By Russ Holen

With a rock ribbed defense and solid ground game, Elm Creek won 28-6 over Cambridge Friday night in Cambridge to capture the C2-9 district title for a 2nd consecutive year. Cambridge lead after 1 quarter 6-0 with Elm Creek scoring in the 2nd quarter to tie up the game. The contest remained tied at 6 going into the 4th quarter with the Buffaloes scoring 22 points in the final stanza to put the game away. For Elm Creek, Mike Reeves had 101 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns, while Derek Foster ran for 100 yards and 1 score. With Foster's performance he went over 1,000 yards for the season. Heading into next week's playoffs, Elm Creek is 7 and 1 with Cambridge at 5 and 3.

The Holdrege Dusters with just one win on the season pulled a season ending upset of the Lexington Minutemen in Holdrege Friday night 9 to 3. The Dusters without the services of starting quarterback Robby Allmand relied on junior running back Ross Martin and sophomore Kyle Edstrom at QB to lead Holdrege to their second victory of the year.

Lexington coming off their best game of the year with a huge upset last week against Ogallala came out really flat against their rivals from Phelps County. Lexington who lost another front line player in leading tackler and senior linebacker Zach Behnke did not have nearly the fire or crispness they displayed last week against the Indians.

The teams traded punts in a scoreless 1st quarter.

In the second frame, Lexington had stopped a Holdrege drive but was called for roughing the punter and Holdrege finished off a 90 yard drive with a Jared Nedrig 25 yard field goal at the 9:42 mark. It would be the only points scored in the first half and the Dusters held the 3 to 0 lead going in to the locker room.

In the third period, another roughing the punter call against the Minutemen helped Holdrege finish off a 54 yard drive with Ross Martin running through the left side of his line for a nine yard score. Nedrig’s PAT was no good and the Duster’s were starting to smell the upset.

Lexington was held to a minus 15 yards of offense in the 3rd period and Holdrege was in control until the Minutemen put together an 88 yard drive in the 4th quarter. That drive stalled out at the Duster two. Matt Karges kicked a 19 yard field goal with Lexington trailing 9 to 3 and eight minutes remaining in the game.

Holdrege showed what they were made of as they controlled the clock and marched down the field getting inside the Lexington 10 yard. Another critical Minutemen penalty, this time a pass interference call, assisted the Dusters in maintaining the drive. However Lincoln Pearson operating out of the wildcat formation fumbled the ball and Lexington recovered at their own 6 yard line.

The Minutemen drove out to their 40 yard line, but RJ Seberger was intercepted by Alex Schoneman sealing the upset for Holdrege.

The Duster defense came up with five sacks of Seberger on the night and held the Minutemen to just 282 yards of offense and no touchdowns. Lexington was penalized nine times for 105 yards.

Martin led the way for Holdrege picking up 114 yards on 29 carries and young Exstrom completed 12 of 21 passes for 150 yards.

Lexington still qualified for the Class B state playoffs and will play at Gering on Friday.

Coach Truax was understandably disappointed in the loss. “We knew they were a good team and respect their athletes and coaching staff very much,” said Truax. “They beat us all night long.”

By Jayson Jorgensen

A second quarter touchdown by Drew Wetovick was the difference as Eustis Farnam edged Elwood 6-2 on Friday night. Elwood countered with a safety in the third quarter to account for its scoring. It was the first time since 2003 that Eustis Farnam was able to beat Elwood. With the victory Eustis Farnam heads to the playoffs at 6-2, Elwood ends the year at 3-5. Eustis Farnam will be in the D1 state playoffs on Thursday.

The SEM Mustangs finished off the regular season with a 36-0 win over Maywood on Friday. Travis Line threw for two tds and ran for another. Jake Rhode also rushed for two scores. SEM held Maywood to just 43 yards of total offense