PILLAGED AND PLUNDERED: Pesky Pirates, plenty of penalties eliminated Macks from playoffs

Email this story Print this story Archives

1 comment(s)

By DAVID BOSSICK
david.bossick@lee.net
Sunday, November 2, 2008 12:13 AM CDT

Andy Davis reared back his arm and let the football rip.

On the other end of the rainbow pass was Landon Bresina, and he had a first down.

But one of the troubling things that hurt McDonell all night against Gilman was a penalty flag for holding.

The Macks were marched back and the final hanky put a final touch on McDonell’s 2008 season with a 22-14 loss to the Pirates in the WIAA Division 7 playoffs at Dorais Field Saturday.

Penalties would be the overall theme for McDonell throughout the game. A holding penalty wiped out a Macks 11-yard touchdown run before halftime that would have put the Macks down 14-7 at intermission.

Penalties forced a handful of drives to stall out, including a promising drive to open the game.

Gilman, however, scored on its first possession when Shawn Hoehn tossed a 15-yard pass to Landon Trawicki, the first of two scores through the air between the duo. Hoehn also threw a 36-yard pass to Cody Rosemeyer.

The Pirates were able to use a balanced attack to keep the Macks off-balance during the game.

McDonell’s running game proved to be its strength again Saturday night with Alex Hiess getting the lions’ share of the carries. On the other hand, the passing game had its problems with Gilman’s defense.

The second half began a turnaround for McDonell. Down 14-0 and taking the ball over after forcing Gilman to a three-and-out to start the half, the Macks got an unlikely source to cut the deficit.

Alex Hiess got the initial carry and looked to be swallowed up by Gilman’s defense. He wasn’t swallowed whole, though, as the ball was grabbed by Nate Dahl and the offensive lineman broke a tackle and rumbled down the sideline for a 45-yard touchdown run.

Davis ran in the two-point conversion to make the game 14-8.

Gilman scored on the very next series on the second Hoehn-to-Trawicki connection and Hoehn followed it with a pass to Cody Rosemeyer to up the lead to 22-8.

The Macks responded on the next series with Bresina’s 14-yard run with 10:36 left to go in the game. The pass failed, leaving the lead at eight points.

Gilman nearly scored on the next series, but a holding call eventually forced the Pirates to turn the ball over on downs. Each team took turns with four plays each until McDonell’s two-minute drive of desperation.

The Macks converted a key third down on the drive and appeared to have had the second of a potential game-tying score on third-and-eight. But the holding call was in the backfield and forced McDonell into a third-and-22.

The Macks couldn’t overcome that final mistake.

Gilman advances to a WIAA Division 7 state quarterfinal game against Shell Lake. The Lakers were a 53-10 winner against Turtle Lake earlier Saturday. The Gilman-Shell Lake game will be at time, day and place to be determined.