Next stop...Cedar Falls

CASEY — There were so many twists and turns in an 8-man football quarterfinal contest here Friday night, it would make a good mystery novel.

When the dust had settled after a wild three hours of action, the Murray Mustangs had stunned Adair-Casey on its home field with a 70-54 victory, to reach the semifinals at the UNI-Dome Thursday at 10 a.m. The 11-1 Mustangs will meet Clarksville (12-1) for the right to play in the title game the following week.

The Bombers had trounced the Mustangs five weeks earlier on the same field, 80-40, on their way to an undefeated District 6 record. But Murray didn't let that loss get into its head and turned the tables on Adair-Casey Friday night.

"We knew we were going to have to score a lot of points, because that's a high-powered offense," Murray quarterback Austin Halls said. "They're explosive. We were able to outscore them and get where we wanted to be."

Halls led the Mustangs to their second-highest point total of the season with 436 yards and six touchdowns on 25-for-43 passing. He also passed for five key two-point conversions in the second half. The yards, attempts and completions are 8-man school records, while the six touchdown passes tied the 8-man record set by Cole Page in 2000 and Darin Eckels in 2005.

"District 6 is a very good district and Murray is going to go up to the dome and prove it. They're going to represent us well," Adair-Casey coach Wade Anderson said. "It's a very good team over there. They made plays. Hats off to them and I wish them the best of luck."

Quick start

The Mustangs got on the board right away with a 69-yard touchdown pass to freshman running back Seth Nerness. A strong Bomber pass rush forced Halls to dump off a short pass to Nerness and the Mustang speedster did the rest.

After a Bomber punt, the Mustangs marched 73 yards in five plays for a 12-0 lead. Halls hit Cody Scroggie for a 29-yard touchdown pass to end the drive. Scroggie out-jumped a Bomber defender to come down with the ball and walked into the end zone.

"I think that was big," Murray coach Keith Shields said of taking an early lead. "We talked about coming out and trying to get off to a good start. That was huge for us."

The Bombers responded with the next 20 points of the game for a 20-12 lead midway through the second quarter. Outstanding sophomore running back Clayton Plowman had scoring runs of 19 and 67 yards.

The Mustangs regrouped and pulled to within one at 20-18 on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Halls to Scroggie. But a Bomber touchdown pass moments later gave Adair-Casey a 26-18 advantage.

After a holding call on the ensuing kickoff, the Mustang offense was backed up to their own 6-yard line. Andrew Rider got the team out of that hole on the first play of the drive with a 40-yard run to the Bomber 34. On 4th-and-8 at the 20, Halls found Zeb Hatfield open and the Mustang receiver made a juggling catch for the first down.

Halls tossed a touchdown pass to Scroggie on the next play, but a holding call wiped it out and sent the offense back to the 22 with 20 seconds left in the half. Halls and Scroggie connected again for 21 yards to put the ball inside the one. Halls hit Scroggie in the end zone with five seconds remaining to make it 26-24 Bombers at the half.

Wild half

The second half couldn't have started any crazier. Plowman returned the opening kickoff 76 yards for a score and the two-point conversion gave the Bombers a 34-24 lead.

The ensuing kickoff was fielded by Nerness at the 5-yard line and he sprinted 75 yards to paydirt to match Plowman's effort. A failed two-point conversion kept it a 34-30 game.

"That was huge. We talked about at halftime not to even kick off to 32 (Plowman) anymore. And we come out and do that and he takes it for a touchdown," Shields said. "But it was huge that we came back. We struggled in that first game getting very many good returns at all against them. That was a huge return to match what they had done."

Nerness said that return was a needed shot in the arm for the Mustangs.

"It pumped me up. Everybody just got going after that," he said.

A-C's Anderson also felt the swing in momentum.

"We got the kick return that we were looking for. Unfortunately we just didn't stay in our lanes on the ensuing kickoff and they have some great athletes back there," he said.

Halls intercepted a Bomber pass on the next A-C possession, but the Mustangs were forced to punt. The Bomber returner fumbled the catch and Murray's Eddie Otto was right there to pounce on the ball at the A-C 35.

One third-and-15 at the 40, Halls tossed a short screen pass to Rider, who broke loose from the Bomber defense for a 40-yard touchdown. After five consecutive unsuccessful two-point conversion, Halls found Dalton Daughenbaugh in the end zone to make it a 38-34 Mustang lead.

Later in the quarter Halls and Scroggie hooked up for the fourth time in the game to give Murray a two-score cushion. Scroggie beat the coverage by Plowman, stepped out of a tackle attempt and raced 46 yards for a score. Halls and Daughenbaugh converted the two-point pass again for a 46-34 lead.

Scroggie finished the night with nine catches for 163 yards and four scores. He tied the 8-man school record for receptions (Aaron Brammer in 2000) and touchdowns (Ezra Shields in 2005).

A quick strike by the Bombers made it 46-42 Mustangs at the end of the third quarter. Murray responded with a Halls 1-yard touchdown run early in the fourth and Halls passed to Hatfield for the two-point conversion and 54-42 lead.

Plowman raced 65 yards on the very next play from scrimmage for a touchdown on his way to a 178-yard night on the ground.

Once again, the Mustang offense responded. After a nice kickoff return set the Mustangs up near midfield, Rider galloped 44 yards to end the end zone. Once again, Halls passed to Hatfield for two more points and a 62-48 advantage.

