By STUART GROSKREUTZ
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

OAK PARK HEIGHTS - Following a lackluster opening half on Tuesday, the Stillwater football team edited together its own highlights package while scoring four touchdowns in less than five minutes to take control in a 35-7 Section 2AAAAA quarterfinal victory over Tartan at Pony Stadium.

The third-seeded Ponies (7-2) scored on offense, defense and special teams during that third-quarter outburst to advance, earning another opportunity against conference and section rival Mounds View in Saturday's semifinals. The Mustangs, who defeated Roseville 35-15 on Tuesday, have ended Stillwater's season each of the past three years.

Clinging to a 7-0 lead at the intermission, Stillwater responded in a big way to some halftime prodding and scored early and often to start the second half against the Titans (4-5).

Nate Ricci spearheaded the opening series of the second half while gaining 70 of Stillwater's 71 yards on a six-play drive to grab a 14-0 lead with 10:03 remaining in the third quarter. The versatile junior took a swing pass 42 yards on a key third-and-seven play and also rushed four times for 28 yards - including the 3-yard touchdown run - to provide the spark.

"There are times we do that," Ponies coach LaBore said. "Hand the ball to Nate, throw the ball to Nate and try to give him a couple of creases and hang on for the ride. That's the kind of player that he is. It's also frustrating because we have a number of guys who can do that sort of stuff, but if you don't all execute and don't do the things we're supposed to do, which are basic things, we're not going to make any of those plays."

The Ponies followed with three more touchdowns over the next four minutes to turn a seven-point halftime lead into a 35-0 rout midway through the third quarter.

"Unfortunately you have to play the first, second and fourth quarter," LaBore said. "We've had too many of those talks at halftime. I think we've had a little bit of a problem early in the games of not executing to the best of our ability. I don't know if the guys aren't looking up for the games or what, but it takes us a while to get going and from here on out, if it takes us a while to get going we might be going home."

Stillwater's defense was strong throughout and Mike Wicker helped the Ponies extend their lead while returning an interception 27 yards for a touchdown on Tartan's second play of the third quarter. The senior linebacker bobbled the ball for a few steps before gaining control and racing through traffic for the touchdown and a 21-0 lead.

"I almost dropped that one and it was thrown right in my lap," Wicker said. "It was right to me and I got some great blocks down the field and just made it into the end zone."

Wicker finished with a team-high 32 defensive points after recording two solo tackles, two assisted tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, two sacks, a knocked down pass and the interception return for a touchdown.

"It was probably one of the better games I've had," Wicker admitted.

His coach agreed.

"He did it all tonight," LaBore said. "He's been a guy that we relied on between the tackles for most of the season and tonight it was nice to see him do it, not only between the tackles, but also on the edge in pass coverage and on the blitz. It was just a great game, a beautiful game."

If Wicker's touchdown didn't deflate the Titans, Ricci likely did after another Tartan three-and-out as he took the ensuing punt and raced 56 yards for the second of his three touchdowns with 8:18 remaining in the third.

The Titans failed to gain a first down on their first three possessions of the second half and Stillwater took over at the Tartan 28 with help from an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a punt return. Nick Anderson reeled off consecutive 13-yard gains to set up a 1-yard scoring plunge by Cartier Alexander with 5:54 remaining in the third.

At this point in the second half, Stillwater had run nine offensive plays and scored four touchdowns while maintaining possession for less than three minutes.

"The offense seemed to get pretty fired up at halftime," Wicker said. "They always come out firing after halftime so that's always good for us."

The halftime message was simple, but clearly resonated with the Ponies.

"It's outlining the situation for the guys and giving them some choices and helping them understand the consequences - and everyone in a while, you just need a kick in the butt," LaBore said. "To be very honest, it's just sharing with them that it was a disappointing half and that if you play with fire you can get burned and that we were in a vulnerable situation if we didn't take control of the game, mainly playing some shoulder-pad football and executing.

"Our defense continues to play very good football. Our offense has been incredible in the third quarter, but we have to put that third-quarter football in the first and second quarters."

The Ponies managed just 81 yards in the first half and 72 of those came on a 12-play scoring drive capped by Ricci's 1-yard quarterback sneak on the first play of the second quarter. Alexander gained 20 yards on two carries and Ricci accounted for 47 rushing yards on the drive. Tait Delahunt converted the first of his five extra-point kicks for a 7-0 lead.

"At times we were a bit lackadaisical in the first half," LaBore said. "We weren't very good on first down on a number of those series and that put us in some tough situations. If you look at the plays we ran, by and large we got good yards on the plays we wanted to run, but just got ourselves in some bad situations that we didn't get ourselves out of. It's about some execution and some shoulder-pad football. Almost all of the time it's a pretty simple game, you get lower, you play with your shoulder pads and execute and good things will happen. If you play lackadaisical, you stick yourself with second- and third-and-long, especially when you're a more run-oriented football team and it makes things hard on your offense."

