Turning A Corner

Week three of the high school football season seems to be one that always makes things a bit more clearer. Can an 0-2 team with a tough early schedule get their first win? Does an undefeated team get their first real test? Those are some questions we answer now moving forward a bit.

Some awesome football to get to (and a few other things) as you ready the CrockPot for Deion and Matt in Boulder. We’d like to help you along. Let’s take a trip.

Reminder, follow our Dante Boelhower on YouTube. Our video recaps of each Friday Night Drive game will come during the season. Some highlights of last week’s trip to York.

Bluejay Bounce Back

HAMILTON COUNTY: There is a certain beauty to Ashland-Greenwood football coach Ryan Thompson’s self deprecating humor. He’s a simple man; a football coach.

So, when his Bluejays made some mistakes last week against No. 2 Wahoo, it was just time to go back to work. Except Friday’s opponent was No. 5 Aurora — they’ve won a few football games here.

“Football coaches aren’t smart enough to do anything real earth shattering. We kind of just went to our leadership group at the beginning of the week and told them what we needed to do to get better,” Thompson said, after his Jays got a gritty 42-24 win over the Huskies.

“And, our kids had a great week of practice. We just kind of focused on one thing to work on with each level of each group on both sides. I was really happy with how we played tonight.”

On Friday, the Jays kept it mostly simple. And Drake Zimmerman was just fine with that. The senior running back ran 22 times for 141 yards and five touchdowns in the win. How simple? Two words — counter left. Ok, the first one went right. All of his pay dirt runs (14, 4, 37, 18, 9 yards) came on the same play. GAME THREAD

“Whenever we get to hear counter left in the huddle we get a little excited,” Zimmerman said. “But, I just have to give credit to the big guys up front. We had a tough game last week and we just wanted to get back and work on us, just get a little bit better.”

Mission accomplished.

Behind that line — Ben Harris, Gabe Mayer, Carter Alberico, Landon Sobota and Jaden Wilsey — the Jays got off to a great start and were able to play from ahead against the Huskies.

They scored in three plays to start the game with quarterback Dane Jacobsen connecting with Aiden Krumwiede for 52 yards on their first play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Zimmerman was in the end zone. A-G scored on three-of-six first half possessions, but the Huskies kept it close.

They drove 80 yards in the first quarter on a drive that was capped with Booker Scheierman’s 44-yard pass to Tyson Dvorak and then they ended the first half with an 88-yard drive on 14 plays. Canon Allen threw a halfback pass to Julian Hernandez to make the halftime score 21-12.

Aurora just couldn’t creep any closer.

They were stopped on downs before Zimmerman went 38 yards for a 28-12 lead. Then, the Huskies got to 28-18 and made a stop, but the Jays responded with one of their own deep in A-G territory. Zimmerman responded again.

It was just that kind of night in Hamilton County. A long game. Two teams fighting and trying to keep the other off balance. It was one that looked like it might happen again in November.

Wouldn’t surprise us one bit.

The Rest of Friday

WARRIOR MENTALITY: Fresh off a 2022 Class A state championship, Class A No. 1 Omaha Westside is trying to show the rest of the state they have no plans of slowing down. On Friday at Bellevue West in the Pinnacle Bank Game-of-the-Week, the Warriors sprinted to a 24-6 halftime lead on the No. 7 T-Birds and built that lead to 38-6 in the third quarter. It was a 45-12 final.

Westside quarterback Anthony Rezac was super efficient. He finished 10-14 for 159 yards and 3 scores passing and added 109 yards and 2 more TDs on 10 carries rushing. Jahmez Ross led the Warriors with 133 yards rushing on 14 carries.

A full analysis and breakdown from Mike Sautter and Jacob Padilla here.

FREE FOOTBALL: Down but not out, Class A, No. 7 Gretna came back from down 21-7 early in the third quarter to force overtime at 21 against No. 10 Creighton Prep. Then, the defenses took over.

