Congratulations, you have qualified for post season football in Iowa. No, you are not in the playoffs. Only those who win this first game are actually in the playoffs. This is actually a sub-state game. No, the host school doesn’t get to keep the gate that is all going to the state high school athletic association. Of course there will some good games. After all, the second place team in one district will be playing the third place team from a different district. Yes that does also mean that the first place team will be playing the fourth place team from those same districts. This was the fate of the Panthers of Creston High School.
The Panthers, making their first post season appearance since 2005, faced a tough opponent in the defending Class 3A champions, the Crusaders of Bishop Heelan High School. These two teams did have one common opponent this year. Both teams played the Harlan Cyclones this season. Heelan lost 24-6 at Harlan in a non-district match while the Panthers lost 44-0 in district play. That was the Crusaders only loss of the season. Creston entered the contest with a 5-4 record.
Perhaps the best way to explain how this game went is to tell you that the fourth quarter of the game was played mainly by freshman while Creston kept their varsity in the majority of the game. This game was complete domination by the Crusaders as is shown in this video from the Sioux City Journal. The Crusaders came out on top of this game 66-2.
Now I have to admit, my oldest two children are students at Heelan. I go to every sporting event that I can and am a big fan. In the midst of the 38 point second quarter, I was beginning to feel sorry for the fan and players from Creston. The biggest question that comes to mind though is why does the state feel the need for this extra round of playoffs? There are a couple of ways to look at this.
Firs t of all, for those that support this decision, this gives twice as many boys in Iowa the chance to participate in post season play. While this game and a few others came out very ugly, this scoreboard shows that there were some close games as well. In the District 1 vs. District 8 matchup that took place in this part of the state, two of the third place teams beat the second place teams on the road. The first to fourth place matchups were another story.
For those that do not support this round of football post season play, it is another way for the state athletic association to pick up money. They keep the vast majority of the money from the gates. While attendance was down a little bit from the regular season, it was still a descent crowd in Sioux City. Also, this means that if a team advances to the state quarterfinals, they will play four games in two weeks time with the last regular season game on Friday, October 23rd, the Sub-state game on Wednesday, October 28th, the first round playoff game on Monday, November 2nd, and the quarterfinal game on Friday, November 6th.
For those boys that lost this first game, yes it may be crushing, but at least they can say they participated.
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I am torn on this subject. As a fan I would say that don't make those really bad teams suffer like that. As a player, however, I would have to say that I would like to take that one last chance to get farther into the playoffs. I would have to say that playing 4 games in 2 weeks would be very physically challenging. Also, I would worry for the players on the bad team's health.
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