A thunderous tandem in Kensington
By CONOR NICHOLL
HILL CITY -- Cade Rietzke and Mike Yoxall have been best friends since kindergarten, a duo that often played backyard football together. Rietzke played quarterback and Yoxall was his favorite receiver.
"We would always be teaming up, just me and him," Rietzke said, "Just about anything we could do. He knew what I was going to do, I knew what he was going to do. We knew what each other was going to do."
Years later, that tandem continues to work. Now seniors for Kensington-Thunder Ridge, Rietzke and Yoxall have delivered big numbers all season, especially Friday night in a 40-38 road loss to Hill City. Thunder Ridge scored a touchdown but missed the tying two-point conversion with no time left.
"They all played their guts out tonight," Thunder Ridge head coach Jerry Voorhees said. "Every single one of them. I am very proud of all of them. Congratulations to Hill City. They have got a great football team. The bad thing is somebody has to lose these games. Tonight it was us."
Still, Rietzke, who Voorhees said "threw the living crud out of the football tonight," finished with 19-of-35 passing for 371 yards and six touchdowns, all career highs. In addition, he intercepted two passes and rushed for a team-high 81 yards.
The 5-foot-8, 157-pound Yoxall tallied career-highs for catches (nine), yards (186) and tied his personal best with two TD catches (60 and 69 yards).
Hill City entered Friday ranked second in scoring defense in Eight-Man, Division I, allowing just six points a contest. Yet Yoxall's speed forced the Ringnecks to change their defense. Normally, junior quarterback Reggie Jordan does not play defense. Yet no Hill City player could cover Yoxall, so Ringneck head coach Chris Shank brought in Jordan at corner.
"It's a testament to him on how good of a receiver he is," Shank said. "We have tried to avoid having Reggie play defense at all costs. I like to platoon as much as I can. It's a testament to how good of an athlete he is. We tried to cover him in other ways. Our last resort was okay, Reggie, just man him up, man up our fastest kid against their fastest kid."
Thunder Ridge's loss dropped the Longhorns to 4-3 overall, 1-2 in District 7, while Hill City improved to 6-1, 3-0, its' best start since 1996. Thunder Ridge was effectively eliminated from the playoff race with the defeat, yet Rietzke and Yoxall have put up some of the state's best numbers.
In a 54-8 loss to Hanover in Week 1, Thunder Ridge didn't complete a single pass. After that, the Longhorns spread out their offense and started passing more. Rietzke, who Shank called the best quarterback Hill City has seen since Ashland's Corey Stebens in Week 1, has completed 52-of-89 passes for 1,197 yards and 22 touchdowns versus 1 interception. He passed for 826 yards and 13 TDs in 10 games last season.
"I couldn't have any better quarterback than him," Yoxall said.
Yoxall, the No. 2 wideout last year with 16 catches, has 24 receptions for 645 yards and 10 scores this fall. In addition, sophomore Blane Hrabe has 17 catches. Thunder Ridge has averaged over 40 points a game since Week 1.
"I love it. Way better," Yoxall said of the new passing game. "I have been playing more and making big plays pretty much. I have made more bigger plays this year than all of my other years."
"It's a lot of fun," Rietzke said. We are a lot better, I think."
Yoxall is one of multiple Thunder Ridge students that have been adopted by Kensington families. Two years ago, all-state linebacker Randall Irving found success in a foster home. Jeff Yoxall, Kensington's superintendent, adopted Mike. He and Rietzke became friends from an early age and developed a strong bond.
'We both have a lot of fun out there, a lot of joking, but we can get serious at the same time, like tonight," Rietzke said.
The two gave Thunder Ridge an 8-6 lead early in the first quarter when Rietzke threw deep down the right sideline. Yoxall easily outran the Hill City defensive back and gathered in the 60-yard TD.
"I got that guy beat pretty good," Yoxall said.
Late in the third quarter, Yoxall and Rietzke tied the game at 32. On 3rd-and-25, Rietzke faced pressure on his own 11-yard line. He threw deep to Yoxall, who outsprinted Hill City sophomore Adam Pfeifer and hauled in the 69-yard TD catch.
"I saw him out there," Rietzke said. "I saw him that he was open. I just had to put it out there in front of him. He can run underneath it. He is fast enough, Just kind of threw it up to him deep enough so the defender couldn't get it."
"I didn't even see that until the last second," Yoxall said. "Got lucky on that one."
On the final drive, Rietzke completed six passes, including three on slants to Yoxall. It's play that Yoxall said has worked "all year." Yoxall would slant toward the right sideline and haul in the pass.
"There on that last drive, they were playing way off because they didn't want to give up nothing deep," Voorhees said. "We ran that play pretty consistently down the field, either to his side or the tight end's side. Cade has got good timing. We work on it everyday with our receivers and Cade. They got good timing with each other. They trust each other. Did a good job."
"He is quick enough and I have got a good enough ball that I can just hit him on the run. Get all of the yards we can," Rietzke said.
The final catch for the duo moved the ball to the Hill City 5 with 16 seconds left. Two plays later, Rietzke tied the game on a 5-yard pass to Hrabe. The Longhorns missed the two-point conversion and lost the game -- but the longtime best friends still continued a terrific year.
"He is a heckuva kid, great quarterback and great leader for us," Voorhees said. "...(Mike), he has really turned into a dang good football player. Very proud of him."