Each team kicked a field goal in the first overtime and in the second, the Dragons got an interception followed by a field goal that may have came with controversy. Prep had blocked the Gretna attempt, but the officials declared there was an inadvertent whistle which allowed another attempt that proved the game winner. Game thread // Post game with Gretna’s Isaiah Weber

BENNINGTON 17, YORK 6: Class B, No. 1 Bennington — somehow, someway — keeps finding the way to win. On Friday in York, they needed two stops inside the 20 and a big punt return touchdown from Gunnar Lym to stave off York. Now 29 in a row for the Badgers.

WILD ONE IN OAKLAND: Class C-2, No. 5 Oakland-Craig blocked a Malcolm field goal with just over four minutes left and then marched down the field to beat the No. 6 Clippers, 28-20. Quarterback Braylon Anderson connected with JT Brands for a 17-yard touchdown with 1:11 left that secured the win for O-C. The game was tied at 8 headed to the final frame before the teams traded punches in the final 12 minutes — O-C scored shortly after a fumbled kick and Malcolm had a kick return touchdown.

THURSDAY NIGHT: You were watching the Chiefs and the Lions, but we had our eyes on big wins for Lincoln Southeast (over Papio) and Millard West (over Omaha Burke). ALL THE SCORES from Week Three.

THE FUN STUFF: Altitude, schmaltitude. Scottsbluff’s Talon McDonald kicked an NSAA state record 59-yard field goal on Friday night. Few do it better than Grand Island Senior High head man Jeff Tomlin, who got is 200th career win on Thursday when the Islanders topped Norfolk, 21-19. Cross County is scoring points in droves. An Ainsworth shutout. Sure, Arapahoe beat Lawrence-Nelson 70-40 on Friday night, but you really need an EPIC tweet from the Steak Salad Bowl.

Quick Hitters

SO MUCH SOFTBALL: ….that we can barely keep up, but have all the tweets from @nebraskahssb to keep us “sort of” in the loop, but the games are moving fast and furious. We have the Metro Conference final set with Gretna and Papillion-LaVista and well as the EMC Conference Tournament slated for today in Hastings. Earlier this week, Gretna's Alexis Jensen and Carlie Muhlbach committed to Nebraska. 

MORE: ALL THE SCORES // NSAA POWER POINTS // NEBPREPS.COM COACHES POLL 

RUNNING (AND RUMBLING): What do you get when you have the best teams in Nebraska getting to run on a flat, fast cross country course early in the morning on a Friday before the weather turns too warm? Times that will make you blow your mind at the first ever Platte River Rumble at Mahoney State Park near Ashland.

In the boys high school race Millard West’s Jack Witte edged defending Class B champion Riley Boonstra from Norris with both a shade over 15:04. Smoking. In the girls race, defending Class A champ Mia Murray (Lincoln East) topped the Omaha Westside duo of Claire White and Stella Miner by six seconds. LARGE SCHOOL GIRLS / LARGE SCHOOL BOYS / SMALL SCHOOL GIRLS / SMALL SCHOOL BOYS

Normal Nebraska Wednesday

It was another historic volleyball night in Nebraska on Wednesday.

No. 16 Creighton and No. 4 Nebraska played to a Bob Devaney Sports Center record crowd of 8,656 with the Huskers getting a 3-1 win over the Jays. Merritt Beason had 17 kills and Lindsay Krause 12 for the Big Red. Full Nebraska recap

Down the road in Kearney, the Lopers took back their NCAA Division II attendance record in a home sweep of Peru State. The new record of 4,003 topped a crowd of 3,888 at Alaska-Anchorage last season. UNK had previously held the Division II record since 1996.

Parting Shot: New Husker

CARTER MICK: Behind Lincoln East’s resurgence in baseball has been left-handed pitcher Carter Mick. On Thursday, Mick gave his commitment to Nebraska. Mick had 72 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings last year for the state champion Spartans.