Southland falls behind early, ;br; comes back big to beat Spring Grove
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 27, 1999
The second go around was a slightly different story between the Southland Rebels and the Spring Grove Lions.
Wednesday, October 27, 1999
The second go around was a slightly different story between the Southland Rebels and the Spring Grove Lions.
Last Wednesday, the Rebels easily beat the Lions 40-14 in Adams. In the playoffs past results don’t count for anything and the Lions were roaring to go. They took a 20-8 lead midway through the second quarter.
The Rebels then scored twice at the end of the first half and added a third quarter touchdown and came through with 30-28 come-from-behind win.
As they have all season the Rebels relied on their rushing attack to carry them. The Rebels ground out 319 yards. Todd Osmundson carried the ball 24 times for 170 yards and sophomore Adam Chapek 29 times for 164 yards. Chapek has now rushed for 1,128 yards.
Chapek got things off to a good start with a 5-yard run for a touchdown halfway through the first quarter.
Spring Grove then scored the next 20 points. All three touchdowns came through the air – the first two by the offense and the third on a 47-yard interception return by Trevor Storlie with 4:52 remaining in the half.
A minute-and-a-half later Southland scored on a 5-yard run by Osmundson. With 48 seconds in the half, Chapek scored from 4 yards out to tie the game up at 20. Osmundson then ran it in for the two-point conversion to give the Rebels a 22-20 halftime lead.
Chapek scored his third touchdown of the game on a 5-yard run at the 7:14 mark of the third quarter and then went in for two to give the Rebels a 10-point lead, 30-20.
"We came through with the big plays on offense," Southland coach Dick Strand said, "and we played good defense when we had to."
Rebel Brent Mees picked off passes in the second and fourth quarters.
Southland (5-4) now looks to topple the top-seed, Rushford-Peterson (8-1), on Saturday afternoon in Rushford. R-P handed the Rebels their only home loss of the season, 13-11, with a late score.