By John George
A big second quarter by the No. 7 team in Class A was to much to overcome for New York Mills as their season came to an end with a 29-16 loss at Fertile-Beltrami in the State Quarterfinals last Friday.
"We lost to a very good Fertile team," Eagle head coach Matt Radniecki said. "They played very well and made some big plays when they had to get up on us 29-8 at halftime. We played a very good first quarter and led 8-7 only to see the second quarter haunt us again."
F-B scored the first points of the game with a six-play, 57-yard drive the first time they touched the ball.
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After the two teams traded punts, Mills finally got on the board late in the first quarter as Jason Burg capped a six-play-56 yard drive with a five-yard scoring run. A two-point pass from Grant Cameron to Tarrel Flanigan gave the Eagles their first, and only, lead of the game at 8-6.
The Falcons dominated the second quarter. Quarterback Paul Reese scored two minutes into the quarter on an 11-yard run. The two-point pass gave Fertile-Beltrami a 15-8 lead.
After an Eagle punt, F-B took the ball again and running back Kolby Gullickson carried the load. His 50-yard run set the Falcons up with a first and goal. Two plays later he was in the endzone after a two-yard run.
The F-B defense forced another punt, and this time the Falcons scored on an 11-yard run by Joey Henderson. Another two-point conversion put Mills in a 29-8 hole.
It almost got worse as F-B intercepted a pass and set up at the Eagles 28 yard-line with 16 seconds left in the half. Reese and Henderson quickly connected for a 28-yard TD pass, only to have it called back because of a holding penalty. F-B then took a knee to run out the first half clock.
"We have had trouble all year in the second quarter of being outscored by our opponents by a good margin and it happened again," Radniecki said. "I would like to have the last 30 seconds of the second quarter back. I probably would have run out the clock and went into halftime trailing 21-8 but we felt that we had a play that could possibly get us big yardage and all year we have been aggressive so we decided not to stop now."
The second half was a different story. The Eagle defense made the proper adjustments and stopped the powerful F-B offense. After allowing the Falcons 11 first half first downs, Mills held F-B to just two in the second half.
The Eagle offense, meanwhile, started getting their offense moving, but were only able to put together one scoring drive. They marched 82 yards on 16 plays, consuming over eight minutes off the clock. The drive ended when Burg hit Pat Peltier on a halfback option pass. Cameron's pass to Cavin Berube for the two-point conversion made the score 29-16.
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Penalties and a costly fourth quarter turnover prevents the Eagles from getting any closer.
"I was extremely proud of the effort in the second half," Radniecki said. "It would have been easy for us to lay down and not compete but I think we showed what type of team and individuals we have with the great effort in the second half. The team defense and offense did what we wanted to do throughout the game in the second half and we had fun."
F-B held Burg to a season-low 60 yards on 19 carries. Brendan Frost led the Eagles with 73 yards rushing on 13 carries.
Fertile-Beltrami (11-1) will now head to the Metrodome for the State semifinals to face New Ulm Cathedral (10-2). The other Class A semifinal will pit Wabasso (10-2) against Rushford-Peterson (10-2).
Around the area
Underwood (10-1) is in the State 9-Man semifinals, after beating Edgerton last week.. The Rockets will now take on Stephen-Argyle Central (12-0) at the Metrodome on Thursday. Stephen-Argyle Central is riding a 53-game win streak and are the three-time defending 9-Man State Champs.
Hawley is in the Class AA semifinals after beating MACCRAY, 58-43 in last week's quarterfinals. The Nuggets (10-2) will face Triton (11-0) in the semifinals at the Metrodome on Thursday.
