Bluejay dreams face hard reality at Sioux Falls

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
Dreams, by definition, don’t always come true. But you’ve got to believe it is better to dream and lose than never to lay your dream on the line.

The Tabor College football team traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D., daring to dream of upsetting the nation’s No. 1 ranked team on its home field. But the Bluejays’ dream-and season-ended Saturday with a 72-11 disappointment.

“I told the guys before the game without dreams, your life is not very exciting,” coach Mike Gardner said. “I’ve always been a dreamer, and I know our kids are dreamers, too.”

Tabor’s dream took a jolt of reality when Sioux Falls took the opening kickoff and drove 87 yards in eight plays for a 7-0 lead.

But nobody told the Bluejays they were supposed to roll over.

Tabor took possession on its own 35 and march 49 yards in nine plays before settling for a 33-yard field goal by Marcus Manny to whittle the lead to 7-3 with 9:09 left in the quarter.

Running back Mike Dvoracek gained 18 yards on a first down, the Bluejay defense shut down the Cougar juggernaut, forcing a
punt.

Tabor took over on it own 11-yard line with Gardner imploring his team on the sidelines, “You gotta believe!”

“We had some momentum,” Gardner said. “They hadn’t been behind all season.”

But a fumble on third-and-1, which Tabor recovered, forced Gardner to summon the punt team.

Brian Kimsey blasted a 55-yarder, but the possession set in motion a chain of events that began on the Cougar 23-yard line.

Behind an offensive line that averaged 6-foot, 3-inches, 283 pounds and included the NAIA shot put champion, Sioux Falls pieced together a 14-play, 77-yard drive that ended on a one-yard touchdown run by Joe Wright three minutes into the second quarter, putting the Cougars on top 13-3.

“We just couldn’t stop them,” Gardner said. “Their offensive line is their team. That’s one of the best I’ve ever seen in small college football. They’re big, lean and fit.”

Trailing by 10 points, Tabor did what it couldn’t afford to do-turn the ball over.

On consecutive possessions, Ricky Ishida tossed interceptions that led to quick scores, one from 37 yards out and the other from 21. Suddenly, a close game was no longer close, and Tabor trailed 27-3 with 7:18 to play in the half.

“You talk about us taking the step to the next level and getting over the hump, we have to avoid turnovers,” Gardner said. “You can’t turn the ball over against a quality opponent. But I also realize we aren’t going to play a perfect game.”

Sioux Falls tacked on a 43-yard scoring strike to push the margin to 34-3 with 3:28 left in the half.

But the Bluejays didn’t wave the white flag just yet.

Ishida hit Jeff MacKinnon for a 35-yard gain followed by a reverse that had Layne Frick completing a 31-yard pass to Ishida to move the ball to the Cougar 14-yard line.

Ishida was hit hard on the play. He finished the half, but the all-conference sophomore would not play in the second half.

Regardless, the drive covered 67 yards in six plays, marking the first time this season the Cougars have allowed a team to drive more than 55 yards in a single series.

“Isn’t that amazing?” Gardner asked.

With 1:49 left in the half, Sioux Falls took over on downs at the Tabor 13 and drove 75 yards before the NAIA’s leading scorer, T.C. Fraser, kicked a 28-yard field goal to end the half with Sioux Falls on top, 37-3.

As bad as the half ended for Tabor, the second half began even worse.

Sioux Falls took the kickoff and drove 64 yards in 11 plays to go up 44-3.

Fumbles on the next two Cougar kickoffs resulted in 14 more points for Sioux Falls, and suddenly the lead had swelled to 58-3 before Tabor had even run a play in the half.

“What can you say about the way the second half started?” Gardner said, shaking his head.

Although the outcome was no longer in doubt, Tabor salvaged a measure of respect as the third quarter turned into the fourth. Reserve quarterback and Goessel native Ben Schmidt engineered an 11-play, 65-yard drive capped by a five-yard touchdown pass to Mike Beach.

Joe Fenske, who holds for extra points, then hit Steven Chisholm with a 2-point conversion pass. Tabor had broken Sioux Falls’ scoring run at 58 points at 65-11.

“The game was already decided when Ben came in, so he didn’t feel any pressure-but he did a great job,” Gardner said. “I was very proud of the way he stepped up and did as well as anyone could have in that situation.”

Sioux Falls, the nation’s third-highest scoring team at 41.6 points per game, added one more score on its next possession, accounting for 72-11 margin.

Gardner said there’s no shame losing to the Cougars at their spacious 10,000-seat Howard Wood Stadium.

“We ran into a great team-one that’s won a national championship (1996) and a school that’s committed to reaching the playoffs (nine of last 11 years) and contending for a national title every year,” he said. “Coach (Bob) Young (22 years, 171-68-3) is a legend.

“Sioux Falls gets a lot of NCAA Division II kids who struggle and come back to them,” he added. “That would be somewhat like us getting a bunch of kids from Fort Hays and Emporia.”

Sioux Falls rolled up 32 first downs with 655 yards of offense (349 rushing, 306 passing). The Bluejays had 14 first downs with 264 yards of offense.

Roger Butler led Tabor with 78 rushing yards on 15 carries. Ishida was 6-for-16 passing for 73 yards and Schmidt was 7-for-11 for 57.

Jake Schenk again led Tabor’s defense with nine solo tackles and one assist. C.J. Hill and Tim Stevens each added eight solo tackles.

“We didn’t play our best, but we need to put ourselves in the mindset we’ll be our best-C.J. Hill is one who’s able to do that.

“When you get an opportunity like that, you’d like to have a better showing,” he added. “The thing that’s most disappointing for me was I really wanted these guys to experience a playoff win.”

Sioux Falls, who has made the final four in football the past three years and won its fourth straight Great Plains Athletic Conference title, improved to 11-0 while Tabor ended its season at 9-2 and as champions of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.

“You can’t take anything away from our guys,” Gardner said. “I never felt like we quit-there’s a difference in getting blown out and quitting, and playing hard until the end.”

The Tabor camp is already looking to next season, Gardner said.

“I’m hoping retention is going to be great-we’ll only graduate three kids, and hopefully we’ll get back to the playoffs,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time a KCAC team has made the playoffs three straight years. That would be quite an accomplishment if we could do it.

“I don’t think our last game is a reflection of our season,” Gardner said. “It’s been a lot of fun.

“What these kids accomplished purely with the power of positive thinking is amazing,” he concluded. “We played with heart and I was proud of how we represented ourselves.”

Gardner said the KCAC is 2-18 in its playoff history, the last victory coming in 1998.

“We learned a lot about each other and what it takes to take that next step, and it give us something to shoot for next year,” he said. “I still think the KCAC can win a playoff game and I think it needs to come from the Tabor Bluejays.”

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