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| St. Teresa's Jake Handley takes a hit as he tries to take down New Berlin's Cam Cummings on Saturday. New Berlin ended St. Teresa's season with a 42-28 victory. |
November 02, 2014 3:00 am
DECATUR -- After a half, St. Teresa seemed to figure out New Berlin.
The problem was, the Pretzels came out of halftime a different team.
Led by the prolific passing attack between Jake Hunt and Chase Creviston, New Berlin has shown off an aerial attack again and again to get to the playoffs. And it was what the Pretzels did for 24 minutes on Saturday.
But New Berlin called an audible at half and ran the ball on 24 of its 31 plays in the second, and it helped the Pretzels beat St. T 42-28 in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.
"We expected it coming in and we had seen their running game a lot," St. Teresa coach Tim Brilley said. "We had built-in adjustments for it. We just have to react and play better. Count the onside kick, turn the ball over, you can't win at home, away, on the moon ... it doesn't matter."
The Bulldogs had limited the passing attack early. Hunt completed less than 50 percent of his passes, Patrick Althoff had an interception and the Bulldogs could have had two more if not for penalties.
"They did a great job all day shutting down our receivers, and we have both in our tool belt, if you will, but the big thing was the O-line kept churning, churning, churning," New Berlin coach Barry Creviston said.
Things looked even more promising after St. T quarterback Ryan Fyke orchestrated a five-play scoring drive in 1:03 to end the half by finding Althoff in the end zone.
But after a first half that felt played on fast forward, New Berlin's plan to slow the game down worked exactly how it wanted. On the 24 rushes in the second half, it averaged 6.7 yards per carry.
Hunt, coming in with seven rushing touchdowns this season, had three on Saturday.
Two of those came in the fourth quarter, helping erase the 21-20 lead the Bulldogs had.
It didn't help that St. Teresa kept putting the ball on the ground. Two botched handoffs between Fyke and Zach Jarrett and another by Chris Hein in the middle of the fourth kept the Bulldogs from getting into any offensive rhythm.
Those, and an onside kick made four times when St. Teresa gave up the ball. That was what eating at Brilley most of the game.
"We couldn't sustain drives. We had a few big plays, but every time we had a drive going we turned the ball over," he said.
Aren's take
Hard to see now
The future is bright at St. T. Ryan Fyke did a masterful job several times to avoid pressure and deliver the big play. Sure, he held onto it a couple times for a sack, but the upside of holding onto it far outweighed the downside.And while some quarterbacks will immediately look to run after the pass protection breaks down, Fyke always has his eye downfield to see if he has an open receiver instead. The play to find Althoff as the half expired was one of the more impressive plays I've seen this year.
Jarrett ran well in the early going when he had protection, but it became harder and harder to find room as the game went on. But he still finished with 90 yards on just 15 carries.
But much of the leadership on the team came from a senior class, and Brilley said the ability to hold it together was to their credit.
"We grew a lot as a team," Brilley said. "We came a long way. Our seniors led us the whole time and they're one of the best groups I've ever had leadership-wise. I'm happy with how the season went, but I hate how it ended for those guys."
"It was great," CJ Stuart added. "I had a great group of guys around me. We had fun. We had sophomores, seniors. We learned how to come together, work together as a team. That was really big for us."
Started out fast
The Bulldogs couldn't have started the game any better, recovering a fumble on the first play from scrimmage and then riding two Jarrett runs to an early touchdown.Late in the first, they had another quick scoring drive as Brannan Taylor caught a pass just as Fyke was hit, scooting for 52 yards to set up another two-play scoring drive.
