Erie – Erie football coach Larry Gartrell is awfully young to be so old school.
Employing the same double-wing offense that he was a part of as a high school fullback at Skyline in the mid-1980s – and an offense that led so many college and professional teams to football championships in the leather helmet days – Gartrell had his Erie Tigers grind out the rushing yards on the way to a 16-13 victory over Holy Family in a pivotal Class 2A Flatirons League game Friday night.
“We knew it was going to be a grind-it-out game like that,” Gartrell said.
Erie (8-1 overall, 5-1 league), No. 7 in The Denver Post/9News 2A poll, earned the Flatirons’ second seed behind top-ranked Faith Christian. It will play Platte Valley in the first round of the playoffs next weekend. This is Erie’s first playoff appearance since winning a 1A title in 1997.
No. 4 Holy Family (7-2, 4-2), the defending state champion, picked up a wild-card berth and will travel to Gunnison, which upset previously undefeated Olathe 36-22.
A.J. Heffner racked up 105 yards on 20 carries, freshman Alex Ortega picked up 72 yards on 16 carries and Mr. Touchdown, quarterback Kevin Kosorok, punched in a pair of 1-yard sneaks for Erie’s only points of the game. Kosorok ended with six carries (three were kneel-downs in the final minute) for minus-3 yards, and he completed 5-of-10 passes for 74 yards.
Holy Family also kept the ball on the ground. Andy Maul carried 27 times for 116 yards and a touchdown, and the visiting Tigers completed just one pass for no yards.
“Their quarterback made plays and my quarterback struggled,” Holy Family coach Jim Bratten said.
Bratten’s team got on the scoreboard first with an 11-play, 80-yard drive highlighted by a big play from quarterback Drew Hawkins.
Hawkins broke upfield on an option to the left and charged ahead for about 10 yards before the defense closed in. Just before taking the hit, Hawkins flipped a pitchout to Paul Schietinger, who rumbled down to 3-yard line. Kurt Borecky beat the defense to the right pylon on the next play to put Holy Family ahead 7-0 at halftime.
After its first time-consuming drive (6 minutes, 56 seconds) ended with a missed field goal from 27 yards away, Erie would not be denied on its second series.
Facing a fourth down and less than a yard, Heffner took a pitch to the left for a 3-yard gain and the first down.
On the 13th play of the 14-play drive, Heffner took another pitch, but this time the senior running back looked downfield and found Jared Baros for a 14-yard reception. Kosorok sneaked in for the touchdown, then Erie used a little trickery with a direct snap to Heffner for a two-point conversion and an 8-7 lead.
Holy Family went up 13-8 in the second half on a 21-play drive that lasted 8 minutes, 52 seconds. Maul carried the ball on 18 of those plays, including three consecutive runs over right guard that finally ended in a touchdown.
But Erie took control with 7:56 remaining, converted a fourth down near midfield, and punched in the winning score with 1:04 left on the clock. Jason Martinez intercepted a Hawkins’ pass to end Holy Family’s last-gasp attempt.
Holy Family 7 0 6 0 – 13
Erie 0 8 0 8 – 16
HF – Borecky 3 run (Glynn kick). E – Kosorok 1 run (Heffner run). HF – Maul 1 run (pass failed). E – Kosorok 1 run (Rahrich from Kosorok).
