Westminster Christian falls in return to 8-man football
At the end the scoreboard read 36-6, with visiting Flanagan defeating Westminster Christian, but one almost had to wonder if the scoreboard operator was watching the same game as everyone else. Because this sure didn't look like a 30-point blowout.
The Warriors fought hard but came up short in the return of 8-man football to Elgin's west side.
Westminster actually held a slight edge in total yards, 203-201, and in first downs, 13-11. Two kick return touchdowns by Flanagan's Tavare Pfifer and a couple of near misses by Westminster made the difference.
With 41 seconds left in the first half, the Warriors' Mitchell McGrath caught a touchdown pass from Tyler Oman to make the score 8-6. The game turned completely in the next 3 minutes.
The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds and Flanagan opted for a re-kick. Pfifer fielded it and wove through traffic all the way to the end zone. A 2-point conversion made it 16-6 at the break.
Then Pfifer struck again, taking the second-half kickoff 85 yards to the house. After an interception on Westminster's first play of the half, Pfifer hit the touchdown trifecta, running around right end for 23 yards and, for all intents and purposes, the clinching score.
"The boys played their hearts out," said Westminster coach Tim Oman. "There was no holding back on them. They ran the plays well and really, in that first half, with a couple of breaks either way, we're right in it.
"Jake Branscom just had a phenomenal game at defensive end. The quarterback was throwing great, making some good decisions. Mitchell McGrath had some great catches. He had some great tackles for loss and one sack today. He was phenomenal."
In the second quarter, McGrath appeared to have a touchdown catch, but the ball was spotted at the 1-foot line, and Westminster failed to score on that possession. Two plays later, it looked like Jesse Schambach sacked Flanagan quarterback Braden Wallace in the end zone. But, again, the ball was spotted at the half-yard line, and the Falcons were able to punt it away.
Tyler Oman completed 10 of 17 passes for 117 yards with the touchdown and 2 interceptions before leaving with a shoulder injury. But the running game never got untracked, netting just 27 yards on 36 attempts. McGrath caught 7 balls for 128 yards.
The Warriors, who dressed only 14 players, had a couple cramp up and just appeared to run out of gas against the much deeper Falcons.
The Warriors didn't score in the second half, but made a couple of great plays. On third-and-30, backup quarterback Peter DeFalco found McGrath for 37 yards and a first down.