Colgan 34, Jackson Heights 7

The game and matchup was much more even than the final score appeared, but Jackson Heights could not overcome mistakes and missed opportunities in falling at Colgan 34-7 in the Class 1A quarterfinals on Friday night.  On a bitter cold night in Pittsburg, Jackson Heights had two first half fumbles inside the Panthers 25-yard line and also got a 45-yard kickof return by Kolby Rethman so set up a short field from the Colgan 31-yard line, but could not capatilize.  

Colgan scored on their first three possessions of the game and led 20-0 at halftime.  About the only life and hope the Cobras had was on the first play of the third quarter and Colgan fumbled the football and Jackson Heights recovered at the Panther 42-yard line.  Six plays later, Rethman scored on a fourth and goal play on a four-yard TD to pull within 20-7.  But, the Panthers responded on the very next drive as they marched 52 yards in five plays to retake a three touchdown advantage and not look back in route to their third straight state semifinal apperance. 

After a clean first half, the final two periods of the night were marred by penalty flags as the teams combined for eight unsportmanlike or personal foul penalties after the play and Jackson Heights was whistled for 89 yards on 8 penalties with a few more that were offset by silimiar Colgan fouls. 

Senior quarterback, Cade Simmons was the story for Colgan with all five touchdowns.  He ran for a 25-yard touchdown in the second quarter and had both Panther touchdowns in the second half while also throwing 32-yard TD strikes to Derek VanBecelaere in the first quarter and Cal Marquardt in the second frame.  That second TD pass came after an officials timeout when Rethman had to exit the field with blood on his leg and Jackson Heights didn't get an 11th man on the field or cover Marquardt in time before Colgan went ahead 20-0 with 6:48 left in the first half.  

Like their first possession of the game, the Cobras looked sharp and moved the football with nine plays on their final drive before halftime, but fumbled.  Jackson Heights did not complete a pass on the night and had 223 yards rushing.  Rethman, one of four senior starters, led the way with 92 yards on 17 carries while fellow senior fullback, Conlan Bruggeman added 90 carries on 16 carries.  Leading rusher, Cooper Williams was held in check to just 39 yards on 16 carries before finishing his junior campaign with 1,600 yards on the ground.  Jackson Heights ended the season 9-2, and fell just short of their third state semifinal appearance, which would have been the first since 1983.  They are now 31-9 the last four years combined.

Colgan improved to 9-2 as Simmons had 74 yards rushing and was 4-6 passing for 90 yards.  Yet, he suffered a knee injury in the final four minutes of the game.  Conor Price led the Panthers with 87 yards on 13 carries and Colgan churned out 243 yards rushing and 333 total.  The Panthers will face Olpe next week, who was a 20-18 winner at Centralia on Friday night.