Heartbreak finds WACO football team

WAYLAND — The WACO football team was one first down or one punt away from a trip to the UNI-Dome, but in Thursday night’s Class 8-Player quarterfinal, fate wasn’t on the side of the hometown Warriors.

Audubon’s Braden Wessel scored on a 70-yard punt return touchdown in the last two minutes to help the fifth-ranked Wheelers steal a would-be win away from the seventh-ranked Warriors, 34-30.

“I'm proud of the way our kids played,” said WACO head coach Chad Edeker. “I can't do anything about one play, but it's just driving me nuts.”

That play came when Audubon had no remaining timeouts. WACO got the ball back leading 30-28 with five minutes left. The Warriors bled off three minutes of clock and forced the Wheelers into burning all of their timeouts, but Audubon forced a punt on fourth and six just past midfield.

Wessel slipped through a couple of would-be WACO tacklers and cut it up the Audubon sideline, racing past Warrior defenders to retake the lead at a crucial time.

“Who knows? If he doesn't return it we tackle him right there, maybe they still score,” Edeker said. “But it was just a heartbreaker.”

On the next possession, Audubon’s Manny Beisswenger made a diving interception off a long pass by WACO’s Simeon Reichenbach. The Wheelers ran for one more first down to ice the game.

WACO had a hot start to the night, leading by two possessions in the first half.

After Taylor Sutton forced, and then recovered, an Audubon fumble on the second possession of the game, Reichenbach started the scoring with a 38-yard field goal. The Wheelers took a short-lived 7-3 lead on a 65-yard touchdown pass from star quarterback Gavin Smith to running back Carter Andreasen, but the Warriors responded with two more scores.

On the first play of the second quarter, senior running back Jon Rice squirted through the defense for a nine-yard score. Reichenbach broke loose on a 49-yard touchdown the next time WACO had the ball, and after a failed two-point try, it was 16-7 Warriors.

Andreasen scored on a 17-yard run to help Audubon cut the lead to 16-14 before halftime.

Audubon scored the first two touchdowns of the second half. On the Wheelers’ first possession of the third quarter, Andreasen scored on a nine-yard rush. Later in the quarter, Smith scampered 23 yards to the end zone, and it was 28-16.

“They made some changes in the second half with that little jet sweep,“ Edeker said. ”It took us a series or two to adjust to it.“

The Warriors had to make a fourth quarter comeback in order to grab the lead. They had to do so without quarterback Isaac Oswald, who left the game in the first half due to a shoulder injury. Reichenbach took snaps under center, and both Rice and Drew Diers helped lead the charge with power runs.

“We run that every week in practice, (so) it wasn't anything new,” Edeker said. “It limited us some, but in the grand scheme of things, we were able to score those touchdowns to give us the lead.”

The first score was a 3-yard run by Rice, which came on a fourth-and-short. Then, Reichenbach broke another big run, this time 35 yards to give WACO a 30-28 lead with 7:25 left.

WACO stuffed Audubon on the Wheelers’ next drive and forced a punt, but the Warriors couldn’t hang on to the ball, or the lead.

Reichenbach ran for 158 yards and two touchdowns in the win. Rice went for 37 yards and two scores.

Oswald went 3-for-4 passing the ball for 38 yards. Mason Miller led the receiving corps with one catch for 29 yards.

Jonah Clark led the WACO defense with seven tackles. Sutton’s fumble recovery was the only take-away for the Warriors.

WACO finishes the season 10-1. The Warriors will lose just eight seniors, and will return their top passer, rusher, receiver and tackler. Coach Edeker, however, knows it will take a lot to replace the senior group.

“Those eight seniors are strong physical kids that played a lot of time,” Edeker said. “We have a lot coming back, but those eight seniors were big for us, and we've got a lot of minutes to replace.”

Audubon will be able to live out the dream of playing at the UNI-Dome on Wednesday when the Class 8-Player semifinals begin. The Warriors will have to wait until another year, but the WACO faithful certainly saw a magical season in 2021.

“I’ve had fun every day at practice,” Edeker said. “This is a great group of kids. I’m proud of them, and I love them.”