BASCOM — It was a Cinderella season for Seneca East, but the end came in the form of old Midland Athletic League foe Hopewell-Loudon.
The Tigers won three games by five points or fewer — two on the last play of the game — to earn a postseason spot.
And Seneca East trailed only 12-8 at halftime. But the Chieftains’ defense and big plays on offense ended the Tigers’ magic season, 25-14 in the Division VI, Region 22 first round playoff game.
Sixth seeded Hopewell-Loudon (9-2) will travel to third-seeded Columbia Station Columbia — a 42-22 winner over Mapleton — on Friday.
Both coaches pointed to two critical stops by the Hopewell-Loudon (9-2) defense in the red zone as the turning point.
“That was the difference,” Seneca East coach Ed Phillips said. “Their guys up front made a couple of stands. Take your hats off to them. They made the plays, kept us out (of the end zone).”
The momentum was dramatically shifted on one stand in particular. The Tigers mounted an 11-play drive that got them to the Chieftains’ 5 and appeared poised to cut into a 19-8 deficit.
But Seneca East (7-4) could not punch it in and turned it over on downs at the 5.
“The big plays and the two long drives — that’s the story of the game,” Hopewell-Loudon coach Brian Colatruglio said. “When we got the stop and then go 95 yards, we kind of put it away.”
As Colatruglio said, the Chieftains did, indeed, go 95 yards for a score. And it was fueled by two of the big plays he referenced. On third and 12 from the three, quarterback Evan Kreais connected with Braylon Martinez for 16 yards and a first down.
On the next play, Jagger Endicott broke off a 63-yard run to flip the field, setting up the backbreaking score. The drive was capped by a 22-yard pass from Kreais to Blake Berrier to stretch the lead to 25-8.
“Their offensive line — coming in the thing that got my attention was, their running back (Martinez) is good, their offensive line was really good,” Phillips said. “Their quarterback (Evan Kreais) is good. When we had them pinned down there, when I saw us get in his face, I thought we were getting a stop and getting the ball back. But he put it right on (Martinez). We had pretty good coverage all night and he didn’t miss tonight.”
The Chieftains had taken a 6-0 lead in the first period on a 19-yard Kreais-to-Berrier pass. Blake Foos gave the Tigers their only lead of the night on a one-yard run and a two-point conversion from Cody Heibertshausen to Foos.
Martinez’s 10-yard run made it 12-8 Hopewell-Loudon at halftime.
It was all Hopewell-Loudon in the second half. Martinez had a 44-yard scoring run in the third quarter to stretch the Chieftains’ lead to 19-8 and then the 95-yard march that put it away.
“They brought some blitzes and I thought we did a good job picking them up,” Colatruglio said. “We gave (Evan) enough time. Our receivers are good, and our quarterback is good. When we have time to execute and go to work on man coverage, we’re going to win a lot of those battles.”
Seneca East’s never-give-up attitude was on display when they scored their last touchdown on a 39-yard pass from Foos to Caden Fritz with 1:06 left.
“I thought all we had to do was get an onside kick because we still had three timeouts at that point,” Phillips said. “And that’s how I believe in those kids, how they believe in each other. And it didn’t happen, but not for lack of effort or heart.”
Martinez rushed for 149 yards on 38 carries and two scores and caught four passes for 53 yard to lead Hopewell-Loudon. Kreais was 13 for 21 for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
Berrier caught four balls for 59 yards and Endicott grabbed four for 42. The Chieftains piled up 460 yards of total offense.
“That’s the way we’ve been all year,” Colatruglio said. “A little bend but don’t break. They’re (Seneca East) is a pretty good team. Their quarterback is a pretty good football player. We stopped them enough to give our offense a chance. We got the scores when we needed them.”
Foos finished with 161 yards passing, connecting on 11 of 20 attempts and a touchdown. He also rushed for 88 yards and a score. Fritz caught two passes for 75 yards and a TD and Luke Hicks had two receptions for 35 yards.
Phillips says goodbye to 13 seniors.
“I told the seniors it hurts tonight but when they look back on some of those games that they won, it will only get better,” Phillips said.
“That’s what we preach,” Colatruglio said. “Make them keep snapping the ball, keep fighting. Those two red zone stops were big.”
“The only bad thing for tonight is that it’s over for us,” Phillips said. “Our kids played their hearts out and gave us a chance.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Seneca East 0 8 0 6 — 14
Hopewell-Loudon 6 6 7 6 — 25
Scoring summary
First quarter
HL — Blake Berrier 19 pass from Evan Kreais (run failed), :16.
Second quarter
SE — Blake Foos 1 run (Foos pass from Cody Heibertshausen), 9:07.
HL — Braylon Martinez 10 run (kick failed), 6:17.
Third quarter
HL — Martinez 44 run (Martinez kick), 5:27.
Fourth quarter
HL — Berrier 22 pass from Kreais (kick failed), 9:58.
SE — Caden Fritz 39 pass from Foos (pass failed), 1:06.
Individual statistics
Passing
Seneca East: Blake Foos 11-20-0 161; Hopewell-Loudon: Evan Kreais 13-21-0 200.
Rushing
Seneca East: Blake Foos 20-88, Cody Heibertshausen 1-7, Blake Martin 1-3, Austin Perry 2-2, Bryler Beamer 1-(-2); Hopewell-Loudon: Braylon Martinez 32=189, Jagger Endicott 4-87, Evan Kreais 4-(-16).
Receiving
Seneca East: Caden Fritz 2-75, Luke Hicks 2-35, Bryler Beamer 1-21, Justin Reiter 1-13, Cody Heibertshausen 2-8, Austin Perry 1-6, Korbin Beamer 2-3; Hopewell-Loudon: Braylon Martinez 4-59, Blake Berrier 4-53, Adam Kreais 1-46, Jagger Endicott 4-42.
Team statistics
SE HL
First downs 12 18
Rushing 25-98 40-260
Passes 11-20-0 13-22-0
Yards passing 161 200
Total yards 259 460
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties 4-30 4-36