — Brumbaugh 20 run (Run failed), 4:01
ACA — Lopez 31 FG, :00
Third Quarter
ACA — Lopez 44 punt return (Lopez kick), 10:23
T-C — Michael Armstrong 25 run (PAss failed), 6:59
ACA — Cameron 6 pass from Olejnicazak (Kick failed), 4:58
T-C — Thomas 9 run (Brumbaugh run), 3:18
T-C — Ike Schmidt 49 pass from Thomas (Pass failed), :00
Fourth Quarter
T-C — Brumbaugh 1 run (Thomas run), 9:13
T-C — Brumbaugh 4 run (Pass failed), 5:56
T-C — Thomas 4 run (Run failed), 4:58
ACA — Olejniczak 26 run (Run failed), 1:49
Team Statistics
ACA T-C
First downs 16 14
Rushes-yards 29-132 58-372
Passing yards 285 81
Total yards 415 453
Comp-Att-Int 22-40-3 3-9-0
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Ankeny Christian Academy, Tim Olejniczak 25-87, Andy Harmsen 4-45. Tri-County, Colt Brumbaugh36-274 , Andy Thomas 13-69, Michael Armstrong 7-41, Isaac Shaull 2-8.
PASSING — Ankeny Christian Academy, Olejniczak 22-40-3-285. Tri-County, Thomas 3-9-0-81.
RECEIVING — Ankeny Christian Academy, Jason Cameron 10-122, Harmsen 5-65, Isaac Lopez 4-47, Ben Howe 2-26, Austin Alessio 1-25. Tri-County, Ike Schmidt 3-81.
TACKLES — Tri-County, Tyce Schmidt 8, I. Schmidt 7, Austin Rogers 7, Brumbaugh 7, Thomas 6, Daniel Collins 6.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES — Ankeny Christian Academy, Alessio. Tri-County, Rogers.
INTERCEPTIONS — Tri-County, I. Schmidt 2, Rogers.
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