By Keith Brake
Montezuma Magazine Editor
CEDAR FALLS – The UNI-Dome is just a stadium with a roof, isn’t it?
Well, OK, maybe it does look like your vision of a spaceship.
Did it take off Thursday morning, Nov. 12? With us and our football hopes and dreams on board?
Did we see crews from two starships play a football game on the Moon?
No?
Prove it!
There were 202 points, 29 touchdowns – 15 of them by Remsen St. Mary’s, 14 by Montezuma.
Old records that had been in the books were blown into an orbit with the asteroids.
Gravity is only one-sixth as strong as here on Earth, you know. You can run faster, jump higher, etc., etc.
St. Mary’s prevailed, 108-84, (say WHAT!?) and earned a berth in the Class 8 championship game against Fremont-Mills, a 32-30 terminator of Don Bosco’s 22-game winning streak.
No defenses? Well, don’t say that near players on both teams who got pounded, popped, winded, bruised . . or worn down mentally.
The Braves left disappointed, but I hope the Montezuma community won’t let them stay that way for long.
They were in a lockdown with Remsen St. Mary’s and gave us a game for the ages.
I think most who were there or watching or listening will remember how great the game was, and glad they paid $12.50 a ticket if they went to the ‘Dome to watch it in person. “Our guys gave it everything they had,” said Braves Coach Pat O’Brien. “They left it all out on the field.”
Montezuma started the game at its own 25, and as Burgess cocked his arm to pass on first down, the ball popped out of his hand and rolled into the end zone. Jeremy Koenck recovered for a Hawks touchdown, just nine seconds into the game.
Scoring runs of 18 and five yards by Burgess put Montezuma on top, then these two heavyweights traded shots for a majority of a four-hour, one-minute game.
The Braves led 28-21 after one quarter and 46-36 at halftime.
Montezuma led 54-36 after Burgess passed 11 yards to Trey Shearer, then Shearer ran a two-point conversion with 7:41 left in the third quarter.
Cole Watts intercepted a pass. That set up a 44-yard Burgess to Shearer smart bomb for a score, and a 60-36 Braves lead with 6:34 left in the third quarter. That was to be Montezuma’s high water mark for the day.
In a span of just 39 seconds of playing time, St. Mary’s scored three touchdowns. The first came on a 25-yard pass, the second after the Hawks recovered an onside kick. The third came after St. Mary’s recovered a second Burgess fumble at the two, and punched it in on the next play.
The Braves still led 60-58, but a snowball St. Mary’s had pushed turned into an avalanche on its way down the hill.
Braves senior lineman Brian Diaz suffered a helmet-to-helmet hit on the onside kick play and was knocked unconscious and out of the game. Burgess had to go out on defense later in the half. The two are very strong against the run. “Our guys did everything they could to stop them after that,” O’Brien said.
St. Mary’s put up 72 second half points and outscored Montezuma 62-34 over the final 15:20 of play.
The Braves had problems tackling certain Hawks in space, especially quarterback Blaine Harpenau. A 6-1, 170-pound junior, Harpenau repeatedly bounced off Montezuma tacklers when they hit him high.
Pulling guards, most notably (#33) Xavier Galles, a 6-2, 170-pound senior, led the way to the edge. St. Mary’s’ ground game got wearisome on Braves defenders. The Hawks led 34:02 to 13:58 in time of possession.
Harpenau carried 40 times for 354 yards and four touchdowns. He completed 11 passes for 134 yards, and four more scores.
St. Mary’s brought blitz packages up the middle and were also able to get pressure on Burgess from the wings.
Burgess held his ground and completed passes, despite being hit as he released the football. Burgess was 34-for-60 for 689 yards and nine touchdowns.
Some of Burgess’ second half passes were thrown short, but senior wide receiver Trey Shearer helped out by coming back on them to make catches. And runs. Shearer caught seven touchdown passes and had 20 receptions in all, good for 389 yards. Six of his touchdowns came during the second half.
But a St. Mary’s dagger came down with 6:24 left to play, when the Hawks’ Alex Schroeder intercepted Burgess and returned 55 yards for a touchdown. The kick made it 101-86.
Owen Cook came in at quarterback and threw a nice, 54-yard rainbow to Masin Shearer, who also caught a two-point pass to bring Montezuma’s total to 94.
But, it was kneel-down time for the Hawks, who will take their 11-0 record against Fremont-Mills, which ended Don Bosco’s 22-game winning streak, 32-30, in the other semifinal.
Burgess led all tacklers with 12.0 stops, including 3.5 for losses. He was a ton against the run, but missed a few series with a leg problem that happened midway through the fourth quarter. “Eddie couldn’t run. He could hardly move,” O’Brien said. “But he could throw and was willing to do it to help us win any way he could.”
Connor Van Zee had 10.5 tackles for the Braves. Trey Shearer had 9.0, while Watts and Joey Kercheval had 8.5 each.
The Braves close a historic 10-1 season.
EDDIE-VISION – During the statewide telecast, the announcers said game highlights, including Burgess’, “likely will be on ESPN tonight.”
I don’t know if ESPN carried them, but they did appear on WISC-TV 3 in Madison. It’s a rare feat for anything other than local sports to make it to Channel 3’s evening sportscast. The accompanying clip showed Burgess on his zig-zagging touchdown run.