Well, that turned into a barn-burner.

It looked for most of the fourth quarter like the Cardinals were going to cruise into the championship game on the strength of their defense, but desperation time brought out the best in Hawley.  With four minutes to go, the Nuggets fashioned their first sustained touchdown drive of the game, with Beau Sorenson hitting Taylor Harms with 2:11 to go to bring them back within a touchdown.

The onside kick failed - just a note for reference, if you’re a kicker, it’s never a good idea to fake out the rest of your team, regarding when exactly you’re going to take an onside kick - but Hawley got the stop they needed on the ensuing drive, and got the ball back with just over a minute to go.

A hook-and-ladder moved the Nuggets out to their own forty, two more short passes got them into Luverne territory, and a bomb down the sideline to Harms got them to the fifteen.  A pass over the middle put them on the three, a false start penalty after the spike moved them back, and with three seconds to go, they had one chance from the Cardinal eight.

Luverne, smartly, double-covered Harms on the right side.  Sorenson tried to look left, but he didn’t have time, and his pass into the left flat, aiming for Andrew Ulven, fell incomplete… and Luverne held on.

Joy for the Cardinals, who move on to face Caledonia in the Prep Bowl.  Despair for the Nuggets, who might have turned the tables had they been able to get anything going prior to the last four minutes of the ballgame.

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Kickoff for Wayzata-Rosemount is set for about 8:15.  One more game in the state semifinals; we hope you’re ready.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Football, State tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.