With a new face at quarterback, Class B No. 10 Blair struck first but gave up 21 unanswered points at No. 2 Elkhorn North on Friday, falling to 2-3 on the season with a 21-7 loss.
Bo Meier, who entered the matchup with one receiving touchdown on the season, got the nod behind center after Cooper Sorensen, who had five touchdowns to one interception so far this year, suffered an injury against Gretna. Brock Templar and Andrew Smutny took snaps Sept. 20 at Norris, but Blair coach Bryan Soukup saw enough from Meier to feel confident in his ability to step into the starting role.
“We're just trying to find our best 11 to put us in a position to be competitive,” Soukup said. “(Meier) has had some reps, and we felt that that was going to put us in the best position to be competitive.”
Storming down the field on their first drive of the game, it took the Bears just 4 minutes to get into the end zone on a short run from Templar. Meier connected with the senior for 38 yards on a seam route out of the backfield, setting up the scoring play with a dart between defenders.
But the Wolves responded quickly, converting on a third-and-long and eventually scoring from 4 yards out on a run by Jett Tingelhoff, who put together a 151-yard performance on the ground while scoring all three touchdowns for the home side.
From that point on, Blair was never able to put all the ingredients together for a scoring drive despite some promising opportunities. One particular drive beginning at Elkhorn North's 30-yard line in the third quarter amounted to nothing after an interception.
“We tried to take a shot the first play, and we beat the safety so I can't really fault our quarterback,” Soukup said. “We did beat the safety and (Meier) made the right read, but their defensive back came over the top and made the interception. Give their guy credit — he made a good play on it.”
The coach commended his defense for playing hard and keeping the team in a competitive, four-quarter battle. He also gave credit to Meier for what the junior was able to do in his first start at quarterback.
Soukup gave credit to the opposing sideline for holding Blair scoreless after the early touchdown, too. Noting that the Bears gave the Wolves some different looks than what had been shown on film, with action in the backfield changing up the way Blair showed and ran certain plays, Soukup said the second-ranked school figured things out as the game went on.
“They started to adjust to what we were doing a little bit, because they hadn't seen what we did that first drive,” he said. “We came out and maybe caught them off guard on a few things, but then they buckled down.”
Ultimately, though, it was the unforced errors that got the better of a Blair squad, which now has a matchup with No. 1 Bennington looming on the horizon.
With turnovers in crucial spots and penalties putting them behind the chains, the Bears weren't able to overcome what was already a difficult task ahead. However, Soukup said he liked the fight from his players against a good football team and will continue to build off of it in the upcoming week of practice.
“I thought our defense played really hard and kept us in the ballgame, but we did struggle offensively and we need to get better,” he said. “When you have some guys beat up and some guys injured, you're just trying to find the right combination to make things work and keep getting better, and that's what we're trying to do.”
No. 2 ELKHORN NORTH 21, No. 10 BLAIR 7
BHS (2-3) 7 0 0 0 — 7
ENHS (5-0) 7 7 7 0 — 21
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
B: Brock Templar 3-yard run, Blaise Baughman PAT
EN: Jett Tingelhoff 4-yard run, Jackson Crom PAT
Second Quarter
EN: Tingelhoff 19-yard run, Crom PAT
Third Quarter
EN: Tingelhoff 9-yard run, Crom PAT
