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West Wisconsin Sports Home | Bloomer School
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| Level
3 Playoffs, November 5th, 2005 |
Bloomer - 15
West Salem 30
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| The Recap |
West Salem vs. Bloomer November 5th, 2005
It was David against Goliath all over again in the WIAA playoffs in Bloomer on Saturday. The smaller, faster West Salem Panthers took on the bigger, stronger Bloomer Blawkhawks in a Regional final Level 3 game. Bloomer at 11-0 had rolled through two playoff opponents without giving up a point while West Salem at 9-2 had put 63 points on the board in their first two playoff wins.
West Salem received the opening kickoff and went a discouraging three and out but Bloomer could do no better on their first
possession and punted back to the Panthers at midfield. West Salem managed two first downs but a third down sack on QB Adam Hudson by DE Chris Putney forced the Panthers into a 4th and 11 play from the 29 yard line. Back to pass, Hudson found his favorite receiver, 6Õ 4Ó Nate Clements isolated on a smaller defender and laid the ball high in the air where Clements
out-jumped the defender and found the end zone for the initial score of the game. The extra point by Hudson was good and West Salem jumped ahead 7-0.
Returning the kickoff to the 26, Bloomer started a march on the ground. Hard running by Chris Lang brought the ball to midfield. Lang took a toss on an off tackle play and battled up field carrying defenders but the ball was ripped out of his arms and recovered by West Salem and returned 18 yards to the Bloomer 40. The Panthers made a first down on a fourth and 1 run and followed immediately with a 29 touchdown throw from Adam Hudson to Ryan Hendricks. The point after kick was wide and the Panthers led 13-0 with 11:38 left in the second period.
Bloomer showed their resolve as they answered back with a long drive of their own. With the offensive line opening holes with their size advantage, Chris Lang ripped off runs of 11,18 and 15 yards. The last run ended in the end zone and the Blackhawks first score of the game. Jon Foults kick for the extra point made the score closer at 13-7 with 8 minutes remaining in the quarter.
Bloomer had one more opportunity to score in the half when they recovered a Panther fumble with 1:30 to play. From the 28 yard line, Forrest Clements found Jason Vahlenkamp for an 18 yard pass play down to the 10. Lang roared to the 1 on a first down carry with 18 seconds showing. After a timeout, Bloomer tried a quick snap count only to have an illegal motion penalty move the ball back to the 6. On 4th and goal from the 7, Clements was chased out of the pocket and tackled well short of the end zone and the half ended with West Salem dodging a bullet and holding a precarious 13-7 lead. Bloomer dominated the offensive statistics with Chris Lang running for 120 yards on 16 carries but fumbles and penalties hurt the Hawks in the half,
West Salem added the first points of the second half on a 32 yard field goal by Adam Hudson after a fourth down pass interference call kept the drive alive for the Panthers. The 3 points boosted the lead to 16-7.
Bloomer needed only 3 plays to score after the kickoff. On a first down run from the 32 yard line, Clements went off left tackle, found a lane back to the right sideline, and went untouched for a 68 touchdown at 5:43 of the third. A well executed two point conversion run by
Clements brought Bloomer within one at 16-15.
After an exchange of punts, West Salem found themselves with a first and ten at their own 48. Hudson used a fake toss on a sweep to find Ryan Hendricks all alone on the back side of the defense and Hendricks scored easily on the 52 yard pass play. The kick was good and the score moved to 23-15 in favor of the Panthers at 11:30 of the fourth quarter.
Bloomer started from their own 34 on the next drive and used the hard running of Forrest Clements and a one handed grab of a pass by Garrett Wankel to move
to the 32. On third and one, Lang crashed off right tackle for a first down. But the Hawks fell back to earth as Clements tried to find Lang in the left flat on a quick pass and was intercepted at the 23 by linebacker Hunter Burke.
West Salem was able to run off 10 plays and eat up nearly 6 minutes on the clock before Bloomer forced a punt from the Panthers down to the 21. Taking over with only 3:42 on the clock, the Blackhawks went back to work on the ground. Two runs for 17 yards by Lang put the ball at the 38 yard line of Bloomer. Clements rolled to his left but was hit by Hunter Burke and was stripped of the football. A surprised Burke, redirected himself and, before Bloomer could react, raced to the end zone for the final touchdown of the game. With only 3:08 on the clock, Bloomer tried to move the ball down field through the air. A 40 yard completion to Garrett Wankel gave Bloomer one last gasp but Nate Clements picked off a pass for West Salem to seal the win for the Panthers.
Bloomer held a large statistical edge on offense as the Hawks had 400 yards in total offense. Chris Lang ran for 156 yards on 24 carries and Forrest Clements added 106 yards on 18 carries as the Hawks totaled 314 yards on the ground. Through the air, Forrest Clements completed 4 of 12 passes for 86 yards with Garrett Wankel catching 3 balls for 68 and Jason Vahlenkamp catching 1 for 18.
Bloomer finishes the season with a record of 11-1. The Blackhawks went 7-0 in the Heart of the North to win the conference title and 9-0 in the regular season.
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