By Tom Reck
Tribune-Star Correspondent
Casey, Ill.
November 15, 2008 11:38 pm
—
Casey made the big plays on offense and defense Saturday to defeat Maroa-Forsyth 18-7 in Illinois Class 2A football playoff action.
The 12-0 Warriors earned the right to meet Auburn, also 12-0, in a Final Four contest next Saturday at Auburn. It will be Casey’s third straight berth in the Final Four.
For the second straight week, coach Keith Sinclair’s team that had beaten it in the playoffs. The Trojans beat the Warriors 35-0 in Final Four action two years ago.
Mitch Snyder, Kaleb Brandenburg and Dalton Brooke played in that game and left the field in a much better mood following Saturday’s victory that ended the Maroa-Forsyth season at 10-2.
“We had it in our minds we were just going to pound it on the ground and see what they could do with it. I feel a lot better than two years ago,” said Brandenburg.
The Warriors again set the tempo early in the contest, starting with decent field position following Aaron Rhoads’ 22-yard kickoff return. On the very first play from the line of scrimmage, Taylor Biggs broke loose for a 67-yard run to put the host team up 6-0 and Clinton Scott’s kick made it 7-0 with about 20 seconds gone on the clock.
The Trojans drove 42 yards on their first possession but failed to convert on fourth down at the Casey 27. The Warriors then went three-and-out and punted for the only time in the contest played in windy, frigid conditions at Sinclair-Vidoni Field.
The teams then traded interceptions but neither scored following the picks.
The Trojans did take advantage of a Casey fumble to score their only touchdown at the start of the second stanza, driving 38 yards for the score. Justin Barnes got the TD on a 2-yard run after he completed a 35-yard pass to Cole Zilz for a first down. Casey came right back to regain the momentum, driving 65 yards for their second and final touchdown.
Snyder’s 26-yard pass to Biggs was the big gainer in the drive and Snyder got the score on a 1-yard keeper play. Scott then added the two-point conversion run, making the most of a muffed kick attempt.
The Trojans then drove deep into Casey territory but were stopped at the 12 on fourth down and they never got closer to scoring in the game.
Casey made it 18-7 and a two-possession game on Scott’s 20-yard field goal with less than five minutes left in the game. Scott had the yardage on an earlier field-goal attempt in the third canto but it was wide right.
Maroa-Forsyth put together another good drive following that miss but it ended at the Casey 15.
Coach Sinclair called Casey’s victory a total team effort.
“The defense made some very big plays and we got some turnovers. Our special teams did a good job and we had a nice field goal to make it a two-score situation,” he said.
“The first score on the first play helped propel us. In these conditions — the wind, rain, wet, we had to enter the game with a different philosophy on offense and we stayed with it most of the rest of the day,” he added.
Maroa-Forsyth 0 7 0 0 — 7
Casey 7 8 0 3 — 18
C — Biggs 68 run (Scott kick), 11:41 1Q
MF — Barnes 2 run (Chilligirls kick), 11:35 2Q
C — Snyder 1 run (Scott run), 7:32 2Q
C — Scott 20 FG, 9:44 4Q
MF C
First downs 10 10
Rushes-yards 40-130 37-210
Passing yards 82 86
Com-Att-Int 9-17-1 10-5-2
Return yards 6 6
Fumbles-lost 2-0 5-1
Penalties-yards 4-25 4-25
Individual leaders
Rushing — Maroa-Forsyth, Barnes 23-30, Chastain 13-86, Sullivan 37, Zilz 1-7; Casey, Brandenburg 10-44, Snyder 6-(-13), Seeley 7-79, Biggs 13-109, Evans 1-1.
Passing — Maroa-Forsyth, Barnes 9-16-1-82, Sill 0-1-0-0. Casey, Snyder 5-10-2-86.
Receiving — Maroa-Forsyth, Scott 3-23, Zilz 6-59. Casey, Biggs 2-73, Rhoads 1-8, Unzicker 1-5.
Next — Casey (12-0) will be at Auburn (12-0) for a Class 2A semifinal game at 1:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday. Maroa-Forsyth finishes 10-2.
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