Edmunds County Tribune -

Ipswich/Edmunds Central dropped its Class 9A Region 1 high school football playoffs' opener to Britton-Hecla by a 74 to 20 verdict last Thursday in Britton. That loss ended the Tigers' playoffs hopes, leaving them 4-6 on the season. Britton-Hecla, now 8-0, advances into the next round to host Burke.

The Braves were led by Stanley Haskins Jr. with five rushing-yard touchdowns of 51, 47, 20, 3 and 25 yards, respectively, not to mention his opening 83-yard kickoff return to paydirt. (He also ran that PAT play for an 8-0 Braves' lead before the visitors even touched the football.) Haskins totaled 217 yards on the ground with 21 carries for a busy evening indeed.

But given an opportunity, the Tigers put together an impressive opening drive that was eventually stymied by a Braves' goal line stand. Still the hosts were forced to punt from their own end zone, as the Tigers' own defense rose to the occasion. So I-EC again received great field position at the B-H 28. But the hosts intercepted a pass to kill that drive and again got the ball back from deep in their own territory at the five-yard line. The result was a TD pass thrown by Aiden Fredrickson that covered 95 yards to Wyatt Bray on the catch and run and another Haskins' PAT carry for a two-possession 16-0 lead. (Fredrickson was pressed into service as the starting quarterback, subbing for the injured Trevor Zuelhke.)

And it was indeed a busy opening quarter, as the Tigers started their next possession from their own 35-yard line, culminated by a 27-yard TD pass from senior Ethan Gilbert to Ty Kadlec. But the PAT play failed, leaving the visitors down 16-6. And the hosts struck quickly for a touchdown and conversion pass for a 24-6 first-quarter advantage. They extended that to 52-6 at the half.

But the never-say-die Tigers strung together a third-quarter scoring drive, due largely to their potent air attack. Kaden Hix capped the drive with a nine-yard scoring run, followed by a Gilbert PAT pass to Kadlec. It left I-EC down 52-14, but the hosts responded with their own score and successful PAT play to restore their advantage to 60-14. Gilbert then found Josh McQuarie from 18 yards out, making the Tigers' deficit 60-20 with a quarter to play. But the host closed out the game via the mercy rule with back to back fourth-quarter scoring drives.

Gilbert finished 18-28-2 for 252 yards, with his favorite receiver being Kadlec, who caught 7 throws for 110 yards. Hix was next at 6-61, followed by Jordan Richardt, 2-45 and McQuarie at 2-34. But the Tigers didn't fare nearly as well on the ground, led by Carson Gohl at 12-21 and Hix 7-14.

The hosts, meanwhile, enjoyed a 364-yard rushing attack plus a 3-6 128-yard passing effort from Fredrickson.

Defensively McQuarie and Luke Peterson each featured six tackles to lead the Tigers there.

The other seniors besides Gilbert this year were Dillon Weig, Jordan Richardt, Carter Heinz, Lucas Metzinger, Derrick Dobberpuhl and Tyrone Braun.