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Football: Miscues haunt Hillcrest
Published 09:58 p.m., October 31, 2009
By Jon Weisbrod
Daily Journal
BERTHA — With the wet, muddy and sloppy conditions serving as a backdrop, Jake Braaten nailed a pressure-packed 21-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining to send the second-seeded Bertha-Hewitt football team past third-seeded Hillcrest 9-6 in the Section 4, 9-Man semifinal Saturday evening.
The last-second drama was set up by a bad snap on the previous Hillcrest possession that gave the Bears the ball at the Comets’ 15-yardline with roughly a minute remaining on the clock.
Hillcrest saw its season come to a screeching halt due in large part to a number of miscues at the most inopportune times.
With the score tied 6-6 early in the fourth quarter, the Comets took over possession a mere three feet in front of their end zone but drove well past midfield.
On the 12th play of the drive, however, normally sure-handed running back Zach Taylor coughed the ball up at the 26-yardline where Trent Peterson scooped it up and returned it all the way to the Bears’ 18 with 4:16 on the clock.
The Comets’ defense held Bertha out of the end zone and took over at their own 15 with 2:35 remaining.
Five plays later, Hillcrest lined up to punt the ball after consecutive incomplete passes.
But just when it looked like overtime was inevitable, the fourth-down snap flew over the punter’s head, giving the Bears possession just inside the 10 yardline with a pair of time outs to work with.
Following three straight runs that gained six yards, Braaten nailed the game-winning kick, sending the Bears to the Section 4 championship game where they will face top-seeded Verndale Friday in the FargoDome.
Bertha-Hewitt dictated the action for most of the first half, taking a 6-0 lead when Braaten flung a halfback pass to Austin Selvey for a 20-yard touchdown late in the second quarter.
In the first 24 minutes, the Bears out-gained the Comets 156-to-69 in total yards, holding Hillcrest’s dynamic quarterback Jared Schultz to just 1-for-8 passing.
The Comets re-grouped nicely after the break, tying the game when Schultz capped a long drive with a 1-yard TD scamper with 6:07 left in the third.
The Comets ended the game with more yards (232-170) and first downs (14-10), but turned the ball over three times to Bertha’s one.
Schultz led all rushers with 85 yards on 18 carries.
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