Pierre fights off a strong Tea team for 11AA Championship

A rematch of the 11AA Title game from a year ago that was a thriller. After a tight regular season game to determine the #1 and #2 seeds throughout the playoffs, this game was shaping up to be no different. It was a back and forth game, turning into a shootout, the whole time until Pierre's defense stepped up and made some crucial stops late in the 3rd and 4th Quarter, which the offense capitalized on and put the game out of reach. Tea was right there with Pierre every step of the way until the experience from the Govs took over and sealed it. Here are the standouts from the 11AA Championship.   Final: Pierre 35, Tea Area 20   Pierre   QB/DB- #3 [player_tooltip player_id='56570' first='Lincoln' last='Kienholz'] did what he does best, makes plays to win the game. He threw some beautiful passes to his receivers, who almost never had to break stride to catch them. He showed his accuracy on the deep passes, but also showed his patience and his ability to extend plays to let he receivers get open. He also displayed his running ability, which has made him a nightmare for defenses this season and continued that in this game late to seal it for the Govs. Defensively, he played very well in pass coverage, whether in zone or man coverage he made plays. He had a few impressive tackles in run support or short passing game on the perimeter. He also helped seal the game with a late interception.   WR- #17 [player_tooltip player_id='223096' first='Jack' last='Merkwan'] had an all Classes record setting performance in case you hadn't heard yet. On two of his catches he had 170 yards, he'd finish the day with 8 catches and 234 yards. He put his speed on full display by sprinting past defenders, but what finished the plays was his strength and balance. The defender was draped all over him and he still came out with the catch and the score after shaking off a tackler. He also showed his route running ability and his yards after catch, catching short passes and turning them into yards. His hitches and quick looks were Pierre's form of a running game in an empty backfield, something that was almost guaranteed to get some yards on a given play.   DB- #24 [player_tooltip player_id='403510' first='Deegan' last='Houska'] came up huge on the defensive side of the ball. He has a great back pedal to get him depth and still keep his eye on his zone or guy. He breaks perfectly on passes and times them up perfectly when the ball gets to the receiver. He has the awareness to know whether to bat the pass down, or drill the receiver, either way it is hard to catch a ball on him. In zone, he keeps himself close enough to any receiver in his zone and still keep watching the QB to make a play on the ball when the pass came out.   OL/DL- #64 [player_tooltip player_id='101165' first='Jason' last='Maciejczak'] was vital on both sides of the ball. He was the guy to run behind on offense, used his big frame, but then followed through with stellar technique. His kept good pad level and drive against a very physical Titan D-line. He is quick off the ball and drives off the snap to open the gap for the run game. He has very good footwork in pass coverage as well, he shuffles quickly and keeps the defense off the QB. Defensively, he stepped big on key short yardage situations. Using all his same attributes as a blocker against the opposing offense and made the plays in the backfield on 3rd and 4th downs in short yardage.   Tea Area   WR/DB- #5 [player_tooltip player_id='56573' first='Blake' last='Thompson'] played extremely well on defense. Opening the game with a forced fumble and an interception. He had the speed to almost completely cover one half of the field. He got his depth and ran with the guy running the deepest route and sticking with him the whole way. He did a great job playing the ball and not getting beat deep. Offensively, he was a big part of the run game from a wing back, or dotting the I-formation. He's got a good speed burst that he shows once he gets through the line of scrimmage. He had the vision and agility to find the open space in the defense. He also had the strength to run through arm tackles and shake free from defenders grabbing his jersey.   RB/LB- #28 [player_tooltip player_id='273690' first='Chase' last='Van Tol'] was the playmaker in this game for the offense with two long receiving TD's. He was a bruiser type back who was looking to run through the defender instead of running around him. He had a lot of speed too, once he broke through the main point of attack, he could turn it into a big gain. He also had the good vision and instincts to cutback against the grain and turn a small gain into a big gain. On his routes, he used his speed to run away from the defender and get open, then once he caught the ball, he was off to the races. Any time he was in the open field, he was very hard to bring down.   LB- #27 Jackson Smythe was everywhere on the defensive side of the ball. He got his reads and flowed to the football perfectly on in run support. He filled his gap quickly, made a hit and wrapped up to finish the tackle. He was so quick on his reads that most of his tackles were for loss or under two yards, he was hard to get blocked because of his quickness as well. He got real good pass drops too, taking away the quick passes and giving the pass rushers time to get home. He had plenty of strength to stick a ballcarrier in the gap and a ton of foot drive to drive them backwards.   QB- #1 Maddix Slykhuis played a great game running the Titan offense in a big game. He had tons of poise in the pocket, even in the face of pressure. He stood in the pocket and was very patient on his reads and threw a nice ball, never forcing a pass that wasn't there. He was pretty accurate throwing the receiver open and hitting them in stride, which led to a big play. He also had very good mobility to extend plays and escape the pocket under pressure. He remained calm and still went through his reads and delivered a good pass on the run.

A rematch of the 11AA Title game from a year ago that was a thriller. After a tight regular season game to determine the #1 and #2 seeds throughout the playoffs, this game was shaping up to be no different. It was a back and forth game, turning into a shootout, the whole time until Pierre's defense stepped up and made some crucial stops late in the 3rd and 4th Quarter, which the offense capitalized on and put the game out of reach. Tea was right there with Pierre every step of the way until the experience from the Govs took over and sealed it. Here are the standouts from the 11AA Championship.