Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Video: High Schools Today Show
World-Herald staff writers Stu Pospisil and Mike Patterson break down the Nebraska high school football playoff championship matchups in the High Schools Today Show. »

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

High Schools Live: Replay

It's playoff time. Replay today's chat with Stu Pospisil and Mike Patterson. »

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A look at round two
Here's a brief look at each of the second-round games Wednesday and Thursday in the Nebraska high school football playoffs:

Class C-1

No. 2 Norfolk Catholic (9-0) at David City (8-1), 2:30: Seth Behrens, with 1,634 yards rushing, has helped the Scouts to their best season since 1986.

Wahoo (6-3) at Wahoo Neumann (6-3), 7: Neumann won 40-0 in the regular season.

Ashland-Greenwood (7-2) at No. 1 Boys Town (9-0), 7: While Ashland's two-QB system has assured the Jays their best season since going 8-1 in 1983, it has to dent a Cowboys defense that has seven shutouts.

No. 5 Syracuse (9-0) at Bennington (7-2), 7: Dual-threat quarterback Adam Vogt last year led the Rockets to a 40-13 victory in the second round.

No. 4 Chadron (8-0) at St. Paul (6-3), 2: Chadron wasn't sharp in a 21-8 win over 3-6 Boone Central at home and now has a road game against the Wildcats, who eliminated two-time champion Pierce last week.

No. 9 Gothenburg (8-1) at No. 6 Broken Bow (9-0), 6: In the regular season, Bow beat its Southwest Conference rival 14-13.

No. 7 Grand Island Central Catholic (8-1) at No. 8 Crofton (8-1), 5:30: Crofton sputtered last week in a 21-20 home win over 3-6 Cozad.

No. 10 Gordon-Rushville (8-1) vs. No. 3 Hastings St. Cecilia (9-0), 1:30 at Duncan Field: G-R's defense has nice numbers, but it hasn't faced the likes of 1,000-yard rusher Dalton Sealey and the Bluehawks.

Class C-2

No. 7 Creighton (7-2) at No. 9 Elm Creek (8-1), 5: Elm Creek has won eight straight since an opening loss. Landon Pospisil of Creighton and Derek Foster of Elm Creek are 1,000-yard rushers.

No. 4 Hartington Cedar Catholic (8-1) at No. 8 Ravenna (8-1), 4: A matchup of C-2's top two rushers, Chad Koch of Cedar (1,783 yards) and quarterback Josh Crowell of Ravenna (1,630).

No. 10 Sutherland (7-2) at No. 1 Blue Hill (9-0), 6: Defending champion Blue Hill has won 21 in a row, the Sailors seven.

Nebraska City Lourdes (7-2) at No. 2 Ponca (9-0), 5: Jared Curry has rushed for 1,600 yards for the undefeated Indians, enjoying their best season since 1962.

No. 6 Fremont Bergan (7-2) at Elmwood-Murdock (7-2), 7: Bergan beat the Knights 21-12 in September.

No. 5 Oakland-Craig (8-1) at Humboldt-TRS (7-2), 4: Oakland played four ranked teams during the season, HTRS one.

Wilber-Clatonia (7-2) at David City Aquinas (9-0), 7: Wolverines lost at home 26-20 to Aquinas in their first district game.

Thursday

Cambridge (6-3) at Perkins County (7-2), 5 MT: Perkins comes off a win over North Platte St. Patrick's, which beat Cambridge in midseason.

Eight Man-1

No. 5 Shelby (8-1) at No. 6 Johnson-Brock (9-0), 5: The hosts have gone undefeated against a soft schedule, but a 38-6 win over Eight Man-2 Sterling suggests the Eagles can stay with Shelby.

Pawnee City (6-3) at No. 2 Bancroft-Rosalie (9-0), 1:30: Wins over playoff teams the past three weeks have Pawnee City thinking upset in this afternoon game.

Exeter-Milligan (7-2) at Emerson-Hubbard (6-3), 5: Emerson last had a seven-win season in 1988, when it was playing in 11-man.

Osmond (7-2) at No. 3 Howells (8-1), 7: Clint Belina has 1,561 yards rushing this year for Howells, 5,521 for his career.

No. 4 Giltner (8-1) at No. 8 Axtell (7-2), 6:30: Axtell held Giltner passer Nate Most to season lows, yet lost 38-7 three weeks ago.

Garden County (8-1) at No. 9 Overton (8-1), 6: It's the first time Garden County plays a team east of Gothenburg.

Maxwell (7-2) at Amherst (6-3), 5: Since scoring single touchdowns in a pair of losses to open the season, Maxwell is averaging 60 points a game.

