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Waverly knocks out Gretna
By Antone Oseka
Breeze Sports Editor
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| Gretna’s A.J. Marchant is tackled by a host of Waverly defenders in the Vikings’ 45-0 win over the Dragons Friday night in Waverly. World-Herald News Service Photo |
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In the two-game, back-to-back-week match up between Gretna and Waverly, the Vikings (9-1) knocked the Dragons (4-6) out of the Class B State Football Playoffs with a 45-0 win Friday night at Waverly.
Waverly, the No. 2 seed, advances to face third-seeded Blair (9-1) this week. Ironically, Blair’s only loss of the season was to Gretna in week one.
“I thought that our kids played hard and prepared well during the week,” Gretna Coach Chad Jepsen said.
Waverly had beaten Gretna 35-7 to end the regular season two weeks ago. Both teams were able to learn from that game and prepare new wrinkles offensively and defensively.
“I think that there are advantages to playing the same team twice,” Jepsen said, “from the stand point of scouting tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, etc.
“The difficulty is that your opponent can do the same thing to you.”
The Viking defense held the Dragon offense in check most of the night. Gretna tried to keep Waverly off balance by spreading the ball out, as no back had more than five carries on the night.
Aaron Ditmar led Gretna in rushing, carrying five times for 29 yards. Ross Labenz had five carries for 10 yards and quarterback Bo Shepard had five carries for five yards.
Gretna didn’t find much success throwing the ball either. Shepard was 4-of-13 for 44 yards with one interception that was returned for a touchdown.
Four different receivers caught a pass from Shepard. Tanner Miller picked up the most yardage; he had one catch for 19 yards. Cole Spurgeon, the Dragons’ leading receiver, had one catch for 12 yards.
Defensively, linebacker Andy Janovich led the Dragons with eight tackles. Ditmar added seven and A.J. Marchant had six. Kevin Anderson and Logan Henning had four tackles each.
Gretna has struggled with injuries through a good part of the season. They lost senior receiver Jake Kruse to a knee injury partway through the year and senior lineman Austin Heesacker was dinged in the first game against Waverly.
“We were kind of banged up going into the game,” Jepsen said. “We also hurt ourselves with penalties and turnovers and Waverly was able to capitalize on those mistakes.”
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| Dragons go 2-1 last week, ready for district play |
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