St. Mary's advances to semifinals

Remsen St. Mary's players (left to right) Matt Theisen, Andy Steichen, Russell Feller, Trent Loutsch, Mitch Arens and Brad Konopasek celebrate Monday following the Hawks' 40-16 win over defending champion Glidden-Ralston in an 8-man quarterfinal round game at Remsen. (Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) [Click to enlarge]

There will be a new 8-man football state champion crowned on the floor of the UNI Dome November 17.

Third-ranked Remsen St. Mary's assured a fresh titleholder Monday, knocking off defending champion and No. 7-ranked Glidden-Ralston 40-16 in a quarterfinal round playoff game at Remsen.

The Hawks - winners of the 2004 crown - dumped the Wildcats for the second time this season after a 28-14 win in Week 1, keeping their hopes of another state championship alive with a berth into the semifinals to face top-ranked Northeast Hamilton, Blairsburg. Northeast Hamilton slipped by Janesville 37-36 to punch its ticket for Friday's semis.

The Wildcats appeared poised for the upset early, building a 10-0 lead while holding the Hawks' ground game in check. But St. Mary's simply went to the air and outscored the defending champs 40-6 the rest of the way.

"Glidden had a good game plan and forced us in the air," said RSM Coach Mike Green. "It was an adjustment we had to make. We knew going into the game we were going to have to spread it out and that's what we did. We have a lot of weapons and we had to use them all tonight."

With quarterback Jon Klein's run game bottled up, Justin Galles became the Hawks' go-to player on offense. Galles only gained 40 yards on 14 rushes, but caught seven passes for 163 yards and a pair of scores.

"Games like this, you need big performances out of everybody," said Green. "That's what happened. We had some people like Justin step up and step up in a big way."

Klein completed 18 of 28 passes for 259 yards and five touchdowns, adding 53 yards on eight carries. The only setback was an interception early in the third quarter that led to a Glidden touchdown.

"Jon was in the zone tonight," said Green. "It's probably the best game I've seen him have passing. The timing of his passes was there, he was hitting receivers. We even had a couple drops that could have gone for big gains or kept drives alive. We were finding the holes in their defensive secondary."

Before Klein got on track through the air, it was Glidden's ground game and running back Zach Stork churning out the yards on offense. Stork had the only touchdown of the first quarter with a 1-yard run on 4th-and-goal at the 7:43 mark, setting up the score by returning the opening kickoff to the Hawks' 37-yard line. Glidden added a short field goal 30 seconds into the second quarter to lead 10-0.

The Hawks were forced into a punting situation on their ensuing possession, but a Glidden 15-yard penalty for running into the kicker breathed new life into the drive. St. Mary's capitalized on the Wildcat mistake as Galles took a swing pass 21 yards on the next play and Mitchell Frericks later polished off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

RSM's Justin Galles hauls in one of his two touchdown catches of the night. (Sentinel photo by Ty Capron) [Click to enlarge]

The penalty and resulting touchdown not only brought the Hawks' offense to life, but invigorated the defense. St. Mary's stopped Glidden on 4th-and-3 on its next series, then scored on the next play after taking over on downs with a Klein 51-yard pass to Galles. The extra point attempt failed, but St. Mary's had its first lead of the night at 13-10 with 4:13 remaining in the second quarter.

"We were struggling offensively and it not only put us in the lead, it kind of broke things open," said Green of Klein-to-Galles score.

On the ensuing kickoff, Glidden was backed up near its own goal line after being flagged for a block in the back. St. Mary's continued to hold the Wildcats in check offensively and Green spent time-outs to preserve clock, hoping for a chance to score once more before the half.

The plan worked to perfection as Glidden punted the ball away with just under 40 seconds to play and Klein hit Justin Ruden on a 7-yard touchdown pass with 8.8 to spare before the break. The Hawks also added the 2-point conversion as Michael Ruba reached over a Glidden defender for the grab and St. Mary's headed into halftime leading 21-10.

"I was kind of daydreaming and Andy (Steichen) looked at me and made the motion (for a time-out). I said, 'Why not?' Our defense was starting to step it up there and as it worked out, we ended up getting a touchdown out of it," said Green. "We knew what kind of team they were and we knew we had to keep a step or two ahead of them. It was a way to carry momentum into halftime and we felt a little bit more confident in ourselves."

Glidden nearly stole the momentum right back, however, as Stork was stopped just short of the goal line on the ensuing kickoff by a Louis Pick touchdown-saving tackle.

Stork's returns were a black mark for the St. Mary's special teams in the first half with the 55-yarder just before the horn convincing Green to make some changes. The coach added the bigger bodies of Josh Schroeder, Ruba and others to the coverage teams over the final two quarters and Stork's second half included returns of 15, 13 and 4 yards.

"We had to make some personnel adjustments. Stork was showing a lot of patience. He'd wait for the hole to open up and then boom, he'd be right through it," said Green. "We got some more seasoned veterans in there and we stuffed them after that."

The Hawks opened the second half with the ball, but turned it over on a Klein interception. Glidden scored one play later on a Stork 31-yard run and the lead was down to 21-16 with only 27 seconds gone in the third quarter.

Klein made amends with touchdown passes to Galles and Ruden over the remaining 11 1/2 minutes of the third quarter and the Hawks led 34-16 heading into the final frame. Glidden nearly cut into the lead again in the third as Stork broke a long touchdown run, but the play was called back on a hold. Klein hit Brad Konopasek early in the fourth quarter for his fifth touchdown pass of the night, running the score to 40-16.

Green said that the final score shows a blowout, but it was a much better game than 40-16 would indicate.

"If Stork scores right before half, that changes the outlook really quick. If he doesn't get that one in the third quarter called back, once again it's a whole different ballgame," said Green. "The score is not indicative of how close it was. But, as we've done to a lot of teams, we wore them down. And our defense stepped up big."

The Hawks held Glidden to 168 yards of total offense, led by defensive linemen Mitch Arens and Danny Harpenau. Arens had 13 tackles and Harpenau 12. The two also teamed up for one of the Hawks' two sacks on the night, while Josh Schroeder had the other. Matt Theisen added eight tackles and Steichen seven.

St. Marys generated 369 yards of total offense behind the Klein-to-Galles connection. Ruden was also a favorite target with six grabs for 70 yards and a pair of scores, while Konopasek had three catches for 11 yards and Ruba two for 15. Frericks was limited to 14 yards on 10 carries, but had the only rushing touchdown of the game for the Hawks.