No. 1 Palmer (9-0) at Eustis-Farnam (7-2): The only two losses for E-F were to teams still alive in this round.

Eight Man-2

No. 7 Hayes Center (8-1) at Spalding/Spalding Academy (5-4), 3: The hosts were the only 4-4 team to win in the first round in any class.

No. 8 Anselmo-Merna (8-1) at No. 10 Chambers (7-2), 3 at Merna: Schedule strength could be a plus for the host Coyotes.

Sargent (8-1) at Mullen (8-1), 5 MT: Mullen's loss was to the Bulldogs 41-22 in September.

No. 9 Wynot (8-1) at No. 2 Ewing (9-0), 6: Only blemish for Wynot, which was ranked in the preseason, was 42-38 to Lindsay Holy Family – which Ewing put away 54-22 last week.

No. 6 Hampton (8-1) at No. 5 Sterling (8-1), 7: Running backs Alex Dose of Hampton and Jake Wirthele of Sterling are their teams' workhorses.

No. 1 Humphrey St. Francis (9-0) at Allen (6-3), 4:30: There's three common opponents, and the score comparisons are close in two.

No. 3 Bloomfield (9-0) at Elgin Pope John (6-3), 6: Pope John comes off its best defensive showing of the season, a 19-6 win over Lawrence-Nelson.

Thursday

No. 4 Pleasanton (9-0) at Loomis (6-3), 1: Pleasanton rusher Sean Campbell is less than 300 yards from 5,000 for his career. »

Friday, October 30, 2009

Expect a Top 10 reshuffling
After what happened Friday night, with Grand Island and Papillion-La Vista winning on the road and the at-large team, Lincoln Southwest, beating Millard North, expect a reshuffling of the Top 10 come Monday. But the top four will stay the same -- Millard South, Lincoln Southeast, Elkhorn and Millard West.

Grand Island was very impressive against Omaha North. You have to salute a team for getting up from the mat after that 19-0 shutout loss to Fremont, the only win for the Tigers all season. Papio didn't have running back Joey Jones available Friday night, but passer Jeff Weander was, and Weander gave Creighton Prep only its fourth first-round loss in 31 playoff appearances.

In Class B, with those three snow-related postponements in the west, we won't know two quarterfinal pairings until after today. But Skutt's trip to Crete and Blair's visit to Waverly next Friday are interesting matchups. Can Waverly slow down Blair's Ryan Randall? Nobody has to date.

Look for the final ratings before the end of the playoffs in Monday's World-Herald. »

Friday, October 30, 2009

Two Class B games moved to Saturday
Snow has led three Class B playoff games to be postponed from Friday until Saturday. »

Friday, October 30, 2009

Some schedule changes
The Alliance-Aurora game has been postponed and will now be played Saturday at 4 p.m. in Aurora.

Also, the Gering-Lexington game has been moved to Saturday at 2 p.m. and will be played in Lexington.

Filed by World-Herald Sports Staff »

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Video: Highlights, High Schools Today Show
See highlights of Wahoo Neumann's 24-0 victory over Falls City, as well as Boys Town's 41-0 win over Fort Calhoun. Then watch this week's High Schools Today Show as prep writers Stu Pospisil and Mike Patterson break down the Nebraska state football tournament.

* * *

• Video: See highlights of Wahoo Neumann's 24-0 victory over Falls City, as well as Boys Town's 41-0 win over Fort Calhoun:



• Video: Watch this week's High Schools Today Show as prep writers Stu Pospisil and Mike Patterson break down the Nebraska state football playoffs:

»

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Snow postpones games
Several first-round playoff games scheduled for Thursday in western Nebraska were postponed and rescheduled for Friday due to heavy snow.

Valentine's visit to Gordon-Rushville in C-1 will keep its 5 p.m. kickoff time. Boone Central's trip to Chadron in C-1 will have a 4 p.m. MDT kickoff. Crawford's game at Garden County in Eight Man-1 will start at 1 p.m. Spalding/Spalding Academy's game at Hyannis will kick off at 3:30 p.m. MDT. In a time change Thursday, Sutherland moved up kickoff for its home game against Cross County 90 minutes to a 1:30 p.m. start.

More postponements of first-round playoff games include these:

• Class C-2: Perkins County at North Platte St. Patrick, to 7 p.m. CDT Friday

• Eight Man-1: Callaway's game at Maxwell is now at 3 p.m. today.

• Eight Man-2: Lynch at Mullen, to 4 p.m. MDT Friday; Potter-Dix at Pleasanton, to 4 p.m. CDT Friday; Sumner-EM at Hayes Center is now 5 p.m. today

Hastings College's field will be used for Thursday's Hastings St. Cecilia-Battle Creek game, still at 6 p.m. »