Timely recovery: Elsen gobbling up onside kick allows South Shelby to finish off state quarterfinal victory

FAUCETT, Mo. — Had the Mid-Buchanan football team recovered an onside kick for the second time in the final two minutes of Saturday’s Class 2 state quarterfinal, South Shelby’s Cooper Elsen knows the Cardinals would have looked quite foolish.

He didn’t let that happen.

The All-Clarence Cannon Conference senior lineman corralled and smothered Raife Smith’s squibber with 1 minute, 29 seconds remaining in regulation, allowing the Cardinals to squeeze out a 28-26 victory and reach the state semifinals for the first time since 2011.

“I was extremely grateful that I was able to get on that ball,” Elsen said.

Everyone was.

“The energy was crazy coming from the stands and the sideline,” South Shelby junior linebacker Payton Hetheriton said.

Elsen did exactly what he’d been taught to do — fall on the ball — and nothing more.

“I saw it spinning and I could tell it was going to take a hop,” he said. “I got it right when it took a hop and just fell on it. No one was getting it from me.”

It was the second big coverage play in the closing minutes for the Cardinals.

After Mid-Buchanan turned the recovery of an onside kick with 2:05 to go into a four-play scoring drive — Smith connected with Zander Brown on a 30-yard touchdown pass — the Dragons went for a two-point conversion to tie the game.

However, Smith was taken out of the game before the conversion attempt after being hammered on the pass play to Brown. So the Dragons went with a running play on the conversion, handing the ball to tailback Ian Wegenka on a sweep toward the right sideline.

Hetheriton read the bal, avoided getting blocked and dragged Wegenka down short of the goal line to preserve the two-point advantage,

“I just saw them loading up that side and I knew it was going to be an ISO that way or everyone was going to block that way,” Hetheriton said. “I knew I had to go and make a play and step up. 

“It felt amazing to know that we got the stop. It was really huge for us.”

Almost as huge as building a 20-0 halftime lead.

After senior linebacker Gabe Bowen sacked Smith on fourth and 3 from the Cardinals’ 28-yard line to force a turnover on downs on the game’s opening possession, South Shelby went 66 yards on 10 plays for a Pryce Eagan 8-yard touchdown run.

Another fourth-down stop in South Shelby territory led to another Cardinals’ touchdown, this time junior quarterback Chase Moellering sneaking in from the 1-yard line for a 14-0 lead. Moellering’s run was set up when Cooper Elsen recovered a fumble the play before.

“Running backs were hitting the holes hard and the line was blocking,” Elsen said. “We just wanted to put some points on the board.”

Eagan’s second touchdown of the first half — a 64-yard pass from Moellering with 1:56 remaining in the second quarter — gave the Cardinals a 20-0 halftime lead.

“We were rolling and putting drives together,” South Shelby running back Preston Elsen said.

However, the Cardinals weren’t able to put the game away in the second half due to self-inflicted wounds. Moellering was intercepted on a pass that slipped out of his hand on the first possession of the third quarter, and South Shelby committed two other turnovers in the second half.

“Those were our mistakes,” Cooper Elsen said. “Our errors cost us almost.”

Almost, but not entirely thanks to a defense that buckled down and ensured the Cardinals the opportunity to play at home once more.

South Shelby will play host to No. 1-ranked Fair Grove, which beat Lafayette County 14-13 on the road in the quarterfinals, at 2 p.m. next Saturday at Charles Rash Memorial Field, where the Cardinals are 17-2 over the last three seasons.

“We love playing out here on the Cardinal head,” Hetheriton said. “It means a lot to us.”