"We knew that we could beat them. We saw how CAM played and saw they ran on them," Rider said. "We could see the outside was open. We just believed in each other and kept pushing."

Shields said the early success passing the ball set up the running game late in the contest.

"I think it helped being able to throw early to open up some of those things in the second half," he said. "Andrew broke off some runs. Our backs hit the holes when it had to be done."

Nerness was in the Bomber backfield most of the second half and recorded a sack after the Rider score to force a Bomber punt.

"They just said go get him," Nerness said.

But a Mustang turnover gave the Bombers life with 6:45 left in the game and A-C responded with a 36-yard touchdown pass to make it 62-54 with 6:02 remaining.

Murray took nearly half the time remaining in the game off the clock on its next possession and Rider finished off the drive with a 27-yard scamper. Halls passed to Hatfield for the third time in a row for yet another big two-point conversion, to make it 70-54.

"We were struggling in the first half to get them," Halls said of the two-point conversions. "Then we found a formation that worked and we executed it. Everyone was catching their passes and we made plays. That's exactly what you need to do in a game like this."

Shields added, "That put pressure on them to not only score, but get two-point conversions as well."

Adair-Casey faced fourth-and-10 at its own 26 and Nerness hit quarterback Gunnar Dinkla on the throw to force an incompletion to turn the ball over on downs. The Mustangs didn't get a score on the next possession, but forced the Bombers to burn their remaining timeouts.

The Mustang defense stopped the Bombers on their next possession to end the quarterfinal contest.

"We had all the confidence in the world. We believed in each other and not to give up," Rider said. "We knew one of these days we were going to stop them on defense and we did."

"Everybody usually does their job. We have faith that each person is going to step up and do their job," Otto said of the defensive effort down the stretch.

Shields said forcing the Bombers to use up more energy on offense than the first time the two teams played paid off at the end of the game.

"We felt like we had a better plan than we did the first time we came up here. We knew they were going to score, we just tried to limit the number of big plays they got. They still some, but we couldn't give up six one-play scoring drives like we did the first time around," he said. "We knew if we forced them to drive the ball down field, even if they scored, it would wear them down on both sides of the ball."

Murray 70, Adair-Casey 54

Points by quarter

Murray 12 12 22 24 — 70

A-C 6 20 16 12 — 54

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

M - Seth Nerness 69 pass from Austin Halls (pass failed), 10:18

M - Cody Scroggie 29 pass from Halls (pass failed), 6:16

AC - Jordan Wheatley 14 run (pass failed), 1:00

Second Quarter

AC - Clayton Plowman 19 run (run failed), 10:26

AC - Plowman 67 run (Cole Palmer run), 6:16

M - Scroggie 7 pass from Halls (pass failed), 4:05

AC - Plowman 17 pass from Gunnar Dinkla (run failed), 2:46

M - Scroggie 1 pass from Halls (pass failed), 0:05

Third Quarter

AC - Plowman 76 kickoff return (Palmer run), 11:49

M - Nerness 75 kickoff return (run failed), 11:39

M - Andrew Rider 40 pass from Halls (Dalton Daughenbaugh from Halls), 8:55

M - Scroggie 46 pass from Halls (Daughenbaugh from Halls), 3:15

AC - Wheatley 18 pass from Dinkla (Palmer run), 1:56

Fourth Quarter

M - Halls 1 run (Zeb Hatfield from Halls), 11:06

AC - Plowman 65 run (run failed), 10:56

M - Rider 44 run (Hatfield from Halls), 10:43

AC - Cameron Stark 36 pass from Dinkla (pass failed), 6:02

M - Rider 27 run (Hatfield from Halls), 3:29

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TEAM STATISTICS

Murray A-C

First downs 16 8

Rushes-yards 46-133 36-264

Passing yards 436 115

Total yards569 379

Punts-avg. 3-20.7 4-27.25

Return yards 151 259

Fumbles-lost 2-1 4-1

Penalties-yards 12-96 10-101

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — M: Andrew Rider 24-138, Seth Nerness 11-39, Corey McCracken 1-2. AC: Clayton Plowman 15-178, Cole Palmer 10-39, Gunnar Dinkla 6-27, Jordan Wheatley 5-20.

PASSING — M: Austin Halls 25-43-0 for 436 yards. AC: Dinkla 6-27-2 for 115 yards.

RECEIVING — M: Cody Scroggie 9-163, Rider 3-100, Nerness 3-81, Zeb Hatfield 7-72, Dalton Daughenbaugh 3-20. AC: Cameron Stark 1-36, Palmer 1-25, Wheatley 2-24, Plowman 1-17, Sawyer Ocheltree 1-13.

PUNTS-AVG. — M: Scroggie 3-21.3. AC: Ocheltree 4-27.3.

TACKLE LEADERS (solo-assists) — M: Eddie Otto 3-6, Nerness 4-3, Scroggie 2-5, Rider 3-2, Halls 3-2, George Barber 3-2, Joe Webb 3-1, Hatfield 2-2.

INTERCEPTIONS — M: Halls 2.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES — M: Otto.

TACKLES FOR LOSS (YARDS) — M: Webb 2, Rider, Nerness.

SACKS — M: Nerness.