Offense dominates again in Level 2 rout of Panthers

GILMAN 53, PRAIRIE FARM 8

Not one of Gilman’s first nine opponents this football season had stopped the Pirates’ explosive offense and Prairie Farm became the 10th team to get run over in Friday’s quarterfinal game of the WIAA’s eight-player tournament.

The Pirates scored touchdowns on their first seven possessions before a meaningless turnover by the JV offense finally stopped them in the last two minutes of a 53-8 blowout win. The score wasn’t a true indication of how good Prairie Farm is, especially offensively.

The Pirates’ offensive execution just continued to overwhelm its opposing defense.

“There’s a lot of confidence,” senior quarterback Julian Krizan said after leading the offense with 10 carries for 176 yards and five completed passes in six attempts for 155 yards. “I can remember one drive when the starting varsity was in. It was on this field. Phillips stopped us and I don’t remember a time since where we’ve had to punt. It’s just unbelievable. We have guys who can make plays. That’s what makes us so strong.”

“We can pound it on the ground and we can toss it through the air,” junior end Branden Ustianowski said. “We have that double threat.”

Ustianowski caught just three passes, but they totaled 130 yards and two of them went for touchdowns on the exact same play. One went for 67 yards and the other went for 45 for two of Gilman’s first three scores.

“That’s just part of our athleticism, our ability to use different weapons,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “We have three guys who can run it and two guys who can catch it pretty good, which makes us a little more difficult to defend. They’re all just good football players.”

While the Pirates are carrying a ton of offensive momentum, they also know they’ll be facing their toughest defensive opponent so far in this Friday’s state semifinal when they see undefeated Newman Catholic at Stanley-Boyd in a 7 p.m. kickoff.

“They’re very aggressive,” Rosemeyer said.

It took all of three minutes this past Friday for Prairie Farm to know its defense was in trouble. The Pirates returned the opening kickoff to their 46 and needed just seven plays to complete a 54-yard scoring drive and take 2:51 off the clock. Krizan had his first big run on the second snap, going for 27 yards. He scored the touchdown on a 6-yard run, starting right and then cutting back across the middle to put the Pirates up 6-0.

The Pirates forced the Panthers to punt after one first down and on their first play, Krizan had his choice of tight ends, Ustianowski or Keepers, to throw to almost immediately. He chose Ustianowski who caught the 20-yard toss in stride and outran two defenders to the goal line for his 67-yard touchdown. He also caught the two-point conversion for a 14-0 lead with 5:26 left in the quarter.

The Panthers countered with a lengthy 17-play drive that covered 83 yards but, unfortunately for them, ended on downs at Gilman’s four. The drive included two passes from Tyler Rassbach to Elec Klefstad to pick up first downs and a 31yard scramble by Rassbach to the 25-yard line. But Rassbach was dragged down by Keepers and came up 2 yards short of a first down on fourth and eight.

“They’re really physical,” Krizan said “It was a hard game. The first quarter said a lot. They hit hard.”

Krizan quickly got Gilman out of the shadows of its own goal post by zig-zagging across the field for a 34-yard gain. Four plays after that, the Pirates came back with the pass play to the tight ends and Ustianowski caught the 45-yard strike in stride and avoided a last-gasp tackle attempt inside the five.

“We knew that play was going to be open,” Krizan said. “They only had one safety coming over the top and their inside linebackers’ responsibility was the flat, so we knew that was open. (Rosemeyer) told us we were going to score six on that play and we made it happen.”

“Their cornerbacks were up tight which allowed the play-action pass and the deep balls to work,” Rosemeyer said. “They had just the one safety back there. On the dive pass, they both just needed to belly away from the safety and not allow him to get involved in the play basically. They both ran good routes and got away from him. The play action sucked up the linebackers and that opened things up and kept the cornerbacks tight too.”

Keepers got himself open on the right side for an 18-yard touchdown catch to open up a 30-0 lead with 5:53 still to play in the first half. Prairie Farm got a 30yard kickoff return from Rassbach that put the Panthers at the 47-yard line and, this time, they took advantage of the field position, going 53 yards in just three plays. On third and three, Rassbach beat early pass pressure and burst up the middle for a 46-yard touchdown run. Quade Larson added the two-point conversion to cut Gilman’s lead to 30-8.

“We had the opportunity to get some sacks that we lost,” Rosemeyer said. “We were jumping for some fakes and we let the quarterback out, especially on his touchdown run. We lost leverage a little bit.”

After a 93-yard kickoff return by Keepers was nullified by a penalty, the Pirates needed just six plays to drive those 93 yards and score again. Krizan weaved his way for 20 yards on the third play of the drive, then he went for 53 yards to score the touchdown, widening the lead to 38-8. Ustianowski, Bryce Chovan and Braeden Person threw key blocks down- field on the run.

“Don’t stop your legs,” Krizan said of the hard running style he and running backs Grady Kroeplin and Troy Duellman use. “Keep pounding. Try making moves, be ready for a hit, trust your blockers and give a hit when one needs to be delivered. I can’t give the offensive line enough of a shoutout. They’re good.”

“It doesn’t really bother me, but it’s just confusing when he’s juking around and we’re trying to find someone to block without getting in his way,” center Zack Marion said of Krizan’s occasional backand- forth runs. “They are hard runners,” Rosemeyer said. “They have to keep their ball security up. That sometimes scares me because they’re spinning off tacklers, going backwards a little bit. Julian will get that blindside hit so we just have to be careful with that. Keep working hard, but make sure we’re still safe with the ball.”

Gilman got a fourth-down stop in Prairie Farm territory to start the second half and took advantage with a short 38- yard drive that ended with a 15-yard scoring run for Duellman that put the running clock into effect. Kroeplin spun out of a tackle and broke loose for a 57yard scoring run with 10:30 remaining for Gilman’s seventh consecutive touchdown.

“We’re pretty confident,” Marion said of the offense’s success. “We have a good running team and a good line that can block really well. It is really fun.”

Gilman finished with 492 total yards, including 337 on the ground. Kroeplin had 113 yards on just nine carries and Duellman added 35 yards on seven attempts.

Rassbach did his best to keep Prairie Farm in it, rushing for 127 yards on 18 attempts, which includes a handful of sacks. He completed 10 of 25 passes for 84 yards despite losing one of his top targets, Tucker Clemetson, to injury on Gilman’s first drive of the game. Prairie Farm gained 283 total yards.

“They have some talent, I’ll tell you that,” Ustianowski said. “They lost one of their better receivers on the first drive. That took a lot away from their passing game.”

Gilman’s Branden Ustianowski cuts outside a block by Braeden Person and gains 18 yards, one play before a 53-yard touchdown run by Julian Krizan that put the Pirates ahead 38-8 late in the second quarter of Friday’s playoff win over Prairie Farm.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS