Traveling to Seward, Neb., the varsity football team will take on the Seward Bluejays for the second time this season, but this time the stakes are higher as the winner will advance to the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) Class B State semi-finals.
While the Bluejays won the first match-up (41-24) to open the season in August, the Griffins feel more prepared for tonight’s game.
“I feel like we weren’t as good as a team as we are now, we had a lot of pieces that still needed to be put in place, but I feel like as the season progressed, we really figured out who we are, and we started playing together as a team,” defensive starter, senior Carter Lightwine said.
In the first game against the Bluejays, the Griffins were able to hold their own in the first half being up 17-14 but lost it in the second half letting up 27 points from the pass game to the run game while only scoring a field goal and a touchdown to end the game.
“We came out hot in the first six minutes, got up 14-0,” tight end, junior Carson Herrmann said. “I think we got complacent; We were happy with where we were, and we didn’t keep firing, we just thought we were gonna win.”
Going into the game tonight, the Griffins will have to be locked in, have a solid game plan, and keep their heads in the game if they hope to sing the school fight song happily to the crowd at the end of the night.
“Experience throughout the season is from those things,” Defensive Assistant Coach Tyson Schroeder said, “you just, you can’t coach that. So although I think there was, you know, a lot of improvement in other areas, like just playing the game, get young guys experience, all those guys get an experience is a big, big reason why I think we’re in a totally different position than where we were at the beginning of the season.”
The Bluejays are currently ranked second in Class B, sitting at 10-0 after handing Lincoln Pius X a 21-20 post-season loss last weekend. Contributing to their success is their starting lineup, which is stacked with talent. Their quarterback, junior Tresten Hass is ranked third in passing for Class B with 2,077 passing yards and 158 completions out of 233 attempts this season. Hass’s main target, wide receiver, junior Jack Vyhnalek is also top-ranked with 701 receiving yards and an average of 70.1 yards per game.
“They do have a pretty solid quarterback and a solid receiver to pair with that duo,” safety, senior Grayson Fisher said. “But I think with our DBs out there, I think we’re gonna lock it up and do our thing.”
And while Seward may have a better record and more total yards, the Griffins have their own ammunition with several Top-10 ranked Class B athletes.
“We got a lot of weapons out there on the offense, we got some receivers, and we got some good backs in the backfield,” Fisher said.
Tonight’s game will kick off at 7 p.m. at Concordia College in Seward. For those who can not attend, the game will be streamed on Huddle. There will also be a watch party at Heavy Brewing.
Whoever wins will play the winner of the Omaha Skutt Catholic vs. Waverly game on Nov. 15 in the semi-finals.
