REBELS TAKE FIRST ROUND MOVING ON

The MCC Rebel Football team was back in Slayton for their final game at home this season. The Rebels played host to the TMB Panthers in the Section 3A quarterfinals. The winner would advance to play the Adrian Ellsworth Dragons on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm. The Rebels beat the Panthers just three weeks ago at Panther Homecoming, now they would try to repeat the win and move on in the playoffs. The Rebels and the Panthers would score a lot of points, but in the end the Rebels would get the win.

The Rebels started the game on defense and did a good job of forcing the Panthers into a punt to open the game. A short punt gave the Rebels the ball at the TMB 41 yard line. Carson Lewis ran the ball twice and scored on a 25 yard touchdown. The two play drive would set the table for the Rebel offense the rest of the night, as MCC went ahead 7-0. The Panthers answered back less than a minute and a half later as Trevor Smith connected with Griffin Zick on a three yard pass. The two point conversion was good to put TMB on top 8-7. The Rebels would score a touchdown on every drive of the first half except at the end of the half. The Rebels got the ball back after the Panther score. Carson Lewis lost his shoe after a five yard run and Andrew Holm stepped in at fullback, running 65 yards for a touchdown. MCC had run four plays and scored two touchdowns. The two point conversion was converted by Teague Meyer and the Rebels led 15 to 8 after one quarter.

The points kept coming by both teams in the second quarter. The Rebels forced a Panther punt and moved the ball down to the three yard line, where Lewis scored on a three yard run and Carson Engelkes made the extra point, putting the Rebels ahead 22 to 8. The Panthers needed to score to stay in the game and they did just that. Trevor Smith ran the ball well and he threw it even better, as he worked the middle of the field and got the ball to Griffin Zick. Two minutes after the Rebels scored in the quarter, Smith found Zick for a 23 yard touchdown pass. He would find Zick again for the two point conversion to make the score 22 to 16. The Rebels took more time to score after getting the kickoff from the Panthers. Teague Meyer would score on a one yard run on a QB sneak, and the Rebels took the lead 29-16 with 4:15 to go in the half. The Panthers finished the crazy first half with a David Schuh 5 yard touchdown run to make the score 29 to 22 at the break.

The game took a turn in the third quarter. The Rebels started with the football and recovered the onside kick to open the half. They handed the ball off to Carson Lewis who followed his offensive line all the way down the field. Lewis would score a touchdown with 7:50 to play. The extra point put the Rebels up 36 to 22. The Panthers were down two touchdowns in the second half. They moved down the field with passes to David Schuh and Emery Xiong. The Panthers got inside the Rebels 20 yard line. Smith dropped back and threw a pass over the middle. Andrew Holm made a great interception near the goal line, returning it to the 9 yard line. The turnover was the first of the game and the Rebels would drive. Carson Lewis ran twice to get the ball to the 20 yard line. Andrew Holm stepped up again and broke a 54 yard run to get into Panther territory. The Rebels used up the rest of the third quarter. Then, on the first play of the 4th quarter, Andrew Holm scored on a 14 yard run and the extra point made the score 43 to 22.

This was a game where the offenses ruled. The Rebels led by 21 points but TMB wasn’t going to quit. Trevor Smith kept throwing the ball to Zick and he would run when plays called for it. Smith found Noah Knakmuhs in the endzone for a touchdown with 8:10 to play, making the score 43 to 30 with the two point conversion. The Rebels got the ball on the short field after a penalty on the onside kick. MCC would feed the running game as Carson Lewis broke a 15 yard touchdown run. With 3:32 to play in the game, the Rebels went for two points and Meyer scored to make the score 51 to 30. TMB got another Griffin Zick touchdown catch from Trevor Smith to make the score 51 to 36, but MCC knelt out the clock to get the win 51 to 36.

The offensive stats are crazy in this game. The Panthers ran for 112 yards and threw for 325 yards. Trevor Smith had an amazing game with 80 yards rushing and 334 yards on 29 completions. He threw 4 TDs and 1 interception. Griffin Zick caught 10 passes for 143 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Rebels were all about the running game. Carson Lewis ran 37 times for 233 yards and 4 touchdowns. Andrew Holm ran 8 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns. The Rebels forced the only turnover of the game on the Holm interception. It wasn’t a great game by the Rebels but it was a great win. MCC will play at Adrian on Saturday at 3:00 pm.