Tartan managed just one first down in the first half, but was set up at the Stillwater 22 after a muffed punt with two minutes remaining. After stalling, the Titans attempted a 38-yard field goal that Billy Wagner blocked to maintain Stillwater's seven-point lead. It was the third blocked kick of the season for Wagner.

"The first, second and third quarter our defense was outstanding," LaBore said. "They were opportunistic and just solid throughout."

The Ponies applied pressure on Tartan quarterback Mitchel Grohs throughout, sacking him five times for minus-47 yards. The Titans finished with just 181 total yards - 135 of which came through the air.

"We were getting a lot of blitz calls because we had good coverage going," Wicker said. "We were able to call those blitzes and the coaches were giving us opportunities to get in his face and we were just getting good timing."

"It's the same thing as our offense," LaBore added. "When you stick us with second- and third-and-long you limit our options. With them coming under center for the most part and dropping back like that and needing a lot of yards, the quarterback either has to get rid of it quickly or the pressure is going to get to him. The biggest key is getting them in those situations."

The Titans eventually spoiled Stillwater's shutout bid while scoring on Halim Bilal's 4-yard touchdown with just eight seconds remaining in the game.

"We still played great," Wicker said. "The team played awesome and we got a great win, so you can't feel too bad about it."

Stillwater fell to Mounds View 21-14 earlier this season and is hoping to snap a four-game losing streak against the Mustangs (8-1). Totino-Grace will face fourth-seeded White Bear Lake in the other semifinal on Saturday.

"We need to put together a full game and, if we put together a full game, we could be playing for a while," LaBore said. "If we don't, we won't."

Tartan: 0-0-0-7 - 7
Stillwater: 0-7-28-0 - 35

St - Nate Ricci 1 run (Tait Delahunt kick) 11:51.
St - Ricci 3 run (Delahunt kick) 10:03.
St - Mike Wicker 27 interception return (Delahunt kick) 8:48.
St - Ricci 56 punt return (Delahunt kick) 8:18.
St - Cartier Alexander 1 run (Delahunt kick) 5:54.
Tar - Halim Bilal 4 run (Joe Tjosvold kick) 0:08.

Team stats

First downs: Tar 13, St 15
Rushes-yards: Tar 35-46, St 38-161
Passing yards: Tar 135, St 45
Total yards: Tar 181, St 206
Comp-Att-Int: Tar 11-24-2, St 2-6-1
Fumbles/lost: Tar 3/2, St 1/0
Penalties/yards: Tar 7/46, St 3/20
Punts/avg: Tar 7/24.7, St 4/21.5

Individual statistics

Rushing - Tar: Halim Bilal 12-44, Michael McMillan 4-15, Dakota McGeehan 1-9, Kennon Bellaphant 4-8, Alan Median-Gonzalez 8-5, Mitchel Grohs 6-(-35); St: Nate Ricci 12-76, Nick Anderson 13-64, Cartier Alexander 4-22, Nate Law 4-6, Clay Roth 2-4, team 1-0, Sam Brynestad 1-(-5) and Aaron Romportl 1-(-6).

Passing (com-att-yds-td-int) - Tar: Mitchel Grohs 10-23-116-0-2 and Alex Friedrich 1-1-19-0-0; St: Aaron Romportl 1-1-42-0-0 and Nate Ricci 1-5-3-0-1.

Receiving - Tar: Stacy Kalkwarf 5-57, Jhali Payne 2-30, Kyle von Schmidt-Pauli 2-24, Michael McCarthy 1-19 and Keenon Bellaphant 1-5; St: Nate Ricci 1-42 and Joshua Weess 1-3.

Kickoff returns - Tar: Stacy Kalkwarf 2-37, Jhali Payne 1-8 and Tim McCarthy 1-4; St: Clay Roth 1-21 and Charlie Register 1-16.

Punt returns - Tar: none; St: Nate Ricci 2-57 and Charlie Register 2-9.

Interceptions - Tar: Keelon Brookins 1-0; St: Mike Wicker 1-27 and Zac Houle 1-0.

Fumble recoveries - Tar: none; St: Sam Brynestad 1-0 and Mike Wicker 1-0.

Section 2AAAAA

Quarterfinals

Totino-Grace 30, N. St. Paul 7
White Bear Lake 28, Irondale 7
Stillwater 35, Tartan 7
Mounds View 35, Roseville 15

Saturday's semifinals

#4 White Bear Lake (7-2) at #1 Totino-Grace (8-1)
#3 Stillwater (7-2) at #2 Mounds View (8-1)

Finals

At higher seed on Friday, Nov. 4