GACC defeats Pender for District Title

The Guardian Angels Central Catholic Bluejays defeated Pender 48-26 at home Friday night to end the regular season and win the District Title.

Nolan Plagge was 9-17 passing for 204 yards with two touchdowns. Cole Kreikemeier brought in 5 passes for 146 yards, and scored once.  Andrew Guenther had 3 catches for 58 yards and a score.

Jared Minnick notched 117 yards rushing on 23 carries, and scored twice. Plagge ran the ball 16 times for 67 yards, and posted two touchdowns.

Kreikemeier made 14 tackles while Guenther totaled 13. Connor Klitz added 11 while Plagge and Gage Herbert registered 9 and 8, respectively. Casey Doernemann and Damien Birchem made 7 each.

GACC racked up 407 yards of total offense, including 204 passing.

The defense gave up 299 yards of total offense, 251 coming through the air.

The Bluejays played a great game defensively, not allowing the Pendragons to get their run game going.

GACC (8-0) hosts Clearwater/Orchard (2-6) Thursday night in the first round of the playoffs.

The Cyclones lost 52-28 at home to CWCE this past Thursday night.

I think this game has a chance to be closer than a typical 1 and 16 matchup normally is, but I look for the Bluejays to win.

GACC has to key on QB Blake Hoke, who has 713 yards passing and 9 TD passes on the season so far.

The team's leading rusher is Creston Bertschinger, who has 346 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns.

The Bluejays have done a good job of taking teams' best players away, and forcing other players to beat them.

And so far, no team has beaten GACC.

The Bluejays made someone else besides Bradley Bunner do something against them in the Clarkson/Leigh game, and put a lot of pressure on Pender's Dylan Roth by stopping James Bensen.

GACC has to make someone else besides Hoke beat them on Thursday. That is the recipe for success for the Bluejays, in my opinion.

GACC has to start fast and never look back. The Bluejays can't let Clearwater/Orchard hang around and believe they have a chance to win.

The Cyclones are definitely battle tested though so it will be interesting to see if GACC can put them away early.

The winner gets either Pender or Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family, and I think the Bluejays have to like their chances of beating either one of those teams in the second round.

GACC can't get too ahead of themselves though and must take care of business against Clearwater/Orchard Thursday night.

Plagge has to have the same type of game he had against Pender. If he can do that the Bluejays should be in good shape.