There is a cliche in sports that says the game is not played on paper. Translation? Despite statistics and past records, you can never tell what will happen until you play the game on the field. On Saturday night the unexpected played out when Floodwood, a team that was beaten earlier in the season 41-20 by Cromwell, defeated the Cards 12-8.
"They (Floodwood) played really well," said Jeff Gronner coach of the Cards. "Their game plan was to keep our offense off the field with ball control and they did that."
The Polar Bears played a tough style of defense that was also opportunistic. The result was a scoreless game at halftime, and the Polar Bears started to build confidence.
"I was very surprised that our offense could not get going, even with all the injuries we had," mentioned Gronner. "We had one starting offensive lineman out, two who were less than 100 percent healthy, and Adam Smith playing with a serious knee injury during the game."
The game stayed scoreless until the fourth quarter when the Polar Bears got a 7-yard touchdown pass from Chance Hutchinson to Scott Tamminen to make it 6-0. However, the extra point try by Floodwood sailed wide, leaving the door open for Cards.
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The only problem for Cromwell was the bend-but-don't-break defense of the Polar Bears who stopped the Cards on a fourth down attempt in their own territory. This allowed Floodwood another shot at scoring and that is exactly what happened when Ryan Berndsdorf cashed in on a 1-yard touchdown run, making it 12-0. The Cards still had a glimmer of hope when they were able to stop the conversion attempt after the touchdown, but with time running down it appeared their chances were sliding away.
"The combination of Floodwood playing so well and us being at less than full strength was too tough a combination to overcome," explained Gronner. "Give all the credit to Floodwood, they were the better team on Saturday."
The Cards managed to move down field and score when Cody Hendrickson hit Tyler Burggraff for a 16-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter. After Hendrickson added the two-point conversion run, it gave the Cromwell faithful some hope.
Despite their last ditch effort, the Cards fell short of the win and were eliminated from the Section 5 playoffs just minutes later.
"This is a very bitter loss to take," explained Gronner. "Our goal this year was a third straight section title, and to fall short and not play our best is disappointing."
Even with the loss, the season was a good one for the Cards who finish at 9-1.
"We did have a season to be proud of with a third straight undefeated regular season," Gronner stated. "I just wish our seniors could still be playing."
Floodwood will now move on to play in the Section 5 title game at McGregor on Friday night.
