Warriors outlast Buffs in eight-man semis

MELROSE — There will be a new Eight-Man state football champion.

That much was clear Friday night after four-time defending champ Melrose was defeated at home 53-24 by top-seeded Gateway Christian. The first state titleist not hailing from Melrose since 2013 will be either Gateway or Tatum, who play for the crown this Saturday in Tatum, beginning at 1 p.m.

Not that Melrose didn’t try hard to get back and play for a fifth straight title. Injuries beset the Buffaloes early in the season, had them seemingly buried at 1-5 before they tore off five straight wins to land in Friday’s semifinal game against a Gateway Christian team they had beaten just four weeks earlier.

Melrose’s 6-6 state semifinalist season may look like a dropoff to the casual observer. But look a little deeper and you find a young team that returns all but one player next year, when they will try to make it five titles in six years.

Buffaloes first-year head coach Caleb King was disappointed that his players’ 2018 season was over, but not in how far they had come.

“Oh yeah. I mean, we’ve had kids hurt all year, and we were able to get ’em all healthy and then get on a little bit of a run and play well,” King said. “Yeah, we’re real proud of them for what they’ve done.”

For Gateway, it felt great to advance.

“That’s what we came here to do,” Warriors head coach Shaun Wigley said. “The kids did a good job, executed. We got a lead early and we were able to hold on there, so that’s good.”

A game that lasted nearly an NFL-length three hours was actually going Melrose’s way just a few seconds in. The first play from scrimmage was a 13-year pass from Wyatt Arlet to Gage Estes, but ended with a fumble that was recovered by Buffalo freshman Timbre Hill at Melrose’s 40.

The ensuing possession, however, was a three-and-out, and though the punt buried the Warriors at their own 14, it only took them nine plays to drive the necessary 86 yards for a score. The series began with a 9-yard pass from Arlet to Jaydon Stephens, and ended with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Arlet to Estes. Devon Bailey and Tate Sorgen were there to provide coverage on the play, but Arlet threaded the needle between them to find Estes.

A two-point conversion pass failed, but with more than half the first quarter still remaining, Gateway had a 6-0 lead.

Melrose’s second possession also ended with a punt, and Gateway’s ensuing series also ended with a touchdown, this time on a 54-yard march capped by Arlet’s four-yard keeper into the end zone.

Again, a two-point conversion pass failed, but it was 12-0 with 2:02 left in the first quarter.

Gateway struck again early in the second quarter. On second-and-five from the Warriors’ own 49, Arlet kept the ball, burst through a hole, ran left at first before weaving right and into a clear field ahead. Arlet wound up dashing for a 51-yard score, and after Stephens rushed in the two-point conversion, Gateway was up 20-0 with just 49 seconds gone by in the second quarter.

Melrose hoped to start off in good field position on the ensuing kickoff, which Tristan Sena broke for a big return out to midfield. The ball came loose at the end of the run, however, and when Stephens recovered it, Gateway was the team starting off in good field position, at Melrose’s 47.

Seven plays later, Stephens took a pitch, headed right, then broke tackles for a seven-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion run failed, but Gateway had a commanding 26-0 lead.

Not far past the second quarter’s midway point, Melrose finally hit the scoreboard. Beginning in good field position at Gateway’s 42 following a short punt, the Buffaloes needed just four plays to close the deal. Actually, it was two plays because Sena threw two incomplete passes, including one on first down. But he followed that with a 34-yard connection with Sorgen, who probably would have gone all the way had Estes not tripped him up at the Warriors’ 8.

After another incomplete pass, Sena hit Chazz McAllister for an eight-yard score. A two-point conversion pass failed, but the Buffaloes were back in it, trailing 26-6 with 5:02 still to go in the second quarter.

Things looked up even more for Melrose when on the ensuing series, Gateway turned the ball over on downs at Melrose’s 47. And the Buffaloes were then on the move, piecing together a drive that included a 23-yard Sena run in a third-and-22 situation, erasing the sting of a 14-yard sack on the previous play.

Seven plays later, Melrose was pounding on the door, facing a fourth-and-3 at Gateway’s 24 in the half’s waning seconds. If the Buffaloes could make it a two-score game before the break, they were in good shape, because they were due to receive the second-half kickoff.

However, a false start penalty made it fourth-and-eight from the 29, and that play ended with an incomplete pass. Opportunity lost.

“We had a play set up,” King recalled. “We just made the wrong read; we threw it to the wrong side of the field. That kinda cost us.”

Melrose’s opening possession of the new half ended in a fourth-and-15 punting situation, and worse yet, a bad snap on the punt resulted in a fumble that Gateway’s Jacob Swann recovered at the Buffaloes’ 11.

The Warriors soon faced fourth-and-1 at the Melrose 2, and from there, Arlet ran in for a touchdown. The kick failed, but Gateway had built a 32-6 lead with 9:12 to play in the third quarter.

Melrose climbed to within 32-12 with 3:53 left in the third, when an eight-play 67-yard drive concluded with a six-yard touchdown pass from Sena to McAllister. But on Gateway’s first play from scrimmage after the ensuing kickoff, Arlet dashed 73 yards for a touchdown, and Jacob Truetken booted the extra point to give the Warriors a 39-12 lead.

And that’s pretty much how the second half proceeded, with a Melrose score being answered by a Gateway score. The Buffaloes did seem poised to string together consecutive successful drives when a Melrose drive that ended with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Sena to Sorgen was followed with a Warriors drive halted by Sena intercepting Arlet and returning the pick to Gateway’s 10. Sena, though, was then picked off on first-and-goal, and the Buffaloes could draw no closer.

During the fourth quarter, Gateway stayed well in front — despite an entertaining 65-yard flea-flicker touchdown pass from Sena to Jake Pierce — and soon, the Warriors were 9-1 and headed to the state championship game.

Friday’s rematch had unfolded quite differently than the Oct. 19 meeting.

“We woke up,” Wigley said. “We had been on a winning streak (leading up to the first matchup), and we told ’em, ‘Melrose is going to come bring it’, and I think they kind of believed us, but ... it’s a rivalry and (the Buffaloes) are going to play us hard every time we play them. ... And tonight we just came out and we executed way better. I’ll tell you right now, our line came to the game and blocked 10 times better than they did the last game. Our effort, everything, was just better tonight.”

“We had some execution problems early (in Friday’s rematch), had a couple of turnovers. You can’t do that,” King said. “Last time, we stayed even with them in the first half and we were able to come out and execute in the second half.”