GACC holds off Nebraska City Lourdes

The Guardian Angels Central Catholic Bluejays held off Nebraska City Lourdes Friday night, winning 22-16 at home.

Nolan Plagge was 11-23 for 177 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Plagge added 87 yards rushing on 20 carries.

Andrew Guenther brought in 5 passes for 89 yards while Cole Kreikemeier made 4 catches for 78 yards and scored twice.

Connor Klitz made 20 tackles while Guenther and Plagge notched 8 and 7, respectively.

The Bluejays racked up 325 yards of offense, 177 coming through the air.

This was a close call for GACC, but credit the Bluejays for making plays when they needed to and hanging on.

Head Coach Dave Ridder says it was a tough game. "Don't know all their names, but number 5 was a excellent athlete. They had some very good sized linemen. We were quite frankly oversized. We had to grind out some things, and Nolan Plagge did an excellent job of keeping on his feet and finding some open receivers. A lot of credit to them, I think they outplayed us and outcoached us at times. And the kids hung in there and made some key turnovers when they needed to."

Ridder says the defense took over the second half. "We did some adjustments at halftime. And we needed to shutdown the quarterback and their run on a nice trap play that we couldn't quite figure out how to stop. And then the second half we were able to stop them, we kind of shut that down. But then that kid's got a great arm, and we knew we couldn't give him much time."

GACC (4-0) is at Omaha Nation (1-3) Friday night.

The Chiefs lost 56-14 at Clarkson/Leigh last time out.

Based on that score, the Bluejays should be able to blowout Omaha Nation.

GACC doesn't really have that tough of a schedule the rest of the way with their only real challenging game left against Pender.

The Bluejays should be able to win their next three games rather easily perhaps setting up a district title showdown with the Pendragons to end the regular season.

I'm sure GACC would rather play a tougher schedule to prepare themselves for a deeper playoff run, but the state has given the Bluejays an easy slate.

The good thing about that is GACC can still go 8-0 and win another district title.

This team has accomplished quite a bit this season and has a lot to accomplish yet.

With the bye week coming next week, the biggest thing for the Bluejays is to remain healthy and fresh.

This game against Omaha Nation is one where GACC needs to build an insurmountable lead and rest their starters.

The Bluejays need to get as many players in as possible so the younger players can gain experience for the future.

GACC has to have a business like attitude and be focused. The Bluejays can't look past Omaha Nation, or anyone for that matter.

GACC has to roll and leave no doubt Friday night.

It has to be a complete game performance from the Bluejays.