Seneca’s season ends with 21-14 playoff loss to Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin

BISMARCK – The Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin football team was able to do something no other opponent has really been able to do to Seneca this season.

The Blue Devils were able to slow down the Fighting Irish running game.

BHRA – which held Seneca to 137 yards on the ground, 210 below its season average – broke a tie on the first play of the fourth quarter and then recovered an Irish fumble at the Blue Devils' 28. The hosts were able to run out the remaining eight minutes of the contest for a 21-14 victory at Peyton-Moss Field.

It's the first time in now 15th straight playoff berths that BHRA (11-0) advanced past the second round. Seneca finished a third straight solid season at 9-2.

"Those things happen," Seneca coach Terry Maxwell said of the fumble. "There were still eight minutes left, but we just couldn't get another stop.

"They are big up front, and they made us work for everything we got. I thought we had some seams here and there to hit a big play, but they were able to close those seams quickly on us like they did on the play we fumbled."

After stopping Seneca on the game's opening possession at their 10, BHRA marched 90 yards in 15 plays, ending with an Evan Parish 2-yard scoring run and Anderson Thomas PAT with under a minute to go in the quarter. Then after forcing a punt in which Seneca's Cameron Shriey pinned them back at their own 7, the Blue Devils moved the ball to near midfield before Parish got behind the Irish defense for a 52-yard TD reception from Thomas.

"Thomas did a heck of a job at QB today, he audibled to some things, in fact four times on that last drive when he saw they were really keying on Parish," BHRA coach Mark Dodd said. "I feel like we went spread just enough and at the right times over the course of the game to keep them out of the box a little bit."

Seneca tied the game on the next possession, going 61 yards on 15 plays, ending with Shriey running in from the 2. The highlight of the drive was Shriey's 31-yard run on a fake punt on fourth-and-9 at the Seneca 40.

Shriey led Seneca with 70 yards rushing on 10 attempts, with Brody Rademacher adding 46 on 11.

"It wasn't a designed fake, but he had the green light there, and that's the reason why we try to have an athlete as our punter," Maxwell said. "When he took off, I wasn't sure he was going to make it, but sometimes players see things on the field that coaches can't see from the sideline."

On the following kickoff, Paxton Giertz's short boot spun away from BHRA's upback, and Travis Barr made the recovery at the Blue Devils' 35.

"Paxton is such a good overall athlete," Maxwell said, "and he can place the ball on kickoffs nearly anywhere we ask him to. ... Then you've got a kid like Travis who just busted his butt to get to the spot and then did a great job of securing the ball. That one just fell right for us."

The next play saw Giertz thread the needle between two defenders for a 30-yard completion to Rademacher before Shriey punched it in on the next play. Giertz added the PAT kick to leave the teams tied at 14 at halftime.

"Those two special teams plays really turned the tide, and then their quarterback just put that pass right in between our two defenders, which was very impressive," Dodd said. "That is a tough team to defend.

"You have to play inside-out against a team like Seneca. You first have to stop the fullback on the trap, and then work your way to the outside. You have to play disciplined defense every single play, and if you don't, that team is going to be running in open space. We saw on film that every kid that carries the ball for them can break one."

Both sides were forced to punt on their first chances in the second half. The Blue Devils then completed a 10-play, 59-yard drive with Thomas (7 of 10, 116 yards) hitting Chaz Dubois (four receptions, 54 yards) for a 7-yard TD six seconds into the fourth.

Seneca moved the ball from its 45 to the BHRA 28 before the aforementioned fumble.

BHRA – which finished with 369 total yards, including 180 on 28 carries by Parish – was able to convert four first downs, including three on third down, to keep the ball away for Seneca.

"We had some question marks to start the season. We lost a pretty special group of seniors and only had a couple players back on both sides of the ball," Maxwell said. "But the guys this year went against those seniors last year, learned a lot from them and got better in the offseason into this season. The work this year's seniors put in is incredible. They came a long way.

"Today didn't work out the way we wanted, but these kids left it all on the field today and should be very proud of what they've accomplished."