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The fifth-seeded Wildcats overcame a 20-7 halftime deficit to defeat the South St. Paul Packers 37-35 in the quarterfinals of the Section 3AAAA football playoffs Tuesday, October 22 at South St Paul High School.  The win sends the Wildcats to a section semifinal game against the top-seeded, eighth-ranked Hill-Murray Pioneers this Saturday at 11 a.m. at Hill-Murray High School.

With the Wildcats trailing 7-0, the Wildcats faced fourth and two from the Pioneer three-yard line to open the second quarter.  Meissner faked a handoff to fullback Michael Houle, ran to the goal line and plowed his way into the end zone for a touchdown.  Brycen Morley’s extra point tied the game at 7-7.  But the Packers dominated the rest of the quarter on the scoreboard.  On the second play of the ensuing drive, from the South St. Paul 39-yard line, Pioneer quarterback Sincere McCampbell faked a handoff and ran to the left.  A shimmy while he was still in the backfield caused a Wildcat defender to whiff on the tackle.  McCampbell headed down the sideline.  With Wildcat defenders closing in from the right, he cut back at the 20 and finished his untouched run into the end zone to give the Packers a 14-7 lead.  Two field goals by Alida Ahern in the last five minutes of the half gave South St. Paul a 20-7 lead going into the intermission.

On the Wildcats’ first drive of the second half, they moved the ball downfield and faced third and goal from the six-yard line.  Houle took the handoff and ran diagonally to the left.  A Packer defender grabbed him at the two.  Houle stretched as far as he could and slammed the ball on the goal line.  The ball squirted loose, but the referee correctly ruled it a touchdown, cutting the Paker lead to 20-14.  A 30-yard touchdown run by Nasir Robinson and a two-point conversion gave the Packers their biggest lead, 28-14, with 4:26 left in the third quarter.  But Carson Langevin scored twice for the Wildcats in the last few minutes of the third quarter.  From the Packer one-yard line, he ran through a huge hole on the left-hand side to cut the Packer lead to 28-21.  The Wildcats forced the Packers to punt on the ensuing drive and took over at their own 35 after a punt.  On the first play of the drive, Langevin took a handoff, ran through a nice hole up the middle, cleared a path with a couple of hip shakes and easily outran the outh St. Paul defense for a 65-yard touchdown run.  The extra point tied the game at 28-28 with 41 seconds left in the third quarter.

After a penalty against the Packers on their kick return, they started at their own 15-yard line.  On second and six from the 19, McCampbell dropped back to pass and had to scramble as the Wildcats closed in on him.  Emmit Hahn chased McCampbell and dove, making an ankle tackle at the two-yard line.  On third and 23, a short pass over the middle and a nice run appeared to give the Packers a first down near their own 40.  But a holding penalty brought it all back.  On third down from the one, McCampbell took a shotgun snap.  Hahn blitzed from the far right, blew right by a potential blocker, grabbed McCampbell’s jersey and started to spin him around.  McCampbell flung the ball in desperation, but it went a couple of yards backwards and out of bounds, and the Wildcats got two points for a safety.  Those two points ultimately became the margin of victory in the game.

With exactly six minutes to go in the game, from the Packer one-yard line, Hahn followed a nice block by Houle and dove into the end zone for a touchdown.  Morley’s extra point made the score 37-28.  The nine-point Wildcat lead meant the Packers would have to score twice to win the game.  McCampbell threw a ten-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Murphy with 2:41 remaining.  Murphy spun the ball on the ground in the end zone after the touchdown and the Pioneers were penalized 15 yards, to be assessed on the kickoff.  Ahern’s extra point cut the Wildcat lead to 37-35.  The Pioneer’s onside kick attempt came from their own 25-yard line due to the penalty.  Ahern squibbed the ball to her left, but the ball didn’t travel the required ten yards before it rolled out of bounds, giving the Wildcats possession at the South St. Paul 30.  The Wildcats ran out the clock with a couple of first downs and two kneel downs by Meissner, sending them to the next round of the playoffs.

Football Notes

In their final regular season game, the Wildcats lost at Becker High School to the number one ranked Becker Bulldogs 54-0 on Wednesday, October 16, dropping their final regular season record to 3-5.

The Wildcats are underdogs to Hill Murray, but despite the Pioneers being ranked eighth in the state, the task of beating them in Saturday’s section semifinal is not insurmountable.  If the Wildcats avoid turnovers and control the ball with their ground game, they have a good chance to spring an upset.

The Packers’ senior kicker Alida Ahern, who kicked three extra points and two field goals against the Wildcats, is one of a small cadre of girls playing varsity football in Minnesota.  There is a nice article about her in the Minnesota Star Tribune

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