Baz: Playoffs After Dark

ON THE BANKS OF THE SALT CREEK — The big letters on the north fence at Memorial Stadium in Ashland spell it out.

The message is a simple one: THE — DASH.

We’ll get to the meaning of it here in a minute. But Friday night for the Ashland-Greenwood Bluejays was another dash away in the state playoffs.

Cael Smith ran for 194 yards and four touchdowns, Derek Tonjes threw for 131 and two more scores while running for a third, and Ashland-Greenwood grounded the Syracuse Rockets 56-16 in the Class C-1 state semifinals.

As for that message that stood out clear as day on a crisp night?

“The dash is the space in between the numbers (in the score). It’s really your life, right?” Ashland-Greenwood coach Ryan Thompson explained.

“You start, and then when you finish, everything’s important on that dash in between it. The last two weeks, we’ve kind of used it in the back of our mind — that in between, the score, life, that dash is very important and you need to pour your heart into it.”

It’s the kind of message that resonates in Ashland, where the Bluejays have now advanced to at least the quarterfinals in each of their last 11 playoff appearances. 

Now, they’re in the semifinals for the second time in three years. And next week they’ll try to shorten the dash between the Wahoo monolith and the rest of Class C-1.

“There’s a lot of teams out there that would like to be in our spot, and we’re going to do whatever we can next week,” Thompson said. “We know it’s a tough hill to climb. But I’d rather climb that hill than go home tonight.”

Syracuse went home having filled its own dash admirably.

The Rockets, 10-0 coming into the game, were in their first quarterfinal since 2009. That was the second of back-to-back years of deep playoff runs before the program hit some challenging times.

But a strong senior class and a favorable schedule perked up some ears in the community. After getting past the only two opponents on their regular season schedule to finish the year over .500, the Rockets soared to 9-0, then beat Omaha Gross 43-20 last week.

“We did some things this year that are going to be remembered for a long time,” Syracuse coach Gabe Meints said. “The 10-0 thing, it just started with this senior group, I think. And they just paved the way and brought everybody along with them. They bought into what we had going on, and you take care of those little things, and this is where, where it gets you.”

It was the kind of game that, if you pulled into the gravel lot across the street from the north end zone 15 minutes before kickoff, you might get the last space. And you definitely weren’t getting a paper program.

Syracuse generated so much excitement, the Rockets even brought their own pep band.

And the fight song was playing after a drive dreams are made of, with Syracuse playing primordial football with its double wing offense while marching 73 yards in 15 plays, taking 7:11 off the clock, and converting three fourth downs to take an 8-7 lead on Will Janssen’s 10-yard run. Janssen finished with 23 carries for 140 yards and two scores.

But after that 73-yard opening march, Syracuse managed just 77 yards over the next two quarters while turning the ball over three times.

The first giveaway, a fumble near midfield while trailing 13-8, led to an Ashland-Greenwood touchdown four plays later. An interception on the next drive set up Cael Smith’s 55-yard scoring run.

Later, Syracuse’s 15-yard punt from its own 5-yard line led to Smith’s 20-yard touchdown run.

One week after A-G quarterback Derek Tonjes tied a C-1 state record with six touchdown passes, Smith powered the ground game with four scores.

“I think it starts with our players understanding that there's one ball and there's a lot of us, and it's okay where the ball goes on a certain night,” Thompson said. “I think our coaching staff does a great job of scheming things up, and right now we — any team wants to talk about unselfishness, but we are truly there.

“Whatever's best for the team. Let's get another week together.”

One more week to make that dash a little longer.

ALL THE BRACKETS: Class A | Class B | Class C-1 | Class C-2 | Class D-1 | Class D-2 | Six-Man

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