The Blair defense came to play against Elkhorn Mount Michael.
A week after giving up 34 points to Omaha Gross, the Bears allowed just three in their 23-3 victory over the Knights on Friday night.
Outpacing the opposition offensively with 315 yards to 213, while only allowing quarterback Will Brewster to complete 43 percent of his 37 passes, the backbreaking and momentum-swinging plays Blair gave up so many times the previous week were few and far between against Mount Michael.
“We were communicating, getting lined up properly, and we tackled better,” Blair head coach Bryan Soukup said. “We did a lot better job getting pressure on the quarterback because we knew they rely on the pass more than anything.”
After a slow start to the game offensively, Ethan Baessler — who finished the game with two picks — came through with an interception for the Bears’ defense. Just a few plays later, quarterback Bode Soukup hit J’Shawn Unger in stride for a 49-yard touchdown that put the team up 7-0 with just over 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
Another slow quarter dragged by, with the score looking set to remain the same at the half. Instead, Unger had an even more dazzling touchdown than his first of the night.
With 18 seconds left until heading to the locker room with missed opportunities looming large, Soukup hit Unger for a decent gain.
Unger then made things a bit more than just “decent.”
Going in the scorebook as a 55-yard touchdown, about 40 of those yards were after the catch by Unger. Going from one sideline to the other and blazing by defenders, Unger turned a play that looked like it would end shortly after the catch into a masterclass in finding the endzone.
Finishing the night with those two touchdowns on two catches and 104 yards, Unger had a Randy Moss-esque performance with incredible efficiency on the touches he had.
“That’s a special game for (Unger),” Coach Soukup said. “He’s a special player, and we love having him.”
With the connections to Unger making up for about two-thirds of Bode Soukup’s passing yards, the Bears were able to get back into their ground-and-pound style of play, as well.
Averaging nearly four-and-a-half yards per carry with 164 yards on 37 attempts, sophomore Brock Templar accounted for 99 of those while senior Dane Larsen ran for 50.
Tacking on a 25-yard field goal by Kaden Sears with just over two minutes left in the third, the Bears then allowed a 29-yard field goal that got Mount Michael on the board with roughly four minutes left in the game.
Up 17-3, Blair drove down the field once more and picked up a touchdown late to seal the victory on a run by Larsen that was fumbled into the endzone and recovered by Brady Brown.
With the 23-3 win pushing the Bears to 4-1 on the season, with the team’s lone loss coming against an Omaha Gross squad that is ranked second in Class B, there still isn’t too much satisfaction oozing from the program.
Already quadrupling the win total from last season’s 1-8 campaign, Soukup was both encouraged and critical of his team following the win.
Hoping for more connections in the passing game and believing that some points were left on the board, he also attributed the growth of this year’s squad to the lumps taken last year.
“Our kids learned a lot last year, they grew up a lot, but we’re still growing up and still making some mistakes that we’ve got to clean up,” Soukup said. “The win is great, but there’s a lot of things we need to do better in the games coming up.”
