MoKan 8th Graders Battle Competition, Elements to Advance
MoKan’s eighth-grade team salvaged what could have been a really disappointing Sunday for Team MoKan as the team hosted the Midwest region’s first and second rounds of the FBU National Championship tournament at St. Pius X High School in Kansas…
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Continue ReadingMoKan’s eighth-grade team salvaged what could have been a really disappointing Sunday for Team MoKan as the team hosted the Midwest region’s first and second rounds of the FBU National Championship tournament at St. Pius X High School in Kansas City, Missouri.
MoKan sent all three of its teams to the second round on Sunday, but after the sixth- and seventh-grade teams fell to defeat earlier in the day, it was an 8-0 victory for the eighth-grade team over Indiana that gave the hosts something to smile about.
The eighth-grade team will be MoKan’s sole representative at the FBU National Championship final weekend on Dec. 17 weekend.
“Hats off to Indiana,” MoKan head coach Ray Williams said. “Watching them last year when we didn’t have a team in Naples and watching those guys actually fight the way they fought as seventh-graders was huge.”
Featuring in the last game of the weekend, both teams had to face brutal wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour under the night lights, opting to keep the ball on the ground for much of the game.
But when the chips were down and players had to stand up in the big moments, it was those in the red of MoKan that delivered.
Having barely let the ball touch the ground in its win over Kentucky on Saturday, Indiana took into consideration the conditions and took over five minutes to march the ball down the field in the opening play of the drive, refusing to throw the ball.
The visitors marched the ball all the way down to MoKan’s 24-yard line before stalling at fourth-and-inches. Going for it, the MoKan’s defense stuffed Indiana to take over on downs.
The game continued to be a tetchy battle in the midfield, but it was once again the MoKan defense that came up big on their own 21-yard line. On a much more risky 4th-and-9, the MoKan defense chased down Indiana quarterback Anthony Coellner, forcing a sack-fumble that was recovered by MoKan lineman Chandler Moore.
With a stalemate likely heading into halftime, a deep punt from Indiana was returned from MoKan for 44-yards all the way down to Indiana’s 21-yard line. With just 17.5 seconds left on the clock until halftime, MoKan quarterback Cash Newberry launched a throw into the wind that was hauled down by receiver Gabriel Johnson in the corner of the endzone.
The following successful two-point conversion broke the deadlock on the stroke of halftime.
“That was huge,” Williams said about the end to the half. “We told our guys we can either be the hammer or we can be the nail and today, they were the hammer today.”
Things didn’t change much for either team in the second half, but once again a huge defensive play from MoKan on their own goal line proved the difference.
Indiana quarterback Anthony Coellner turned what seemed to be a dead play into a 57-yard gain, setting the ball up all the way on the MoKan 5-yard line late in the third quarter.
But a couple of huge defensive stops at the line followed by a false start penalty for Indiana and a huge sack preserved the lead for MoKan. The 34-yard field goal attempt from Trent Smith flew wide of the goalposts and signaled the last time that Indiana threatened the MoKan endzone.
“Coming into this game we knew this was going to be a dog fight,” Williams said. “And we told our defense, we gave them a task, we need you guys to step up and they did.”
Contributed special to PRZ Next by Shaun Goodwin