WARNER – Northwestern won the time of possession, but Warner won the battle on the scoreboard Thursday night.
The Monarchs scored on two of their first three plays from scrimmage to set the tone for the evening on the way to a 52-16 win during the opening round of the Class 9B football playoffs.
Warner ended up scoring on four of its first eight plays, all touchdown runs by Beckham Cantalope, who made one impressive cut after another to get out in space.
“All the reads that I took tonight were just right. It really was just a coincidence,” Cantalope said. “That second touchdown, I probably shouldn’t have done that, cut it all the way back. It was there. There was another touchdown … I cut it back and it was there, too.”
Cantalope scored on runs of 11, 58, 29 and 14 yards in the first half. The sophomore credited his linemen for sticking with their blocks, which allowed him to locate open running lanes.
“That’s really just a result of our blockers just going to the whistle,” Cantalope said. “If the play is going to the left and the blockers on the right, (are) like oh well if the play is going to the left, I don’t need to block. No, no, they’re still blocking to the whistle because they know that I can come back any second, and that was the result of that tonight.”
Cantalope appeared to be surrounding by defenders a couple of times, before squirting out and running down the sideline.
“He’s kind of able to ride that wave a little bit and hit that cut back lane,” said Warner coach Derek Hoellein, “and he did a nice job with that tonight.”
However, the Warner offense did not spend much time on the field in the first half. Between a pair of Cantalope touchdowns, the Wildcats pieced together an 18-play 10-minute drive, marching down the field, culminating in a 10-yard pass from Jarren Haven to Brecken Halvorson.
That drive featured nearly exclusively Talon Miller running between the tackles.
“We just had a very good point of contact, just pushing on the line. … I give all credit to my linemen,” Miller said. “It was just all them.”
That time-consuming drive was a sign of the progress the Wildcats made throughout the season, according to Northwestern coach Clayton Randall.
“That was the first time this year that we had the ability to bounce back, punch back, strike back against a good team,” Randall said. “For us to do that, to make that drive, a big growth for our program.”
Randall, who guided a pair of teams to state runner-up finishes behind a strong rushing attack, preaches that aggressive style of football.
“That’s who we want to be. Any team that I’ve ever coached, that’s where we try to hang our hat,” Randall said. “And teams that I’ve been associated with that make playoff runs, they do that, and I think that’s what this team wants to become.”
The ability to grind out yards on the ground allowed that Wildcats to be within 14-8 four minutes into the second quarter.
“They were trying to slow the game down a little bit and their best defense was keeping our offense on the sideline,” Hoellein said. “They did a nice job with that. Give them credit. Clayton does a really nice job with those guys. That’s a step in the right direction for them.”
And while the end result was nearly identical to a previous loss to the Warner to open the season, the Wildcats showed a much different resolve this time around.
“We were ready to punch,” Miller said. “The whole motto was keep our boxing gloves up and be ready for them to punch, and then punch back.”
In the end, it was simply too much Cantalope, who rushed for nearly 200 yards in the contest.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete and the other eight guys around him give him an opportunity to do that,” Randall said. “Everybody understands their assignment. They do a good job and when he gets the open space, he’s got the speed to outrun anybody that plays nine-man football, probably.”
Warner also received a touchdown pass when Braydon Kroll spotted Alec Mikkelsen for a 23-yard scoring strike on a play where it appeared the ball might have a chance of being intercepted.
“I kind of let it go I was a little worried about that, too, but it worked out for us,” Kroll said. “Mikkelsen made a nice catch for me, so that’s always great.”
The contest ended a memorable season for Northwestern, which went three years without winning a game before making it to the playoffs this year.
“This season was definitely the players,” Miller said of the difference. “The years before we just had sophomores, freshmen playing. Now we have juniors and seniors playing, and we can actually compete.”
The junior believes this year’s finish will help to pave the road to future success for the Wildcats.
“This is the turning point, I think,” Miller said. “We have a lot of good younger classmen coming up, and hopefully they can do better than what we did.”
Warner, which improved to 9-0 on the season, will host Colman-Egan in the quarterfinals next Thursday.
When asked about the keys to winning that game, Kroll responded, “The same as it usually is: not turn the ball over, maybe get a couple turnovers, and then control the line of scimmrage; it usually works out for us.”
Northwestern (3-6) 0 8 0 8 – 16
Warner (9-0) 14 24 8 6 – 52
W – Beckham Cantalope 11 run (Alec Mikkelsen kick).
W – Cantalope 58 run (Mikkelsen kick).
NW – Brecken Halvorson 8 pass from Jarren Haven (Will Clemens pass from Haven).
W – Cantalope 29 run.
W – Mikkelsen 23 pass from Braydon Kroll (Gage Knuppe pass from Kroll).
W – Cantalope 14 run (Mikkelsen kick).
W – Mikkelsen 29 field goal.
W – Jackson Bossly 5 run (Cantalope run).
W – Cash Hanson 6 run.
NW – Clemens 1 pass from Haven (Haven run).
OFFENSE: Northwestern rushing (Talon Miller 27-172), passing 3-9-1 for 14 (Haven 3-9-1 for 14), receiving (Halvorson 1-10, Clemens 2-6), first downs 11; Warner rushing (Cantalope 10-192, Hanson 4-32), passing 6-7-0 for 81 (Kroll 6-7-0 for 81), receiving (Cantalope 1-33, Mikkelsen 1-23, Brennan Wolf-Donat 2-17), first downs 17.
DEFENSE: Northwestern, Austin Vetter 5 tackles, Deklyn O’Daniel 5 tackles; Warner, Cantalope 8 tackles 1 interception, Lincoln Kroll 6 tackles, Knuppe 6 tackles.
