Mistakes cost St. Edward in loss to Mendota
MENDOTA -At first glance, several big plays by Mendota beat St. Edward in Saturday's Class 4A playoff matchup. But Green Wave coach Mike Rolando was more concerned about the little things: penalties, missed assignments and blown coverages that contributed to Mendota's 27-13 win at Doenier Field in Mendota.
"We get a 3-and-out to start the game and then we don't cover a guy," he said. "We get another 3-and-out and we rough the kicker. There were just too many bad breaks and bad situations," Rolando said. "A missed extra point hurts, just about anything that can go wrong - a blown coverage - went wrong for us. We were really fortunate just to be in that game in the second half."
Despite the mistakes, the Green Wave trailed only 14-13 at halftime. The Wave defense generally held the Trojans in check, with several notable exceptions.
A fake punt on the Trojans' first possession led to their first touchdown. They later scored on a 77-yard pass and a pair of long runs. Kurtis Knapp finished with 120 yards and 3 scores for No. 5 seed Mendota (8-2), who will play at No. 13 Morris in the second round.
"I thought the defense did a great job to keep us in a 1-point game in the first half with all the situations we put them in," said Rolando. "We really couldn't have played any worse and we were still in a 1-point game."
St. Edward quarterback Ben Lehman completed 15 of 27 for 185 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown to David Hoebbel to put the Wave ahead in the second quarter, and a 3-yarder to Sam Pozezinski following a masterful hurryup drill. Zack Von Ahnen had 10 catches for 117 yards.
But Lehman threw for just 52 yards in the second half as the Trojans were able to consistently put pressure on him. With the Wave missing 2 starting linemen, center Zach Trisilla and left guard Derek Porto, the Trojans sacked Lehman 4 times and forced him into some hurried throws.
The Trojans shut down the Wave running game, holding St. Edward to 25 yards on 25 carries.
"It's always tough after going through a season where we had a completely balanced offense, and then we come in and they were really ready for the run and had great coverage on the passing, so it's tough to get it done," said Lehman.
Still, it was tough for the 12th-seeded Green Wave to be too disappointed after just the third playoff appearance in school history. Although the Wave failed to win its first-ever playoff game, it finished 6-4 just 3 years after an 0-9 season.
"It's tough now, but we had a great season," said Lehman.
After the fake punt resulted in a 33-yard pass from Knapp to Travis Martinson, Knapp finished off the drive with a 1-yard run for a 6-0 Mendota lead.
The Wave answered with Lehman's strike to Hoebbel, one play after Von Ahnen recovered a fumble.
The Trojans came right back, with Jordan Fritz hitting Martinson for a 77-yard touchdown with 2:03 to go before halftime.
The Wave might have been content to run out the clock, but instead Lehman led 67-yard drive, finally hitting Pozezinski in the end zone with 3 seconds left in the half.
However, the Wave couldn't generate much offensively in the second half. Mendota finally broke the game open with 20 and 60-yard runs by Knapp in the fourth quarter. The last, off a counter play, came with 3:12 left and sealed St. Edward's fate.