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Huskerland Flashback: Saturday Morning Quarterback (2017)

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It’s not gonna be all that long and we will be writing these Saturday Morning Quarterbacks for real, but here’s a look back at one of them from Oct. 7, 2017. Looking back, it’s a pretty good example of what my Football Fridays have been like these 36 years of the Huskerland era. Been a lot of fun, hope you enjoy..

Saturday Morning Quarterback

Beat Seward. Beat ’em now. But them soon.

Look, Seward isn’t going to go undefeated in 2017 – the Bluejays have already lost a game – but on Friday night as I was walking away from Bulldog Stadium on the beautiful campus of Concordia University I left impressed…by the Seward football team.

(And walked straight to my marginally illegal parking place right next to the sidewalk leading to the south gate. Some times you gamble and win…)

I’d sort of rushed (ahem) to get from Dwight to Seward, more about that here in a minute, and when I pulled up (to that marginally illegal parking place) I was hoping for four minutes of clock, long enough to get a couple of photos and check out the scene. There were 11 minutes left in the first half which meant I could enjoy watching a team on the rise, the Seward Bluejays.

Last season as a sophomore Joseph Krause (produced Krau-see, it turns out) was a bit of a sensation, passing for over 1,600 yards, and based on what I saw Friday night it’s easy to see why. The kid’s got good size, a good arm, good receivers and great command of the game. Speaking to that, the Seward sideline was feeling that easy confidence that comes with knowing you’re on to something.

Why is that? Well, besides the consistently good Baby Ruth (I’m sure powerful senior fullback Connor Ruth has never heard that before and, no, Corbin didn’t put me up to it) whenever saw a kid make a play and looked at my roster it almost always said “11” or even sometimes “10.” You know, as in junior or sophomore?

Point is Seward football has a very bright future and a pretty good present, given last night’s 34-14 win over always tough Norris. In the name of full disclosure you need to know Seward has to close the regular season against Elkhorn South, GI Northwest, York and Aurora but who knows, maybe next year it’s Elkhorn South, GI Northwest, York and Aurora having to close the regular season against Seward, if you get my drift.

* Had three other stops on Friday, they were, in order:

* Seacrest Field. The home of the 4:30 Class A game, Huskerland photography’s best friend. Lincoln Southwest is a good football team, lots of athletes and a great sideline atmosphere anchored by the coaches, but Millard West was unstoppable yesterday afternoon.

In the off-season Millard West head coach Kirk Peterson, one of the good guys, told me his team would have more size and experience in the line and that was on full display yesterday. And Class A might not have a better QB-RB tandem than seniors Guido Giovanni and Brody Belt. Both are tough little dudes with a real feel for the game, you can see that even from where I was standing.

* Dwight. Pulled into the home of the East Butler Tigers and all of sudden it was, like, 1994, as former EB head coach Dave Struebing was kind enough to share a moment. (Again, one of the good guys.) Also pre-game I had a moment to speak with both Lourdes Central Catholic head coach Clay Carlton and his rising young assistant Gabe Rohde. (Remember, Gabe, how you always told me to introduce you as the rising young assistant? (wink) More full disclosure: Gabe’s lovely wife Lexi is my daughter Jessie’s best friend.)

Also bumped into a couple of Lourdes super fans, Tom Ragland and Jeff Funk. My life has never been so full.

There was a game, and bottom line, East Butler looked as big and physical as I’d imagined and won the game 42-6. Lots of talk about EB’s Trevor Havlovic, and that’s legit, the kid’s pretty great, but No. 62, Brendan Rezac is one tough customer and sets the pace in the line.

* Waco. Last stop of the night also left quite an impression. As I walked in from the east, facing the back of the scoreboard, I was curious as to the score of the Nebraska Lutheran-Osceola game. Hadn’t heard one on the car, and this was a big deal, so what gives.

I walk around the scoreboard and look up and it says 30-0 or 32-0, my mind is foggy. Well, Osceola was a top-ten team, after all…only wait, that’s backwards, it was Nebraska Lutheran up 30-0 or maybe it was 32-0.

Yikes.

Long story short I saw Nebraska Lutheran in district basketball play last winter and you could see there were athletes on the floor. The Knights were a playoff team last season and returned basically, as they say, everybody. They looked big and physical and ol’ No. 33, senior Ben Riegsecker, is the tough customer I believed he’d be, basically gutting the Osceola defense with runs up the middle.

We said there was a lot of talk surrounding Nebraska Lutheran football 2017 and I can see why.

* Somewhere out there (thank you, Fievel and Tanya from the movie An Amiercan Tail) in Huskerland there were a couple of other Friday night head turners.

