The Oakland-Craig Football Team dominated Doniphan-Trumbull 50-16 at home Friday night in the State Quarterfinals.
The Knights led 14-8 after one, and 44-8 at halftime.
Oakland-Craig won the 3rd quarter 6-0 to go up 50-8 at the end of three.
The Cardinals blanked the Knights 8-0 in the 4th quarter.
Ian Lundquist had 13 carries for 123 yards and two touchdowns while Coulter Thiele ran the ball 8 times for 113 yards, and scored once. Jaron Meyer added 70 yards rushing on 10 carries, including a score. Caden Nelson had 53 yards rushing on 12 attempts, and scored three times.
Mike Brands had 9 tackles while Nelson made 8.
Oakland-Craig had 383 yards of total offense, all on the ground.
Head Coach Joe Anderson says the line and backs played exceptionally well. "Going into the game we knew that we needed to control the line of scrimmage. With Colton (Thomsen) out, our line really stepped up and controlled this game from the start. Grady (Gatewood) did a good job of coming in and running our offense. He got us in the right plays and made good decisions all night long. I also thought our running back committee ran extremely hard all night. The line created big creases for them and the backs did not go down very easily. They had a lot of yards after contact."
The Knights (11-0) host St. Paul (11-0) in the State Semifinals Friday night in action that can be heard on 107.9 the Bull.
The Wildcats defeated Aquinas 25-10 at home in the Quarterfinals last week.
Anderson says St. Paul is a very good team and the real deal. "St. Paul will be a great challenge for us. They are very big up front (average over 250 pounds) and they have some very talented backs behind them. Elijah Larson is one of the best backs in the state (almost 2,000 yards). Defensively they are very aggressive and do not make many mistakes. We will have to be very disciplined on both sides of the football, and play with the same fire that we had last week."
I thought the Knights would possibly be in trouble with Thomsen out against the Cardinals, but it didn't seem to make any difference.
Oakland-Craig may need him against St. Paul, but if they don't the Knights still know they are very capable of winning without him.
Oakland-Craig will definitely have a huge battle on their hands in this one though.
With that said, I'm sure the Knights will be up to the challenge once again.
Oakland-Craig has flat out dominated people this year, and will look to do the same again Friday night.
Anderson says it's big for this game to be at home. "It is great for our seniors to get one more home game. We have played very well at home the last couple years. We also have a great following of fans that comes out and supports our football team. Our kids really feed off their energy."
I really think the Knights have a good shot to win this one and make it to Lincoln, possibly rematching against BRLD.
It's crazy to have two Semifinals in the same Class 7 miles apart.
Anderson says getting to Memorial Stadium would be another goal accomplished by this team. "The guys set some really high expectations coming into the year. So far we have accomplished everything that we have set out to do. One of their goals is to get back to Memorial Stadium. Our seniors were the student managers the last time we played there, so they really have worked hard to try to get back there themselves as players."
The Knights lost to Aquinas in the State Championship Game in 2015 so we'll see if Oakland-Craig can get back there and win a Title this time.
Kickoff from Oakland is set for 6:30 p.m. on the Bull with pregame at 6:00 p.m.
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