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Pfeifer fuels Ellis win
Published on -11/8/2009, 1:34 PM
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Special to The Hays Daily News
BROOKVILLE — Once Dylan Pfeifer broke away, so did the Ellis Railroaders.
Pfeifer slipped out of the grasp of a potential Ell-Saline tackler, racing 74 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to help Ellis pull away for a 34-16 playoff victory Saturday night at the Ell-Saline High School field.
The Railroaders (9-2) move on to next week’s Class 2-1A quarterfinals where they will meet unbeaten Oakley. Ell-Saline (8-3) had its season end with a playoff loss to Ellis for the second consecutive year.
“We were prepared this week but (Ellis) was just a better team,” said Ell-Saline senior Tyler Schulz. “We made a few mistakes and those few mistakes cost us.”
Ellis built an 18-0 lead in the second quarter and never let Ell-Saline get closer than 10 points the rest of the way. The Cardinals were still in striking distance, trailing 18-8 to start the fourth quarter, when Pfeifer broke free for his long touchdown run only three plays into the final period.
“Their defense hit hard and that was one of the better hitting and tackling teams we went up against this season,” Pfeifer said. “But our line never quit. We went into the game looking to play like champions and I thought we did.”
Ell-Saline did get those points back on Tate Omli’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Schulz — the second scoring reception for Schulz in the game — with 5:58 remaining. But Ellis answered with a final scoring drive of its own, capped by quarterback Jacob Kinderknecht’s 2-yard keeper with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game.
“I think we played hard tonight, but we might have been a little too hyped up,” said Ell-Saline coach Terry King. “Early in the game we ran past the ball too many times.
“We gave up four big plays in the first half and one in the second half, and that was the big difference.”
Ellis got a 2-yard touchdown run from Gideon Fuchs and a 51-yard scoring run from Kinderknecht to take a 12-0 lead. The Railroaders added to that lead when, on a fourth-and-13 play, Kinderknecht’s pass near the goal line was tipped into the air by an Ell-Saline defender, then came down in the hands of Ellis senior Aaron Gnad in the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown catch.
Ell-Saline got some momentum with a 64-yard, 10-play drive before halftime, with Omli finding Schulz open behind the defense for a 24-yard scoring reception with five seconds remaining. The two-point conversion made it 18-8 and the Cardinals would receive the ball to start the second half.
Although Ell-Saline held Ellis scoreless in the third quarter, the Cardinal offense went three-and-out on each of its first three possessions after halftime.
“I thought the first possession of the second half was huge as far as momentum,” Ellis coach Butch Hayes said. “They scored at the end of the first half but we held them right away. It was just a battle from there on out and both defenses played some pretty good football.”
“I thought we had momentum going into the second half but they came out ready,” Schulz said.
Pfeifer finished with 212 yards on 19 carries and took advantage of the Cardinals’ defensive scheme aimed at clogging up the middle.
“Pfeifer is just a hard runner,” Hayes said. “He was able to get away and make a nice run there in the fourth quarter and get us some momentum back.”
“Because of our size disadvantage, we had to gamble a little bit and we felt like we had to stop the run in the middle,” King said. “We couldn’t do that unless we gave up something and we had to give up the edge, but it cost us.”
Omli completed 14 of 30 passes for 235 yards — including seven catches for 144 yards for Schulz — but the Cardinals were held to just 56 yards rushing on 24 carries.
“Our defense knew Omli was one of the best quarterbacks in 2A,” Pfeifer said. “He’s a great player but we practiced really hard and we take a lot of pride in playing Ellis defense.”
“The number one thing I said we had to do was run the football and we did toward the end when we had them spread out a little bit,” King said. “Early in the game it wasn’t there.”
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