Undermanned Cordell falls short in playoff loss (w/video)

  • Undermanned Cordell falls short in playoff loss
    Undermanned Cordell falls short in playoff loss
  • ABOVE: Cordell seniors get together for one last post-game photo after the team’s 49-22 loss against Thomas. LEFT: Acting coach Dillon Ball watches the action. Ball was filling in for Zane Trammell, who had to miss the game because he contracted COVID-19. COURTESY PHOTOS BY CHARLINDA OGLE
    ABOVE: Cordell seniors get together for one last post-game photo after the team’s 49-22 loss against Thomas. LEFT: Acting coach Dillon Ball watches the action. Ball was filling in for Zane Trammell, who had to miss the game because he contracted COVID-19. COURTESY PHOTOS BY CHARLINDA OGLE

    The highs of a first-round playoff win didn’t last too long for the Cordell Blue Devils football team.

    Reality came crashing down, but it didn’t have a lot to do with the play on the field.

    Like it has for much of 2020, COVID-19 dealt a cruel fate to the Blue Devils as they prepared for the second round Class A playoff matchup vs. the Thomas Terriers in Thomas.

    First, head coach Zane Trammell contracted the virus, which caused him to miss the game. Then several players had to quarantine because of possible exposure and missed the game.

    When the whistle sounded to kick off the game, Cordell had only 13 players eligible to play.

    And it showed against the powerful Thomas team, which would go on to win 49-22 on Friday night.

    “We knew it was going to be tough going in,” acting head coach Dillon Ball said. “We were down to 13 guys, five linemen up front. It’s tough when you’re in those circumstances, but the boys wanted to play. The senior group, great group of leaders, just came and fought about it like they always do. Just a fun group of guys to be around, fun group to coach.”

    Senior Gavin Jasmer said the lack of substitute players was hard to overcome.

    “It was tough. We made do with the boys we had, and we still had all of our seniors, and those are the boys who lead the team,” he said. “We played hard. We played as hard as we could.”

    Senior quarterback Raydon Kuehne agreed.

    “You knew it was going to be a challenge. You were just hoping no one got hurt, and that we could just stick it out for one last time, one last game,” he said. “Under the circumstances that we had tonight, we did what we could do.”

    The Blue Devils started slow, couldn’t muster much offense or defense in the first quarter, and fell behind 28-0 with 3:42 left in the first quarter.

    But there was no quit in the team. And for most of the second quarter, Cordell fought hard to make it a game.

    A 2-yard touchdown run by Adden Zanghi got Cordell on the board. Then a 38-yard strike from Kuehne to Dane Corbin and a Kuehne to Zanghi two-point conversion cut the deficit to 28-14 with 1:36 left to play in the first half.

    Kuehne was still gimpy from an ankle injury he suffered during the Blue Devils’ 43-22 first-round playoff win over Burns Flat-Dill City.

    He spent a lot of time in physical therapy during the week, but it was still hard to move, he said.

    “It was just tough to move. I couldn’t move,” he said. “I was probably playing like at 60 percent.”

    Even at 60 percent, though, Kuehne helped his team get back in the game.

    But as quick as Blue Devils had the momentum, the Terriers took it back. A 70-yard TD pass allowed the Terriers to extend their lead to 35-14 going into the half.

    “That last touchdown going into half kind of put us behind the eight ball again,” Ball said.

    And for all intents and purposes, the game was over at that point. Neither team scored at the level of points they did in the first half.

    But Corbin scored his second TD of the game, this time on a 16-yard run, and Zangi converted another two-point try.

    “I was just glad we were able to still come out,” Corbin said. “We still had 11 people. Came to do what we could do.”

    Earlier in the game, Corbin appeared to have a 50-yard TD run when he took the handoff from Kuehne, ran up the middle, cut to the left sideline and sprinted down the sideline.

    He dove for the endzone but was ruled out at the 2-yard line.

    “I think I did fall a little short,” he said. “But it just felt good to get a long run in.”

    There was a scary moment in the third quarter for Cordell fans when Jasmer appeared to suffer a serious injury.

    Jasmer was down for about 10 minutes as he was tended to, but ultimately he walked to the sidelines under his own power.

    “I got rocked,” Jasmer said. “I put my head down on a tackle, which I shouldn’t have done, and I got hurt.”

    Jasmer said after the game that he was aware of what was going on while officials tended to him.

    “Yeah I’m not crippled as you can tell,” he joked.

    After the game, Kuehne and Jasmer reflected on the season and what comes next for them.

    “Next will be wrestling, and I’m going to give that my all,” Jasmer said. “Senior year is going by fast; hopefully, it slows down.”

    Kuehne said the season was good.

    “If you combine all the points we got beat by, it was a total of 10 (coming into the Thomas game),” he said. “We were in every game, we fought hard, we did what we could do.”

    Meanwhile, Ball was pleased with the effort of his team.

    “You never want to give up 49 points, especially being defensive coach, but I thought they fought and battled,” he said.