The Fort Calhoun Pioneers and Arlington Eagles opened postseason play Friday night, but just FCHS is advancing onto the second round.
No. 6 Fort Calhoun 20, No. 11 Gothenburg 13
The sixth-seeded Pioneers gave up the first seven points of their Class C1 opener, but won by seven after Kaiden Rodriguez iced the game with a late fourth down conversion. The senior running back also hit two field goals during the game, while quarterback Adam Elofson ran for a touchdown and threw for another to Eli Tinkham.
The win was FCHS’ first postseason victory since 2012.
“We beat some tough teams this year, and we’re going to have another tough one next week,” coach Zach Byrd said. “But we’re going to enjoy this tonight.”
The Pioneers (8-2 overall) next play at Sidney (10-0) on Nov. 7. The Red Raiders beat Pierce during the first round, 21-14.
Calhoun, notably, topped the Bluejays on Sept. 19, 28-21.
No. 2 Wahoo Neumann 34, No. 15 Arlington 8
The second-seeded Cavaliers (9-1) put a stop to Arlington’s first playoff season since 2018 on Friday night. Coach Troy Schlueter’s team closes the season 5-5 overall in Class C2 competition.
The Eagles scored their lone touchdown during the second quarter while trailing 14-0. Back Oliver Ladehoff took the ball on a trick play and threw it to Luke Sharp for a 15-yard score. The thrower caught the 2-point conversion pass from his brother, quarterback Owen Ladehoff, too.
“They were really willing to do the work we asked them to do,” Schlueter said of his team in defeat. “Not every group is, but this group was.”
For the full story on these games and additional photos, come back to enterprisepub.com/sports early next week. Coverage will appear in Tuesday’s Washington County Enterprise edition as well.
