Furious fourth quarter rally falls short

SHEFFIELD — Down 20-0 heading into the fourth quarter, West Fork’s football team outscored Algona Garrigan 14-0, but couldn’t get the ball back to complete the comeback on Friday, Oct. 18.

The Warhawks were forced to go 3-and-out to start the game and the Golden Bears took the lead for good with a nine-play drive capped by a 16-yard touchdown run by Colby Graves.

Following another 3-and-out by the Warhawks, Garrigan was in command with another solid drive, this time for 10 plays that was finished off by a five-yard run by Derrick Kirsch.

“We need to play like we did in the second half for all four quarters,” West Fork coach James Perez said, “not just two. It’s about playing 40 minutes, it’s what it’s all about, bottom line.”

Both two-point conversion runs failed as the Golden Bears led 12-0 at the half.

However, with less than a minute left in the third quarter, Garrigan went up 20-0 on an 18-yard run by Graves with the Golden Bears the recipients of a short field as West Fork went for it on fourth down in Garrigan territory, being knocked for a loss.

From there, the Warhawks put together a seven-play drive that Brett Weaver finished off with a hard 13-yard run. The ensuing onside kick by Ren Heimer was recovered by Tyler Nuehring and West Fork was in business again.

“Yeah (the onside kick was planned),” Perez said, “except it wasn’t supposed to go that high in the air, but we got it back.”

Eight plays later, Ian Latham carried in the second West Fork touchdown from two yards out to notch his 10th touchdown of the season and go past the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the second straight season.

He had 31 yards on 16 carries, also completing a pass to quarterback Kellen Cameron for 27 yards that was key in the initial West Fork scoring drive.

Heimer’s point-after kick was good to bring the Warhawks to within a score.

Rather than going for another onside kick, Heimer booted the ball well into the end zone and Garrigan kept its drive alive as time ran out on the Warhawks.

“We kind of took some of the things they were running, figuring they would,” Perez said. “We stuck to our game plan, just came up short.”

In order to finish the season on a good note and complete a winning season, the first since 2010 when Seth Tuttle quarterbacked the team to a playoff appearance at 6-4, the Warhawks must take on North Union (2-6).

“We’re going over there to play a very good North Union team,” Perez said. “They like to throw the ball around, spread it around a little bit, so that could make things interesting, dicey. We just have to play our game of football and get back on track.”

Algona Garrigan 20, West Fork 14

Garrigan  12       0       8       0        -     20

WF               0       0       0     14        -     14

First quarter

AG – Colby Graves 16 run (run fail) 6:13

AG – Derrick Kirsch 5 run (run fail) 0:50.3

Third quarter

AG – Graves 19 run (Cameron Baade pass from Marcus Plathe) 0:48.9

Fourth quarter

WF – Brett Weaver 13 run (Ren Heimer kick) 10:09

WF – Ian Latham 2 run (Heimer kick) 7:16

TEAM STATISTICS

                                             AG             WF

First downs                            18              12

Rushes-yards                 51-122       32-100

Passing                                 20              80

Comp-att-int                    3-35-0        5-12-0

Punts-avg.                       5-40.2           4-33

Fumbles-lost                         0-0             0-0

Penalties-yards                   6-72           4-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – AG, Colby Graves 30-170-2, Derrick Kirsch 14-51-1, Marcus Plathe 1-3-0, Cameron Baade 1-1-0, Jack Snyder 1-0-0, Kellen Murphy 4-(3)-0. WF, Brett Weaver 8-43-1, Ian Latham 16-31-1, Kellen Cameron 5-15-0, Kayden Ames 3-11-0. PASSING – AG, Graves 1-1-0-13-0, Plathe 1-1-0-21-0, Murphy 1-1-0-1-0. WF, Cameron 4-10-0-53-0, Latham 1-2-0-27-0. RECEIVING – AG, Graves 1-21-0, Aidan Hovey 1-12-0, Joseph Trainer 1-1-0. WF, Brayden Vold 2-37-0, Cameron 1-27-0, Weaver 1-10-0, Ames 1-6-0. TACKLES – AG, NA. WF, Weaver 8-8-12, Nate Hubka 4-5-6.5, Tyler Nuehring 3-7-6.5, Josiah Chibambo 2-7-5.5, Latham 3-4-5, Justice Cassady 3-2-4, Levi Janssen 3-2-4, Nate Akins 2-3-3.5, Cameron 2-3-3.5. TFL – AG, NA. WF, T. Nuehring. SACKS – AG, NA. WF (T. Nuehring). FUMBLE RECOVERIES – AG, None. WF, None. INTERCEPTIONS – AG, None. WF, None.