Boone Central/Newman Grove 42, O’Neill 0. 42-0, really? If you want to tell me Boone wins, OK I get that, but 42-0. What a great win for the Cardinals and time to regroup for the defending state champs.

Valentine 21, St. Paul 0. One of my most anticipated games of the season turns out one-sided, and in a way that I didn’t expect. This verdict, and Valentine’s Week 2 loss to rising Arcadia/Loup City, leaves you to believe what I suspected in the preseason – Class C-2 is wide open and you can expect more crazy outcomes as the season progresses, like, for instance…

Logan View 27, Yutan 20. File this under “sweet win” for the Raiders, who have taken some lumps over the past few seasons but are rising under energetic head coach Dustin Sealey. Great win for Logan View, leaves you connecting the dots, which Yutan nearly beating both Battle Creek and Centennial, yet losing here, and Logan View losing to Central City by 23 on the same night Central City loses to Battle Creek by 21. There’s a message in there somewhere.

Now for thoughts on some other games around the state:

Lincoln High 46, Papillion-LaVista South 17. By now we have established the Links are good (me, I’m more of a patty guy, but whatever) and when you read Huskerland’s upcoming story about their star receiver, Zion Perry, you’ll get a better understanding of why.

Columbus 48, GI Northwest 30. Key interceptions, including a pick-six, push Discoverers to 3-0. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella are sure getting their money’s worth.

Elkhorn 38, Beatrice 21. Another freshman Elkhorn running back sensation? Seems so, this one’s at Elkhorn Original and goes by the name of Aidan Young but don’t bother writing that down. After rushing for 129 yards and two TDs last night I suspect we all will be hearing that game again, and often.

Fairbury 68, Falls City 14. I keep coming back to this but Fairbury is setting itself up for maybe the program’s best-ever season.

Johnson County Central 41, Conestoga 27. Break up the Thunderbirds! After their long losing streak 2-1 JCC seems to be getting the hang of this winning thing.

Lincoln Christian 20, Lincoln Lutheran 19. Those crazy kids from LC go and win back the Spirit Sword by blocking a 26-yard field goal with 13 seconds left in regulation.

Norfolk Catholic 24, Wahoo 19. Here’s a game I’d really loved to been able to attend but didn’t. Wahoo showed some guts, rallied late, but NC held on.

Pierce 63, Columbus Scotus 32. Good win for Pierce, real good win.

Wood River 48, Fillmore Central 20. First Wood River win for state champion coach Jeff Ashby, who has pumped some excitement into the program and will build a winner there. Maybe even this season.

Bayard 16, Centura 6. Good win for Bayard, really good win.

Hershey 29, Doniphan-Trumbull 0. If Hershey ever finds a way to get a break in a close game, look out.

North Platte St. Pat’s 48, Gibbon 13. Good win for the Irish, one of C-2’s long time standard bearers, and one that makes Arcadia/Loup City look even better.

Oakland-Craig 41, Crofton 7. The kindly folks at Oakland-Craig certainly treat ol’ @HuskerlandBob pretty darn good, wish I could have been there for at least part of this win over another Huskerland favorite.

Ainsworth 38, Hemingford 32, OT. Bulldogs, so long a doormat, go to 2-1 with what you’d have to term a program builder of a win. Good for you, Ainsworth.

Heartland 42, Giltner 38. Another battle of unbeatens that yielded plenty of entertainment for the cost a ticket.

Medicine Valley 47, Dundy County-Stratton 22. Still easy to believe Dundy has some bright days ahead but Med Valley was all that and the proverbial bag of chips. (Thank you, 1988.) My guess is there’s more where that came from for the Raiders.

Wakefield 54, Hartington-Newcastle 18. Psst…Wakefield has one of the best offenses in Class D-1…pass it on…

Bloomfield 48, Randolph 12. Bees swarm a good Randolph team.

Blue Hill 41, Arapahoe 14. Blue Hill in a state final? There are crazier ideas.

Humphrey St. Francis 22, Wynot 20, OT. Meeting for the sixth time since 2014, St. Fran holds on when Jarrett Weidner bats away Wynot’s two-point conversion pass that would have tied the game. And just like that, Jarrett Weidner won’t need to buy any of is own sodas when he goes uptown this week.

Wauneta-Palisade 46, Garden County 14. Finally getting to play a game after a bye and a forfeit, the Broncos take full measure of one of western Nebraska’s most consistent winners. Well played, Coach Geier.

Cody-Kilgore 27, Hay Springs 18. Great win for Cody, proves Hay Springs deserves the run it’s getting.

Harvard 40, Silver Lake 0. Harvard is good. Real good. Mark it down.