Sweet Springs’s post-season football run came to an end Saturday afternoon in the MSHSAA eight-man state semifinals when the Greyhounds lost at home to St. Joseph Le Blond, 44-22, in action heard on KMMO-FM.
The visiting Golden Eagles never trailed as they scored the first four times they got their hands on the ball. Le Blond was ahead 14-6 after one quarter and then 30-6 late in the second period with Sweet Springs able to compete on near-even terms against the St. Joseph school after that.
Golden Eagle quarterback Landon Gardner threw for four touchdowns and ran for another Saturday, giving him 50 scoring passes and 23 rushing TDs on the year.
He found wide receiver Jake Korell (Core-ell) for a nine-yard touchdown strike in addition to a 38-yard shovel pass, helping the visitors to their first-period lead. Later, he connected with Jacob Winkelbauer on a six-yard toss and also Jackson Sigart (Cee-gart) for a 14-yard aerial, allowing the visitors to secure the win.
On the ground, Gardner added a one-yard TD sneak to the mix after Jake Korell had chipped in with an 11-yard touchdown carry on a jet sweep.
Sweet Springs’s Blake Schroeder ended his year with 41 rushing touchdowns as he scored on runs of one and two yards during the first half before finding Seth Rader for a five-yard TD strike with five minutes left in the contest.
Le Blond finished with 486 yards of total offense as Gardner passed for 305 of them while running for another 115 during the day.
Sweet Springs was held to 179 yards overall with Blake Schroder rushing for 94 in addition to throwing for another 45.
Seeing a four-game winning streak come to an end, the Greyhounds wrapped up their year with a mark of 8-5.Sweet Springs coach Jeff Holtzman said his team’s senior leadership made an impact on the team’s success.
St. Joseph Le Blond has now won eight in a row. They’ll take a 10-3 record into Thursday night’s state championship game at Faurot Field in Columbia where they’ll meet unbeaten North Andrew, a team that defeated the Golden Eagles, 64-36 back in early September.