(Tabor) Seth Malcom carried the ball 41-times for 302 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead Fremont-Mills past CAM 30-28 in an 8-player quarterfinal at Tabor on Friday night.
“Our kids kept fighting,” said Fremont-Mills Head Coach Jeremy Christiansen.”It was a fun, full game.”
The Knights head back to the dome next week. “We’re very excited; anytime you can go up there and play indoors, it means you’ve done something right. When playing up there, one mistake is game-ending, so we have to clean some things up.”
The Knights raced out of the gate. The home team scored on their opening drive on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Jake Malcom to Seth Malcom. The two-point conversion gave the Knights an early 8-0 lead at the 10:45 mark in the 1st quarter. Nine minutes later, Taylor Reed scored on a 15-yard TD run to extend the Knights lead to 16-0 following the two-point conversion.
The CAM defense buckled down and held the Knights scoreless in the second quarter. With their backs against the goal line, CAM and held F-M on fourth-down. The Cougars countered with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Arp to Connor McKee with .08 seconds left in the half. Spieker scored the two-point conversion to cut the Knights lead in half at the break.
“We wanted to take a shot, you know what do you have to lose?” said CAM Head Coach Barry Bower. “I also go back to two drives we didn’t capitalize on in the first half. But, we also had the ball on a third and twenty, and we needed to make a play, and they made a play, and that’s the character of our kids. I’m proud of our kids.”
The Cougars carried the momentum into the third quarter and responded with 14-straight points to take a 22-16 lead. Spieker connected with Colby Rich on an 8-yard scoring strike to tie the game 16-16. Fremont-Mills mounted a long drive to the Cougars 10-yard line. But the offense sputtered and turned the ball over on downs against a stubborn CAM defense. Moments later, Spieker broke loose and raced 70-yards to pay dirt to give the visitors a 22-16 lead.
However, Fremont-Mills rallied with 14-straight points on the legs of Seth Malcom, who scored on runs of 5 and 3 yards. But, CAM fought back late in the game and sliced the Knights lead to 30-28 with 46 seconds left to play on Spieker’s two-yard jaunt. However, the pass to tie the game misfired, leaving Fremont-Mills with the lead. The Knights ran the clock out to seal the deal.
Lane Spieker was the workhorse for CAM with 33 carries for 249-yards, two touchdowns, and he threw for another to lead the Cougars on offense.
“The game turned into a wildcat against a wildcat,” said Christiansen. “CAM is a physical team, a fundamentally sound team, and I thought they did everything correctly. I can’t say enough about them.”
Fremont-Mills squares off against Don Bosco-Gilbertville in the semi-finals on Thursday, at 12:30 p.m.
