Feeling Fall

The weather had us thinking it was the the first weekend in October, not September. Some of the scores are starting to show us who might be playoff contenders and also who might still have some work — or improvement — that is needed during the final seven weeks of the year.

Either way, we bring you a Friday Night Blitz if you will. A trip around the state to bring you all of the winners and losers from the second week of football. And a little bit more, too.

🏈🏈 The Old Switcheroo

AMONG THE MOSQUITOS, POLK COUNTY — Shelby-Rising City lost twice last fall. Both times, to state champion Sandy Creek. The Huskies spent most of the summer knowing they had work to do to close the gap on the champion Cougars.

And then 24 minutes went by on Friday night and it was the same old story. Different season; different chapter.  

But then, “We made some adjustments in the second half, but our kids really made some plays,” SRC coach Zach Kubik said. “When you are in a 12-point game at half with the defending champions you don’t feel like you are out of it and we just wanted to hang with them and have a shot (at the end).

“The kids played great.”

You can say that again. The Huskies — in flipping a 24-12 halftime deficit into a 32-24 win — put themselves squarely in state title contender position. GAME THREAD

So, just how did they do it? With grit and guts. A tenacious defense and a running game that came to life. And, by getting burned and taking a pass interference penalty early in the second half. You read that right, it may have saved the Huskies night.

Midway through the third quarter, Sandy Creek quarterback Kam Sealey lofted a perfect pass to Logan Tomky, but Carter Eickmeier was beat and called for pass interference in tackling Tomky to the ground. The score would have made it 30-12 at best.

“You think about stuff like that,” Kubik said. “After yelling at him a little bit, I guess it turned out the right way for us. Our kids just played their tails off.”

After that play Sandy Creek turned the ball over three times and mustered just 22 yards the rest of the way. The Huskies rattled off three straight touchdown drives and 169 yards. The Old Switcheroo.

Graceful in defeat, SC coach Andrew Kuta knew the better team won. “Their defense deserves a lot of credit for this win tonight,” he said. “They flew around and made it really, really difficult for us.”

The comeback went as follows:

• An Eickmeier 8-yard run that ended a bruising 10-play, 65-yard march. Failed conversion. 24-18, Sandy Creek. 2:36 left, third quarter.

• A 25-yard pass from Logan Lindsley to Blake Schmidt on 4th and 10. A conversion pass from Lindsley to Jett Vrbka. Lindsley’s interception started the drive. 26-24, SRC. 9:05 left.

• A 50-yard Eickmeier run on 3rd and 7 with 1:32 left in the game and the Huskies trying to run the clock out. Failed conversion. 32-24, final.

Lindsley had 89 yards rushing, 54 passing and the all-important two interceptions for SRC which did not turn it over. Eickmeier added 86 yards on 14 attempts. And, we are sure it wasn’t pretty, but it was winning football. The kind you play in November.

Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to do it again.

Our Friday Night Drive game of the week is fueled in 2025 by Good Life Golf. Harvest Sports readers can take 15% off of their order by using the code HARVEST15 at checkout and if you order two or more hats, the shipping is free.

12 years. Seven states. Over 15,000 miles, 16,000 shirts, 1,000 teams and 125 camps. EPIC Football Camps are ready to make your team better in the summer. In the 12 years since they founded, Nebraskan’s Scott Trimble and Jeremy Epp’s camps have produced 18 state champions and 28 more finalists.

🏈🚗 An Epic Trip

Each week will take a trip around the state and highlight some big games that you may or may not have seen. It’s an “Epic Trip” powered by EPIC Team Camps.

First, All The Scores.

CLASS A: Westside and Millard South roll. Collision course? Brycen Lackey. Ball game for Fremont over Omaha Westview. Three rushing touchdowns for Fresno State commit Jadyn Sutko as Elkhorn South comes back to top Bellevue West 24-17.

CLASS B: I think it’s fair to say we see Norris now. Another monster win, this time over Gretna, 52-35.

CLASS C-1: Wahoo scored in about every way possible and ditched Ashland-Greenwood, 35-0. Can anyone play with Warriors? 

CLASS C-2: Breiton Whitmire had a night for Cedar Catholic, now 2-0. Sheesh. And, somehow, someway, Norfolk Catholic comes back to defeat Boone Central, 32-26.

EIGHT-MAN: Who plays with the two up top in Class D-1? Maybe DCS, who got two touchdowns from Ethan Latta in their 42-16 win over No. 7 Bridgeport. Perennial playoff power Johnson-Brock, who lost to Sandy Creek in the opener, took a 58-34 win over EMF. 

SIX-MAN: Kayde Ramm got injured, but top-ranked Stuart forced some late turnovers to turn way No. 3 SEM 31-6 in a rematch of the 2024 state championship game.

HIGHLIGHTS: 10/11 Sports Overtime

📈 📉 Rank ‘Em

We now have games to make a comparison in the nebpreps Coaches Polls. The week one polls for football and volleyball are linked and the first in-season softball coaches poll is below as well. We’ll start a mid-week newsletter next week that will highlight the changes in each poll.

Football | Volleyball | Softball

🏃🏃‍♀️ Nerding Out

If we told you once, we told you 1,000 times that if you aren’t following Prep Running Nerd for your cross country fix then you are doing it all wrong. The first Nerdsletter was out on Monday and you can find it here. And, since it’s a little early in the season, we’ll give you access to these awesome previews one more time as well.

Results Page | How do you do, Avery Arens?

BOYS: Class A | Class B | Class C | Class D

GIRLS: Class A | Class B | Class C | Class D

🏐🏐 Heating Up at the Net

We are now knee deep into the prep volleyball season and this week featured a load of ranked teams in action. Some highlights.

• Class A, No. 1 Papio South took down crosstown rival Papillion on Tuesday.

• The Eastern Midlands Conference will again be the barometer in Class B. On Tuesday, No. 2 Elkhorn North got a big win over No. 5 Gretna.

• And, in a battle of unbeatens on Thursday, No. 1 Norris took down Bennington.

• Out west, DCS has made an appearance in the Class D-2 rankings. On Thursday, they won a pair.

Odds and Ends

• Our friend Austin Jacobsen brought our the nebpreps Big Game Chain for an Omaha Skutt slugfest win over Omaha Marian on Thursday night. BIG GAME CHAIN

• The top senior girls hoops player in the state — Millard West’s Kylee Paben — will go to Minnesota next year.

• Many of you, hopefully, saw our “Season of Hope” story on Lincoln Christian football coach Kurt Earl and his wife Da’Nelle as they battled her brain cancer. This week the story was shared by both the Flatwater Free Press and Nebraska Public Media. We remain honored for being able to share this with you. And, the Crusaders got their first win last night, 41-0 over Wilber-Clatonia.

We are able to bring you The Saturday Morning Newlsetter through a partnership with our friends at Striv AV and Striv Education. If your school is looking to upgrade their GameDay experience or get students ready for an introduction into digital media, the Striv team is ready to help.