The Audubon Wheelers came up on the short end in the 8-Man Football Quarterfinals on Friday night with a 64-32 loss to Remsen St. Mary’s at Chis Jones Field. Two early fumbles and a short punt gave Remsen St. Mary’s short fields that the Hawks took advantage of to go up early 20-0 and the Wheelers tried to play catch up the rest of the night in the battle of top 3 teams.

Remsen St. Mary’s recovered a fumble on Audubon’s second play of their second possession at the Wheeler 36 yard line. 5 plays later they scored on a 4th down pass from Derrick Shorg to Kenny Bohnenkamp to go up 6-0 after a missed PAT. A short punt from the Wheelers on their next possession gave the Hawks the ball at the Wheeler 25. The Hawks struck on another 4th down with an 18 yard touchdown run by Shorg. The 2pt run by Shorg would put the Hawks up 14-0. The Wheelers had a promising drive going to try to answer back on the next possession but lost a fumble at the 18 yard line on a 4th down sneak attempt by Tyler Reibhoff on the second play of the second quarter. 4 plays later Canaan Cox broke a 36 yard touchdown run and Remsen St. Mary’s led 20-0.

Audubon got on the board on the next possession after a big play got them to the 1 yard line, Josh Lange plunged in for the touchdown. Roope Niskanen missed the PAT off the upright and it was a 20-6 ballgame. On the ensuing kickoff a rare short kick from Niskanen gave Canaan Cox a chance for a return and he took it back 76 yards for a touchdown. The Hawks added another score before the end of the half and the Wheeler defense prevented a late scoring chance to make it 36-6 at halftime.

Audubon showed some resolve in the third quarter as they got the first two touchdowns of the second half to get within 36-19. The teams would then trade touchdowns for the next 7 possessions of the game. The Wheelers closed the gap to a two possession game with a Reibhoff pass to Lane Lawson to end the 3rd quarter but the Hawks drove down the field for another Schorg rushing touchdown to answer back. That was the theme of the night, the Wheelers would make it interesting and the Hawks would answer with big plays.

Canaan Cox finished with 4 rushing touchdowns and that kickoff return score to lead the Hawks to the semifinals next Thursday. Derrick Schorg finished with 2 passing touchdowns and 2 rushing touchdowns to help the Hawks effort.  Remsen St. Mary’s improves to 10-0 with the win and they will face Fremont-Mills in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls next Thursday at 12:06pm.  The Knights were 35-9 victors over Sidney.

Audubon has their terrific season end at 10-1. Senior Quarterback Tyler Reibhoff had two scoring passes to Lane Lawson and one rushing score on the night. Fellow seniors Josh Lange and Nolan Smith each had a rushing score in the effort. The Wheelers say goodbye to a senior class of 9 that piled up a career 33-8 record and ushered the Wheelers strongly into 8-man play last year.