Quantcast
skip navigation

Chanhassen upsets Shakopee for 1st playoff win

By Star Tribune, 10/25/11, 10:45PM CDT

Share

The Storm stopped a 2-point conversion attempt by the Sabers to win it.

Chanhassen’s football program hasn’t been around long, but the Storm has the nail-biting drama of games down pat.

This time, the newbies came out on top.

Seven weeks after a late penalty doomed Chanhassen on its home field against the Sabers, the Storm came to Shakopee as the No. 6 seed in the Class 5A, Section 6 tournament Tuesday and escaped with a 27-26 victory over the No. 3 seed and fifth-ranked big-school team in the state.

It is the first playoff victory for Chanhassen, which went 2-7 in each of its first two years as a program, including a 40-8 drubbing by the Sabers in last year’s tournament.

“It feels so good to get that taste out,” coach Bill Rosburg told his jubilant team afterward.

To scrub it away, the Storm (5-4) had to hang on in a game it had in hand.

A two-score lead late in the third quarter thanks largely to the efforts of Maverick Edmunds was erased in the fourth because of clutch plays by the Sabers.

Facing fourth down from the 47 with about 4 minutes to play, Nick Larson connected with Taylor Johnson for a 19-yard strike. Two plays later — and after a potentially devastating holding call — Larson hit Johnson for a 37-yard touchdown to make it 27-20 with 3:11 to play.

Johnson then picked off the Storm’s Ryan McGuire less than a minute later to set up the tense closing moments.

Shakopee (8-1) twice converted fourth-down plays on the final drive and scored with 17.6 seconds remaining on a 1-yard plunge by Johnson.

Sabers coach Jody Stone elected to go for two and the win, but Larson was caught on a bootleg play by Nathan Holasek to seal the victory.

“On a boot play, that’s the outside linebacker’s responsibility,” said Holasek, who also scored on a 6-yard run to make it 27-13 with 1:34 left in the third quarter. “We practice it every day. It was my job, and I had to get it done.”

For most of the night, Edmunds took care of the load. The 5-11, 175-pound senior rushed 37 times for 228 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the victory.

“Coaches said we needed some people to step up,” he said. “I chose that.”

One foot or two, Edmunds provides a spark

On its opening drive Tuesday, Chanhassen melted nearly four and a half minutes off the first quarter clock by orchestrating a 10-play, 52-yard drive capped by a Maverick Edmunds 1-yard touchdown dive up the middle. Edmunds ran for all but four yards of the march, but he was far from finished.

Also the team's kicker, Edmonds noticed considerable open space in front of him on the ensuing kickoff. So on a gamble - and unbeknownst to anyone else in the stadium including the Storm's coaching staff - Edmunds squibbed an onside kick.

The ball just barely went 10 yards before a scrum ensued and it was eventually recovered by Chanhassen on the 46 yard line. Though that drive stalled nine plays later on an interception deep in Shakopee territory, the Sabers didn't touch the ball on offense until three minutes remained in the opening quarter.

That game of keepaway proved vital in the dramatic one-point Chanhassen victory where every second mattered.

"From the start ... we were ready to make some plays," Edmunds said.

No kidding.

Edmunds eventually rushed 37 times for 228 yards and two touchdowns in the game. Along the way, he hurdled opponents and gained yards after being stood up in the backfield by Shakopee linemen.

Not bad for a guy who declared himself "dinged up" after the regular season finale against Red Wing six days earlier.

"He's a game-changer and a playmaker," Storm coach Bill Rosburg said. "You can't coach half of the things he does."

Like that onside kick?

Rosburg laughed.

"It's something we work on constantly," he said. "We just typically use it in an onside situation. But he made the play and that's not a surprise."

 

Related Stories