November 10, 2011 at 3:53 p.m.
Cardinals run into Seneca's wall
With 200 pounds a lightweight on the Seneca football team the Indians rolled for touchdowns on their first two possessions and went on to end Highland's season 30-6. The Indians now move on to play Burlington Catholic Central Saturday at Middleton. The game has a 4 p.m. start.
The Cardinals ran into the Seneca "wall" that included 6-0, 287 Devin McCullick, 6-3, 226 Jared Grimslen, 6-0, 197 Kyle Shepard, 6-0, 197 Tyler Shepard and 6-1, 202 Trenton Payne all afternoon. That wall also took over on the offensive side of the football and accounted for 376 yards of offense on 62 plays.
John Alanis, a 5-10, 165 pound senior whose best gear was straight ahead, had his number called 41 times for 250 yards. Trenton Payne, the mammoth quarterback for the Indians, accounted for 70 yards on 13 keeps and also threw the two passes the Seneca coaches called for, completing one. Jordan Boone gained 48 yards on six carries and accounted for the lone Seneca reception with an eight yard grab.
The Indians took the kick-off and drove 80 yards in 13 plays which ended with an Alanis touchdown on a two yard run. The score went to 8-0 when Alanis stepped in for the two point conversion.
Payne orchestrated the next drive which came after Highland gave up the football and eventually scored on a five yard keeper. Alanis added the conversion for a 16-0 lead in the opening frame.
The drive started with an illegal procedure penalty that ended a chance to keep the football and try a fourth and two which was followed by a bad snap on a punt that gave the Indians the ball at their 37. The scoring drive took seven plays with Alanis moving the ball during five of them.
Payne scored again in the second quarter on a five yard run but this time the Cardinals halted the conversion run to make it 22-0.
Highland got on the scoreboard quickly when Blake Bodenstein grabbed the kick-off and sprinted 76 yards down the sideline to score.
Seneca was able to tack on one more score when Alanis completed a drive with a nine yard carry and also added the two point conversion.
The Indians had stopping Highland's leading rusher Tyler Kleist on their list of things to do but the Cardinal senior still picked up 58 yards on 19 carries.
"Tyler is going to give you all he has. He ended up with 58 yards rushing and he had to work for all of them. It was difficult to get any holes for him to run through because of their size," said Highland coach Shaun Reuter.
Also for the Cardinals, Caleb Yager had seven carries for 32 yards from his fullback position and Blake Bodenstein earned 30 on nine tries.
Blake Bodenstein threw the football 10 times, completing three, all to Branden McCollough. He gained 17 yards with his catches.
"Their size was a huge reason we couldn't get going offensively," Reuter said. "Plus they have a couple of very good linebackers that fill extremely well."
He said he was pleased with the progress Blake Bodenstein made at quarterback and on defense this season.
"Blake improved a lot on both sides of the ball as the season went on," Reuter said. "I believe he had more touchdown passes in the playoffs than he had during the regular season. And, he only threw three interceptions all year and the last one was in desperation time towards the end of the game. He was a very solid defensive end for us all year having led the conference in sacks with eight during the regular season. He is a very athletic kid with a great work ethic in the weight room. There will be high expectations for him next year."
The Cardinals finished with 123 yards rushing and a net 13 passing. They passed 10 times and had 32 running plays.
The first down difference was 18 to 8 in Seneca's favor.
Highland's season ended at 9-3. Seneca advances at 10-2.
"Not a lot to say about the game other than they were the better team," Reuter said. "Their size played a huge role in the outcome. Alanis is an excellent running back and we did not have an answer for him on Saturday. The QB Payne also hurt us running the ball more than I was expecting."
"They pretty much dominated us throughout the game on both sides of the ball," Reuter added. "We couldn't really get anything going offensively and we didn't put up much of a resistance defensively."
"I am really proud of our season for many reasons but probably the most important thing that I saw change was their ability to see things as a team rather than as an individual." Reuter said. "They bought into what the coaching staff was installing and ran with it. Winning a conference championship is something that they will remember forever. The victory over Potosi week 9 to gain that championship was such an emotional game because of the fact that we had lost so many games coming into this season."
With the season over, the careers of several seniors come to a close.
"I am really happy for the seniors to go out the way they did,
Reuter said. "The seniors, although not very many, will really be missed. They helped us turn our season around."
The Cardinals have some good talent available to them when they return to the field for the 2012 season.
"We do return eight starters on both sides of the ball so we are expecting big things again next year," Reuter said. "I think that the success this year will really help heading into the off-season with them getting into the weight room. I think that we have some guys who are going to make huge gains in their strength and speed going into next year."
