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The Big One

Karl Brubaker on February 27, 2020

Tonight’s 1A Goessel Regional matchup carried a big prize:  Moving into a north sub-state environment that is totally wide open.  With both the winner and loser of Saturday’s Regional final moving on, tonight’s game held the potential for the winner to continue deep into 1A post-season.   Goessel faced Elyria Christian for the third time this season, having beaten them while they were short-handed 12/14   47-27 and on February 4 Goessel lost 3 quarters and still pulled it out 43-39.    Each member of the team and coaching staff knew this was going to be a tussle.   Goessel stormed out to a 6-0 lead and was never behind in the contest, leading by as much as 13.   Elyria put up 5 threes, four of which came in the 4^th quarter as they stormed back from 31-19 to close within 4 with a little over a minute left.   Despite again losing two quarters tonight, the Bluebirds’ bench depth, rebounding and some very nice bounce finishes kept this one in the W column 37-32.   Goessel will play a very solid Little River team for the Regional championship on Saturday, but tonight was the big one as the Bluebirds guarantee themselves a place at sub-state, a different sub-state than Little River.

Goessel’s band, tonight under the direction of Maestro Porclein Unruh, and the high energy cheer team led a capacity crowd in supporting this entertaining contest.  The student section had it all, including the 2-man blue man group and a guest appearance from a Biblical character.

Tonight, Nate Zogleman brought his 19-20 game to a peak; fans can only hope the trajectory is still up.   There were half a dozen jaw dropping assists to and from the Junior.  Goessel started off in man and stayed there nearly the entire game. The Eagles played the first half mostly in man to man as well.   Jerah Schmidt scored off a nifty pick and Jake Hagewood caught a long Mahomes pass to go up 6-0.   ‘Mid the cacophony of the juiced up crowd Elyria called time at 5:26.   Out of the break, athletic Jackson Stone nearly tied it up 6-5 but Skyler Wuest answered at the other end with a brilliant runner that sloshed through cleanly off the glass.   Moments later, Caiden Duerksen bounced baseline to Zogleman under the bucket for a spectacular close and the defensive slug-fest quarter ended 10-7.

To start the 2^nd, Zogleman hit a rolling Dylan Lindeman for two and then Hagewood plopped one on the fly to Zogleman for 2 more to lead 14-7.   Stone on Lindeman and Lindeman on Stone created a defensive duel that thoroughly entertained.  This quarter wore down and as he has so often this year, Hagewood connected at a psychologically critical moment, dolloping one in from 14 feet at 3:26 to push the lead to 17-8.   Elyria put up their first trey of the night as Unruh hit from way outside, but Wuest immediately came back and slid inside to go up 19-11, then created pandemonium in the stands with an absolutely stunning baseline reverse to go up 21-11 at the half.    

Out of the break, the Eagles emerged in zone and created momentary angst scoring three times against one Bluebird field goal with a sumptuous bounce feed inside from Zogleman to Hagewood.  Timeout Goessel 5:02.  Lindeman notched a great stop underneath to quell the tide and on the next possession Zogleman sculpted a steal and ran coast to coast to lead 25-17.  After yet another huge defensive stop, Duerksen punched another fine assist to Zogleman to go up 10   27-17.   To end the 6-8 quarter Stone buried two charities at 1:46 and no one could convert from there despite another great pick from Schmidt.  27-19.

Suddenly Moses emerged!   In front of the roller coaster student section, Moses lifted his walking stick and parted the Blue Sea to the cheers of all those assembled.   Elyria returned to man and the defenses cascaded back and forth until 6:16 when Zogleman found the range with yet another runner, then Goessel ran a very nice inbounds set and Lindeman finished to go up 12, 31-19.  Hobson launched a prayer for 3 and Elyria immediately called time at 5:31.  Jerah took a charge and Lindeman finished strong on a break.  Once again Zogleman assisted to Hagewood to lead 35-22, the largest lead of the night.  At 2:58 the crowd fell silent as Lindeman hit the deck hard after a Unruh three.   Coach Guhr called time to regroup and the Senior was back in after the pause.   The cheer team led “Up Up On Your feet” and MaKayla Davis skied after the cheer.   Elyria fans rose as one as Stone hit back to back giant treys to close within 4 35-31 with 1:20 left.  Down the floor, Wuest was fouled and went to the line in the 1-1.   In a huge moment, the Sophomore buried both charities to go back up 6; at 1:01 Goessel fumbled at half court and sent Stucky to the line, but he converted one of two.   The Eagles fouled Wuest and Schmidt and neither could nail their charities, but the spread was sufficient and Goessel snuck out of the 10-13 quarter with the win  37-32.   The Eagles won the 3^rd and 4^th quarters 6-8 and 10-13; Goessel took the 1^st and 2^nd quarters 10-7 and 11-4.  Zogleman led the Blue tonight with 12, both Hagewood and Wuest put up 8, Lindeman had 7 and Schmidt 2 .   Also contributing all over the floor were:  Duerksen, Funk, and Wiens.  Pound the Stone!            -Karl Brubaker