High School Anna Rockets

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

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11/10/05

DIVISION V, REGION 20
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
At Piqua Alexander Stadium
Records: Anna 10-1; LCC 10-1
• Offense
Anna: The Rockets are averaging 37.6 points per game. Three different players scored rushing touchdowns in last week’s 28-7 win over Cincinnati Harmony. Cory Sniffen has rushed for more than 1,100 yards.
LCC: LCC rushed for 223 yards in its opening-round win over Versailles. Ryan Nathan led the team with 107 yards on 11 carries. Adam Good added 93 yards on 16 carries with three touchdowns.
Advantage: LCC
• Defense
Anna: Anna has given up just 47 points through 11 games. The most it allowed all season was 13 in a 13-7 loss to Arcanum in Week 9.
LCC: The T-Birds are allowing just 10.7 points per game. The most they have allowed all season is 21 in a season-opening loss to Elida. Justin Askins has a team-high 87 tackles with seven sacks. Nick Page leads with nine sacks.
Advantage: Draw
• Key Matchup — Line vs. Line: Both offenses are run-oriented, placing a premium on who controls the line of scrimmage.
• X-Factor — Staying focused: Which team can maintain the momentum it established in the first round of the playoffs?
• Notes — Anna’s first-round playoff win was its first ever, despite making the playoffs the previous five years. LCC is also coming off its first playoff win. Both teams are joining new conferences in 2006 — LCC the Northwest Conference and Anna the Midwest Athletic Conference.
• Quotable
“They’re really good up front, both offensively and defensively. That’s the strength of their team. They’ve got some nice skill kids. A lot of times when we evaluate a team, we look to see where they’re hiding kids. Usually there are one or two kids that they’re hiding. We really can’t find anybody that (LCC) is hiding.”
— Anna coach Bryan Rioch
“They’re not quite as big and physical as some of the teams we’ve played. But they use a lot of misdirection, a lot of sweep. They almost try to finesse you with their offense. Then defensively, they’re a 4-4 base defense.
“But they’re real soft on the outside and real soft in the secondary. It’s hard to get those great big plays against them. If you look at their tapes, they didn’t give up very many big plays. We’ll have to work to get offense and we’ll have to be patient because I don’t think we’re going to rip off a bunch of great big runs.”
— LCC coach Jerry Cooper

 

[Jeffcat]

I give a lot of credit to anna in their loss to LCC. to be honest it was a rather bland game to watch first quarter nothing whatsoever occurred. second quarter anna made a long pass play and then 2 plays later the quarterback was blindsinded, funbled the ball, and LCC's alex donley ran it back 78yds for a td. the very next kickoff anna never made an attempt to get the ball and LCC recovered the live ball. take those 2 plays out and its very likely anna could have won. anna didnt seem to have a solid offensive line but i can see them being competitive in the MAC next year.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

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11/14/05

Anna can't overcome mistakes

4th-quarter rally comes up short after five-turnover night

PIQUA — Lima Central Catholic's Jerry Cooper has coached long enough to know that any playoff win is a good win. But the coach and his Thunderbirds were relieved to finally board the buses and leave Piqua in their rearview mirrors on Friday.

Anna nearly pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback in the Division V regional semifinals, but fell 19-14 in front of about 6,000 spectators at Alexander Stadium/Purk Field. The Rockets, who scored all their points in the fourth, couldn't overcome an uncharacteristic five turnovers and two untimely miscues in the first half.

Still — despite LCC missing three field goals and having all 11 drives reach Anna territory — the Rockets trailed just 19-14 with
3:25 left in the game.

Anna had two more cracks at it. An LCC interception off a deflection at the Rockets' 45-yard line with 2:10 left halted one drive. Then, after forcing a punt with no timeouts left, the Rockets gained just 4 yards to their own 29 on their final four plays. LCC ran out the final 20 seconds.

"The story of the night is we didn't make any plays when we needed to," Anna coach Bryan Rioch said. "They're very aggressive and physically better than us up front."

In the first half, LCC's defense spent as much time in the Anna backfield as the Rockets did. Five of Anna's seven first-half drives went 3 yards or less. The other two featured a 33-yard run and 52-yard pass that both seemed destined for TDs only to have LCC's last defender make the tackle.

"This wasn't our best performance," LCC coach Jerry Cooper said. "When you get to the playoffs, you have to try and survive and make it to the next level."

LCC took a 7-0 lead after Cameron Huggins blindsided Anna quarterback Kyle Muehlfeld, and Alex Donley returned the fumble 73 yards with 8:43 left in the first half. The Thunderbirds' kickoff then fluttered to an open spot down the sideline with the closet Rocket at least 5 yards away. LCC recovered and scored six plays later.

Besides the missed field goals (17, 33, 27) LCC also missed an extra-point attempt and failed on a conversion run.

Anna rallied with Cory Sniffen's 7-yard TD pass from Muehlfeld with 11:29 left in the game — only to give up another LCC TD. The Rockets' next possession resulted in Kreg Elsass' 46-yard TD strike from Muehlfeld with 8:08 remaining.

Unofficially, LCC ground out 207 yards rushing and 280 in total offense. But Anna's defense — which Cooper called the fastest he's seen this season — kept bailing out the Rockets. LCC started seven possessions in Anna territory, yet scored just six points off them.

Sniffen accounted for 61 of Anna's 90 yards rushing. Muehlfeld completed 9-of-20 passes for 198 yards.