Cougars put brakes on Bluejays dream season
Missed chances hurt Tabor in 48-13 loss to No. 4 Sioux Falls
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as last year's 72-11 first round loss to the then top-ranked Sioux Falls Cougars, but on Saturday in chilly South Dakota, the end result was still the same.
The fourth-ranked Cougars (11-1) were able to deny sixth-ranked Tabor several golden opportunities to score in the first half on their way to ending the Bluejays' (11-1) dream season, 48-13.
"It was a great year for us and I'm proud of the kids," said Bluejay coach Mike Gardner. "They played hard. I have no regrets this year.
"We had some missed opportunities and you've got to convert on third down. We lost to a good football team, but we had a great run."
Gardner's not blowing smoke, either.
For seven years, the second round of the NAIA playoffs have been uncharted waters for the KCAC until the Bluejays surprised Graceland a week earlier.
"That was big beating a Heart (of America conference) team," Gardner said.
The Bluejays got out of the gate in a hurry a week earlier against the Yellow Jackets, jumping to a 17-0 lead.
On Saturday, the shoe was on the other foot as it was the Cougars that got off to a fast start, racing to a 14-0 lead barely 5:00 into the game.
Tabor's rushing defense surrendered 215 yards with 110 going to Mike Dvoracek and 100 more to Trey Erickson.
The two combined to score three touchdowns with Erickson getting the first of two 2:35 into action on a 23-yarder.
After that, the Bluejay defense kept the Cougars pretty quiet the rest of the first half.
The Bluejays had a chance to cut into the lead, engineering their best drive of the game, 13 plays in 61 yards that used up 5:26, getting to the Cougar 23.
They got nothing out of it as Mike Skvor's 41-yard field goal attempt didn't have the distance.
If you've got a good horse, ride it, and that's what the Bluejays did on their next crack at getting something going.
In his final game, Roger Butler carried the ball 22 times for a game-high 124 yards, picking up 23 on Tabor's final drive of the first quarter to get to the Cougar seven.
All but six of the Bluejays' 130 yards on the ground came from Butler.
"Roger did a great job," Gardner said. "He wanted to prove he could run the ball against a tough run defense and he did. Sioux Falls isn't used to people running the football on them."
But the Bluejays couldn't punch it in, settling for a Skvor-field goal :57 into the second quarter.
Tabor had another shot to whittle the lead down with Alex Wallace picking off Cougar quarterback Joe Wright on the ensuing drive and returning it to the USF 36.
Fourteen yards was all the Bluejays could muster on the drive, though, leaving Skvor to try his luck at a 39-yard field goal.
The kick sailed wide right and another opportunity sadly went down the drain.
"You've got to convert when you're in the red zone and you've to make your field goals," Gardner said. "If we could have, it could have been a 14-9, or even a 14-14 game."
And if the Cougars weren't enough for the Bluejays to deal with, they even had to cope with iffy officiating.
Tabor got whistled for a bogus pass interference call and Ricky Ishida had a shovel pass ruled a fumble instead of an incomplete.
Ishida's final game was perhaps one to forget as he finished 19-of-42 for a season-low 109 yards and two interceptions.
Matt Miller's recovery set up a six-yard touchdown run for Dvoracek with 1:52 left in the first half.
Playing a whale of a defensive game with Jake Schenk, Andy Bartell came up with the blocked PAT and took it the distance.
Despite trailing 20-5, Tabor was still in the Cougars' rear view mirror at the break.
Dusty Hovorka was awarded the Offensive-Player-of-the-Game, finishing with eight catches for a game-high 106 yards and three TDs.
His second one, with the aid of an Ishida-interception, gave the Cougars a 27-5 lead nearly 4:00 into the second half.
Tabor caught another break with Bartell picking off Wright and returning it to the Cougar 42.
Needing a big play to stay close, Butler provided it, scampering 30 yards to cut the lead to 27-11.
Ishida hit Mike Beach for the two-point conversion, giving the Bluejays' some life with 4:13 left in the third quarter.
Sadly, that was all the fireworks Tabor could light the rest of the way with the Cougars putting the game away with 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
The Bluejays never made it past midfield again and the defense ran out of gas.
Tabor has some huge shoes to fill next season with the loss of Butler, Ben Brown, Layne Frick, James Pizano, Andy Curtis, Ishida, Jeff MacKinnon, and Beach, offensively.
The defense will be just as hard hit with the departure of Schenk, Brian Durowaiye, Justin Mathias, Lee Waldron, Joe Fenske, Brent Overmiller, Caleb Mason, and John Ohm.
The Cougars face the three-time defending NAIA champion and top-ranked Carroll Saints Saturday in Helena, Mont., in the semifinals.
