| The Recap |
Bloomer at 9-0 played host to 5-4 Osceola in the first round of the Division 4 WiAA playoffs Tuesday night. The Blackhawks and Chieftains had met earlier in the year in a preseason scrimmage in August but that was practice and this game counted for everything from the opening kickoff. Coach Post elected to play defense to begin the game with confidence that the Hawks could stop the strong running game of Osceola.
After an exchange of punts, Osceola went to an option play and an errant pitch was recovered be middle linebacker Justin Eder to give Bloomer good field position at the Chieftain's 49 yard line. Bloomer went to the air on the first play and QB Forrest Clements found TE Garrett Wankel behind the secondary for a 40 yard gain to the 9 yard line. On the second play, Chris Lang took an inside handoff and went 5 yards into the end zone for the touchdown. The point after kick was wide to the left and Bloomer led 6-0 with 4 minutes remaining in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Bloomer's punter Chris Lang was able to knock a kick out of bounds inside the 20 to put Osceola in a hole to start their drive. Following an 11 yard scramble by QB Kyle Burkhamer, the Chieftains were hit with a motion penalty that forced the a pass play. Burkhamer was chased from the pocket by pressure from Chris Putney and forced a throw down field where Garrett Wankel stepped in front for the interception. Picking up key blocks, Wankel was able to return the ball to the 10 yards line. Bloomer needed only two plays to score as sophmore fullback Zach Steen plowed into end zone from 4 yards out with 9:39 on the clock to make the score 12-0. A two point conversion run by Clements boosted the score to 14-0.Bloomer put one more score on the board before half. An Osceola punt pinned the Hawks down at their own 19 yards line but once again it was the combination of Clements to Wankel for 29 yards that brought the ball to the Chieftain side of the 50 at the 47 yard line. On first down, Clements showed play action in the backfield and found a wide open Chris Lang down the left sideline for 41 more yards and a first and goal at the 6. Two plays later, Zach Steen scored on a trap play at 3:21 of the second quarter. The two point conversion pass was incomplete and the score remained at 20-0. Bloomer had one more opportunity before halftime when Chris Putney blocked a Chieftain punt that was recovered by Caleb Willi. A holding penalty brought back a reception to the 20 yard line by Jason Vahlenkamp and Clements was sacked on a fourth down pass attempt to end the half with Bloomer leading by 20.
Osceola botched an onside kick attempt to begin the second half by being offsides. After a second offside penalty moved the ball back to the 30, Chris Lang returned the ensuing kickoff 32 yards to the 39. This set up a short Bloomer touchdown drive keyed by a 21 yard burst up the middle by Steen. Lang finished the drive with slashing 6 yard run off the left side. Jon Foults kicked the extra point and Bloomer took a commanding 27-0 lead. Moments later, Bloomer took over on their own 25 and marched down the field using a 32 yard completion to Vahlenkamp to set up a 17 yard touchdown pass to Wankel. But again, a holding penalty nullified the score. The Chieftains then mounted their longest drive of the night. 13 plays took the ball to the Bloomer 39 but the drive ended when Chris Putney sacked Burkhamer on fourth down.
The combination of Lang running and Clement throwing led to the final touchdown in the fourth quarter. A 6 yard pass to Jason Vahlenkamp found the corner of the end zone and Clements followed with a two point toss to Garrett Wankel to make the score 35-0 with 8:56 left in the fourth quarter. The score put the game into running clock and backups for both teams finished the game.
Bloomer finished the game with a decided advantage in total yardage, gaining 373 yards to 157 for Osceola. The Hawk defense limited the Chieftains to only 114 yards on the ground while pounding out 169. Chris Lang led Bloomer with 83 yards as he nears 1000 yards for the season. The biggest difference in the game was in passing yardage as Forrest Clements completed 9 or 14 passes for 203 yards and one touchdown. Osceola could only manage 40 yards through the air as the Osceola QB was constantly harassed by Adam Swartz, Chris Putney and Austin Zwiefelhofer.
Bloomer 10-0 now advances to the Level 2 game at Northwestern 6-4 on Saturday with the game time yet to be determined. Northwestern advanced with a 30-8 victory over Durand in their first round game. Bloomer defeated Northwestern 32-16 in the seventh game of the season on their way to winning the Heart of the North while Northwestern finished fourth in the conference.
|
|
| The Stats |
|
Bloomer
|
|
Osceola
|
|
13
|
1st Downs
|
9 |
|
5
|
-Passing
|
2 |
|
8
|
-Rushing
|
7 |
|
0
|
-Penalty
|
0 |
|
373
|
Yards Gained
|
157 |
| 204 |
-passing
|
43 |
| 169 |
-rushing
|
114 |
| 204 |
Passing
|
|
| 15 |
Attempts
|
16 |
| 10 |
Completions
|
6 |
| 0 |
Interceptions
|
1 |
| 67% |
%Complete
|
38 |
| 1 |
TD's
|
0 |
| 1 |
PAT's
|
0 |
| 6 |
Kick Offs
|
|
| 280 |
Total Yards
|
|
| 46.7 |
|
|
| 1 |
Kicks Returned
|
|
| 37 |
Yd's Returned
|
|
| 4 |
Punts
|
5 |
| 126 |
Total Yards
|
188 |
| 31.5 |
Punt Average
|
37.6 |
| 2 |
Punts Returned
|
2 |
| 17 |
Yd's Returned
|
17 |
|
5
|
Penalty
|
4
|
|
45
|
Penalty-Yds
|
20
|
|
0
|
Fumbles
|
2
|
|
0
|
Fumbles-Lost
|
2
|
| Individual Stats - Passing |
| |
Att. |
Comp. |
Yards |
Int. |
TD |
| Clements |
14 |
9 |
203 |
0 |
1 |
| Dachel |
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
| Individual Stats - Receiving |
| |
Recept. |
Yards |
Avg. |
TD |
PAT |
| Wankel |
3 |
76 |
25.3 |
- |
1 |
| Vahlenkamp |
5 |
86 |
17.2 |
1 |
- |
| Lang |
1 |
41 |
41 |
- |
- |
| Clements |
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
| Individual Stats - Rushing |
| |
Att. |
Yards |
Avg. |
TD |
PAT |
| Clements |
11 |
38 |
3.5 |
- |
1 |
| Lang |
13 |
82 |
6.3 |
2 |
- |
| Schemenauer |
4 |
7 |
1.8 |
- |
- |
| Eder, Justin |
1 |
2 |
2 |
- |
- |
| Steen |
5 |
38 |
7.6 |
2 |
- |
| Dachel |
2 |
-6 |
-3 |
- |
- |
| Webb |
1 |
8 |
8 |
- |
- |
|
|
