Devin Bass' great escape was pure heartbreak for Omaha Burke.

Even Millard North coach Fred Petito felt it in the wake of his team's stunning 10-7 win Saturday night in the Class A semifinals.

“This is a good win for Millard North,’’ he said. “Right now, I have mixed emotions. That’s a tremendous team we played, and I like Jimmie, I like Paul, I like all his kids.’’

With a 76-yard touchdown run, Bass undid all the work of Burke quarterback Jimmie Forsythe and the defense of Burke coach Paul Limongi through the game’s first 46 minutes.

On the first play after Bass intercepted a Forsythe pass on fourth-and-4 from the Mustangs’ 32, he took a double handoff coming from the left side and got the corner.

Seemingly stopped at the 37, he squirted free and it became a dash to the end zone for the final score with 1:34 left before a Burke Stadium crowd of 3,000.

“When I was running, it was just a blur,’’ Bass said.

“We got a little lucky tonight,’’ Petito said. “We put it in a playmaker’s hands and he did it for us.”

“The guys on the headsets were yelling, ‘We got him, we got him’ and unfortunately that was the time we missed some tackles,’’ Limongi said.

Top-ranked Millard North (10-2), which beat Burke 21-10 during the regular season, has another rematch in store in the Nov. 22 state final at Memorial Stadium.

No. 2 Millard South (11-1) beat No. 5 Lincoln Southeast 34-13 in the other semifinal on a chilly Saturday night.

Millard North edged the defending Class A champion Patriots 21-16 in midseason.

No. 3 Burke (10-2) found Forsythe much more running room than when the Mustangs held him to 16 yards on 18 carries.

He ran for 82 yards in the first half, including a 19-yard tackle-breaker for a touchdown early in the second quarter for a 7-3 lead, and finished with 142 yards on 26 carries.

Burke’s defense Saturday night held Millard North to a field goal by Andy Bayne on a first-quarter drive that picked up 46 of the Mustangs’ 57 yards before halftime.

Until Bass scored, Millard North had only 80 yards in the second half with just three first downs and two interceptions thrown by sophomore quarterback Isaac Aakre. He led Millard North with 93 yards on 20 carries.

Yet, the Mustangs hadn’t allowed Burke to add to its lead.

“We played great defense all night long,’’ Petito said. “Burke picked up their play tremendously. They had a nice defensive scheme set up, they got pads on us pretty good and they got that one drive when they got some things done.

“We thought it would be a low-scoring game. We really did. And that’s OK with us.’’

After Bass scored, Ben Jansen intercepted Forsythe on the Bulldogs’ first play from their 38 and returned it to the 20. Bass hauled in a 22-yard pass on fourth-and-15 to run out the clock.

“We had a great year,’’ Limongi said. “Unfortunately we came up a little bit short.

“I thought we had it.’’

Millard North (11-1)......................3 0 0 7—10
At Omaha Burke (10-2)...............0 7 0 0— 7
MN: FG Andy Bayne 28
B: Jimmie Forsythe 19 run (Ameer Pinto kick)
MN: Devin Bass 76 run (Bayne kick)
A: 3,000 (est.)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: MN, Isaac Aakre 20-93, Devin Bass 1-76, Chris Bailey 9-21, Jacob Bergmeier 2-3, team 1-0, Nick Bellus 1-minus 4. B, Forsythe 26-142, Jeremy Queen 7-22, Jake Schneider 5-21, Chris Kitchen 4-minus 3.
PASSING: MN, Aakre 2-9-2 41. B, Forsythe 5-12-2 41, Dillon Plath 0-1-0.
RECEIVING: MN, Bass 2-41. B, Plath 3-31, Trevaun Hymer 1-8, Queen 1-3.

Contact the writer:

444-1041, stu.pospisil@owh.com
twitter.com/stuOWH

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