Aurora Christian ends Driscoll's 37-game playoff victory streak
Coming into it's Class 4A quarterfinal matchup against seven-time defending state champions Driscoll, Aurora Christian knew it had to get off to a good start.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, the exact opposite happened as they turned the ball over twice in the first six minutes of the game, including once inside their own 40 yard line on a muffed punt.
The fortunate part for Aurora Christian is that its defense was absolutely stellar. The Eagles didn't allow the Highlanders a first down on their first six possessions. Aurora Christian eventually found its rhythm offensively to end the historic Driscoll playoff win streak at 37 games as the Eagles came away with a 24-17 victory.
The Eagles (12-0) will play at Richmond-Burton next weekend in the 4A semifinals.
"In a game like this you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get and we tried our best, it just wasn't our day," said Driscoll junior Clay Cooper.
"Nobody except for Aurora Christian thought we could come out and play that type of defense against a powerhouse program like Driscoll," said Aurora Christian coach Don Beebe. "You have to give credit to our defense, our defense was absolutely hands down outstanding. We put them in some holes and they kept responding, they never gave up."
The Aurora Christian offense overcame its early mistakes and put together two long touchdown drives late in the first half that were both capped with TD receptions by David Zielke from Jordan Roberts. When the Eagles opened the second half with another long scoring drive that Lewis Gaddis (29 carries, 166 yards) put the finishing touch on with a 2-yard TD run, the AC lead was 24-3.
"We struggled early," said Roberts. "They were blitzing, they were doubling Matt Morse and David Zielke stepped up big tonight, he was awesome. We were just kind of dinking and dunking and running the ball when we had to, Gaddis was great because they were coming, they were hitting hard, and Gaddis was just bouncing off tacklers and kept on running, it was awesome."
But Driscoll (9-3) showed what champions are made of as it answered with a long drive that featured quarterback Steve Schwabe making several clutch throws on third and long to keep the drive alive and a huge play on fourth-and-14 finding Austin Baker deep in AC territory. Schwabe hit Baker for an 8-yard TD a minute later to cut the Eagles' lead to 24-10.
Aurora Christian went into clock management mode and gave the Highlanders the ball back with just under 5 minutes to play. Schwabe engineered another long drive that ended with a 4-yard Baker TD reception at the 2:30 mark to make it 24-17.
The Eagles gave Driscoll life by committing their fourth turnover of the game when Schwabe recovered a fumble at the Aurora Christian 44-yard line with two minutes to play. But then Zielke made his biggest grab of the night as he picked off a pass that clinched the win for the Eagles.
"I saw the receiver cut across the middle and I saw their quarterback getting ready to throw it so I just made a break on the ball," said Zielke.
"When David intercepted that pass I just felt incredible joy," said Roberts. "We knew coming out here that they are an awesome team and even though we're the No. 1 seed, we were the underdog and we just came out with intensity and I thank God for giving us the talent to get it done."
"I told them at the end that this is a moment in time that we'll never forget," said Beebe. "Twenty years from now people will remember this moment in time."