Baz: Playoffs After Dark

BETWEEN LOCUST AND LINDEN STREETS — Let’s start on the north side of Wahoo.

That’s the part of town where Wahoo High is hosting Ashland-Greenwood in the Class C-1 state football semifinals Friday night.

We start here because it allows us to catch the second half of Bishop Neumann and Kearney Catholic in the C-2 semifinals across town later on.

And this is meant as no offense to Ashland-Greenwood. But the prevailing sentiment, outside of the crew playing and rooting for the Bluejays, is that Wahoo will have this thing put to bed early.

At 34-14 at halftime and 61-21 after three quarters, that feeling proves correct.

But look at the other set of lights glowing 1.7 miles away. Bishop Neumann is up 20-0 on unbeaten Kearney Catholic at halftime. The scoreboard reads 34-0 at game’s end as the Cavaliers put the Shooting Star offense in a headlock.

This is life in the Home Office. What was once the running gag on the Late Show with David Letterman is now the business of stuffing opposing football teams in a proverbial locker.

Two years in a row, Wahoo and Bishop Neumann host state semifinals on the same day. Two years in a row, Wahoo and Bishop Neumann win and advance to Lincoln.

The schools played a junior varsity game against each other on October 20, the Monday of the final week of the regular season for the high school team.

The future of one of Nebraska’s great sports towns knocking heads while the high school stars watched.

“I was talking to coach (Chad) Fox at the (JV) game,” Bishop Neumann football coach Joe Pavlik said Friday night. “And he said, ‘Class C football runs through Wahoo’. And now we can say, Class C football does run through Wahoo.

“That was pretty cool for Chad to say that.”

It’s pretty cool to watch these teams play.

Wahoo is ferocious. Violent on defense. Explosive on offense. Kip Brigham might be the best running back in the state not playing in the Omaha metro area. 

Running behind an offensive line that stacks up against anyone in any class, Brigham on Friday broke the Class C-1 career scoring record after putting up five more touchdowns.

Brigham broke the C-1 season touchdown mark too. And the C-1 career touchdown record. And the record for most consecutive 100-yard rushing games (now at 20). He finished north of 300 total yards Friday.

Against what might well be the second-best team in the class (apologies to Sidney). Brigham had a 6-yard touchdown run on Wahoo’s first drive, and a 71-yard scoring sprint on his next touch, one play after an Ashland-Greenwood punt.

The kid, and his team, are different.

Wahoo played A-G twice this year. Beat the Jays a combined 96-21. A-G gave up 133 total points in its other 10 games, all wins.

So now we head south.

Out of the grass behind Wahoo’s field. Right on Locust Street. Left on 15th, right on Chestnut, left on West 1st, right on Linden. 

Six minutes later, like an offensive line clearing the way, a parking space appears across the street from Bishop Neuman’s main building.

We walk in. Down the hill. Look left, and it’s 20-0 Cavs. A few minutes later, Kobe Miller is blocking a punt. On the next play, Beau Fujan is putting things away with a 21-yard touchdown run.

Kearney Catholic was unbeaten. Was. The Stars finished 11-1 while getting shut out for the first time since 2018.

While Wahoo’s dominance is singular, Bishop Neumann needed time to reach its final form.

The Cavaliers (11-1) cracked 40 points twice all season, and haven’t done it since September 25.  

The Warriors have lightning. The Cavaliers have a hammer, pounding away with size and a relentless option attack.

And Bishop Neumann team moved out from under the shadow of last year’s state runner-up, led by one of the most talented senior classes in school history that was headlined by current Husker Conor Booth, who would have run for 3,000 yards if not for a late-season injury.

“Our kids didn't flinch. They were hungry. They wanted to prove themselves,” said Pavlik, in his first year as Neumann’s head coach after a stint at Syracuse. “We have some really good football players that could have been three-year starters other places that didn't start until this year. 

“They wanted to prove it. Bad teams are led by no one. Good teams are led by coaches, and great teams are led by players. And we're a player-led team.”

Now the players and the coaches and the parents and the siblings and everyone else in town has plans on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.

Wahoo will face Sidney at 10:15 a.m. Nov. 25 for the C-1 title. Four and a half hours later, Bishop Neumann will take on Grand Island Central Catholic for the C-2 championship.

Last one out of town locks the doors.

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