By Bruce Karnick

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When the Section 3AAAAA football bracket was released, St. Thomas Academy earned the #1 seed with a record of 8-0. Hastings earned the #2 seed at 6-2, and both earned the first game playoff bye.

On St. Thomas’ side of the bracket, (#5) Apple Valley (1-7) beat (#4) Bloomington Jefferson (1-7) 27-13 in round one and moved on to play STA on Saturday afternoon. The Cadets played Apple Valley on October 15, winning that matchup 49-0. 15 days later the outcome was the same, STA won 490, eliminating the Eagles.

On Hastings’ side of the bracket, (#3) Bloomington Kennedy (4-4) did just enough to beat (#8) Two Rivers (0-8) 24-19. The Kennedy win brought these Eagles to Hastings to take on the Raiders. The playoff bracket was playing out as the majority of area experts expected.

It was a beautiful night for late fall football starting around 50 degrees, dry and not too windy. Hastings started the game with the ball and wasted no time marching down the field on a six play, 66-yard drive capped by a spectacular 9-yard, tight rope touchdown catch by Stephen Reifenberger from Axel Arnold.

“I just want to give credit to the O-Line for getting us all the way down to the endzone. I really didn’t do much you know, I just made the catch and made sure my feet were in, it’s just kind of a natural thing for me,” Reifenberger said after the game.

The offensive line was big again for the Raiders, with a huge push for the running backs and superb blocking on pass plays, Senior lineman Ben Witt explained. “I felt like as a unit we were communicating very well and we’re getting on our guys and moving well, and we moved the ball. We were consistently gaining yardage on all of our plays, and we didn’t punt at all this game and so yeah, a lot of things went right for us.”

Things did go right for Hastings, on both sides of the ball. Kennedy’s first possession ended with a turnover on downs, the second was a punt and the third, a fumble recovery by Jacob Landoll-Bleed.

After the first Raider touchdown, Reifenberger caught the second for Hastings with another leaping catch, this one in the middle of the endzone. The third TD for Hastings was a 10-yard scamper by Brendan Freierbuth.

The Raiders had a 22-0 lead with 8:27 left in the first half. By the time halftime hit, Hastings was up 29-8 off a 3-yard run from Arnold.

Kennedy ran the second half kickoff back to the Raiders 6-yard line and scored on the third try, a 2-yard run.

Hastings answered with two more touchdowns to extend the lead 42-14. The first score, a 21-yard run from Arnold and the second, a 20-yard pass, Arnold to Jon Bezdicek.

Hastings had control from the start, control that never really waivered, but it was not a perfect outing by any means. The Raiders did not punt all game, but they did have two offensive drives that resulted in no points.

The first was on their fifth possession, as the half was coming to a close, Head Coach Dana Strain decided to call a timeout with two seconds left. Hastings had the ball at the Kennedy 18 and kicker Rhys Fillion had been kicking very well all season with plenty of leg to put in a 35-yard field goal. The snap from Clay Karas was a little high but manageable. The high snap forced Fillion to pause, and a Kennedy player made it through without being touched to block the kick. Other than missing the three points on the scoreboard, nothing game wise was hurt.

Shifty back Payton Burow returned to the lineup from injury in an active role, and it is interesting to see how a few weeks off can affect these kids. The normally sure handed Burow had to knock the rust off a bit and seemed a bit nervous. Burow fumbled twice and had issues securing a kickoff. Fortunately, one fumble went out of bounds and the kick return did not negatively affect the ensuing drive. One fumble was recovered by Kennedy.

“I didn’t even realize I missed it until I was out here again, you know, just the huddle the camaraderie, everything,” explained Burow before he talked about is night. “I feel like I definitely dropped off a little bit coming off the injury, you know, fumbled a couple times. So there’s definitely a touch that I lost but was glad we got another week so I can work on a improve.”

We are always our toughest critic, so Burow need not beat himself up too bad, he still had 86 yards on 15 carries and one reception for nine yards and a 36 yard kickoff return.

On the ground, Hastings amassed 317 yards of offense on 42 carries. Freiermuth lead the charge with 147 yards on 14 carries. Then Burow 86/15. Third on that list was Arnold who ran 62 yards on eight carries and Bezdicek who went 22 yards on five carries. Hastings averaged 7.55 yards per carry. On the year, Hastings is averaging 5.46 yards per carry. In the air, Arnold was 11/14, 79% for 149 yards and three TDs. That is 466 yards of total offense.

Defensively, Hastings allowed 73 yards on the ground on 26 carries, a 2.81yard average and 163 yards on 11 passes for 14.82 yards average. Kennedy had a 55% completion percentage.

After the game, Coach Strain kept it simple, “The key to winning next week is being right there at the end of the first quarter.”

By that, he meant, as long as the score is close at the end of the first quarter, the Raiders have a solid chance to win. The previous matchup at STA became lopsided very quickly with the Cadets jumping out to a 28-0 first half lead. STA had the lead 7-0 at the end of the first, but quickly made that 14-0 to start the second. Hastings never recovered.

That loss ignited a fire in the Raiders and Hastings is 5-0 since that game. Not only are the Raiders 5-0 since that game, but they have also averaged 38.8 points per game and outscored their opponents 194-104, allowing only 20.8 points per game.

“I think we just got to know who we are. We can’t psych ourselves out. We’re a good football team. You know, we have the chance to compete. We made it this far for a reason. I think that we just got to go play the best game of the year,” explained Burow.

Reifenberger added, “We know what they have. This week is going to be just laser focus for us. We are winning games week by week, we’ve just got to be super physical. They are a fast and physical football team and they are gonna want to run it down our throats every play, so we just have to match that throughout.”

After the Cretin Derham Hall game, Arnold said it best, “We proved tonight that we can play against a big, physical team when we don’t play scared. We’re done playing scared.”

Witt agreed and gave all due respect to the Cadets. “They were great when we played them. They’re gonna be great again. I feel like they’re probably going to be more disciplined in their assignments and stuff like that, but they’re gonna be just as big and we’re gonna need to play just as hard and just as physical and just as strong. We got to play low. We got to play strong. We can’t be afraid to hit them because they got some big guys up there, we’ve got to play scrappy.”

Hastings will travel to Mendota Heights to take on the Cadets in the Section 3AAAAA championship game on Friday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m. The winner moves on to the state tournament. For Hastings to win, they need to play their game, their way. Both lines need to play aggressively and they need to believe they can win.

According to Strain, “they believe, oh, believe me, they believe.”

Stephen Reifenberger made four catches for 60 yards and two touchdowns. One of his catches was this leaping grab, “I ran a ‘sail’. I saw both guys around me, so I just found the ball, tracked it through the air and jumped like I’ve been doing the last two years,” he explained. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Brendan Freiermuth lead the Raiders rushing attack with 147 yards and this touchdown as he leapt over the Kennedy defender to score.Photo by Bruce Karnick