Cedar defense stifles Fremont Bergan attack

HARTINGTON - Cedar Catholic used a stubborn defense and plenty of offense to take care of Archbishop Bergan here at Russ Hochstein Field at the Hartington Community Athletic Complex in the afternoon on Sept. 13, 34-6, in the Trojans’ homecoming contest.

Breiton Whitmire showed the Knights it was going to be a long day as the Cedar Catholic junior raced 80 yards on the first play from scrimmage for a touchdown, and just 12 seconds into the game, the Trojans led 7-0 after Bodie Hochstein booted the extra point.

“First off I need to thank the linemen,” Whitmire said. “ We had some new formations that might have thrown them off and they took some bad angles. When the line blocks like they did, all I have to do is keep running.”

On Bergan’s ensuing drive, the Knights gained 20 yards into Cedar Catholic territory, but the Trojan defense stiffened and got the ball back after stopping a fourth down play.

“It was a little unusual playing at 3:00 in the afternoon, but I thought our team responded well to the time adjustment, Cedar Catholic head coach Chad Cattau said. “I felt we got off to a good start obviously by scoring on the first play from scrimmage and then we came out and played good defense.”

Whitmire would take off on another long run later in the first frame, but his 65-yard dash to pay dirt was negated by a penalty.

“That penalty kind of prevented us from opening the game up early,” Cattau said. “We need to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves with penalties but we only had four during the game so that’s not too bad.”

Despite the early setback, Cedar Catholic would get things going later in the half and the defense was solid all night long.

“I would really rather play defense,” two-way starter Jacob Steffen said. “I like to block but I really like tackling people, I just don’t like to lose.”

Steffen proved it with a couple of sacks and a couple of tackles for a loss on the afternoon.

Whitmire found the end zone again late in the second quarter, this time from five yards away and another Hochstein kick made it 14-0 with 3:02 left before the intermission.

Whitmire got the ball back down to the Bergan 7-yard line with runs of 32 and 23 yards then Braeden Reifenrath took it from there and with 59 second left in the first half, the Trojans were in control 21-0.

“We wanted to establish a physical style of play early on and control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and I felt our kids did a good job of that,” Cattau said. “We were able to get a great push on offense which really allowed our backs to get going downhill when they hit holes.”

And again, the defense was solid all day.

“Defensively we continue to do things well, we tackled and communicated really well the entire game,” the coach said. “They came into the game averaging over 300 yards through the air and we were able to shut a lot of that down.” Reifenrath found the end zone for the second time on a 20-yard scamper in the third stanza which made it 28-0 after a Hochstein kick then after a score by the knights, Hunter Bensen took off on a long run to close out the scoring in the game.

A scary moment happened during the game when Archbishop Bergan sophomore, Cale Sheets was injured and laid motionless on the ground.

The response by the Hartington Rescue squad was immediate and spot on and the coach wanted to address the situation in a public forum.

“I want to pass along how thankful the family of the injured player was for the support and the prayers that were said while Cale was injured.

They were truly grateful for what everyone did for him.”

Cedar Catholic will move on to week four where it will take on Tekamah-Herman on the road Sept. 20. The Tigers are winless this season and were shutout by Oakland-Craig last week.

They have also been beaten by Ponca and West Point-Beemer.

AB (2-1) 0 0 0 6 - 6 CC (2-1) 7 14 7 6 - 34 FIRST QUARTER CC: Breiton Whitmire 80 run, Bodie Hochstein kick, 11:48. 7-0.

SECOND QUARTER CC: Whitmire 5 run, Hoxhstein kick, 3:02. 14-0.

CC: Braeden Reifenrath 1 run, Hochstein kick, :59.

21-0.

THIRD QUARTER CC: Reifenrath 20 run, Hochstein kick, 6:04. 28-0.

FOURTH QUARTER AB: Trent Mlnarik 24 pass from Austin Scheuler, pass failed, 11:49. 28-6.

CC: Hunter Bensen 41 run, kick failed, 5:40. 34-6.

Cedar Catholic Individual Passing: Braeden Reifenrath 7-18 91.

Cedar Catholic Individual Rushing: Braeden Reifenrath 7-48 2TD; Breiton Whitmire 8-140 2TD; Micah Cattau 7-48; Hunter Bensen 3-42 1TD; Easton Hochstein 3-11. Cedar Catholic Individual Receiving: Keyton Arens 1-14; Jaymison Cattau 2-31; Nolan Becker 2-27; Micah Cattau 1-4.

Cedar Catholic Tackles: Jaymison Cattau 4 2TFL; Nolan Becker 1; Booker Hochstein 1; Breiton Whitmire 5 1INT; Micah Cattau 5; Bodie Hochstein 2; Wes Pinkelman 1; Mason Baller 1; Quinn Hochstein 3; Hunter Bensen 1; Brady Hochstein 11 2TFL; Langston Christensen 1; Easton Hochstein 3; Kighter Wortmann 1; Jacob Steffen 4 2SK 2TFL; Will Steffen 2SK; Jared Rutar 3; Gus Lammers 1; Sam Wiebelhaus 2 1SK; Haiden Thoene 5; Silage

FREE