Red Bud ends magical season
The Musketeers were held off the board as Casey-Westfield carded a 17-0 home victory in the quarterfinals of the IHSA Class 2A playoffs.
"We didn't play our best," Red Bud coach Dave Lucht said. "We played our best (in the 35-0 win over Red Hill) the week before."We got off to a slow start. We were constantly battling to get out of our own half. It was the first time all year where I felt like we wore down. I don't know if it was because of the way the playoffs are set up or what, but we weren't ourselves."
The Warriors got a leg up when Josh Dinckel kicked a 30-yard field goal midway through the first quarter.
Red Bud's defense held the home side off the board through the rest of the first half, but the offense couldn't generate points and the Musketeers trailed 3-0 at the break.
"We have a lot of confidence in our defense," Lucht said. "We only had a few breakdowns."
One of those breakdowns came in the secondary as Westfield made it 10-0 with 4:28 to play in the third quarter on a 30-yard pass from Mitch Snyder to Aaron Rhoads.
"Rhoads got behind our secondary and gave us fits," Lucht said. "That was our only negative. They were looking for him the whole time. On the touchdown it was a fourth and one and they went for the end zone and got it."
The Warriors tacked on a 29-yard rushing touchdown from Sean Craig with 1:54 to play.
"There were only two plays that really hurt us," Lucht said. "On the second touchdown we were bringing more guys to get to the quarterback and they got away for the score. They were only about 30 yards ahead of us in total yards for the game."
The loss closed the book on Red Bud's magical 10-2 season, a remarkable rise for a program which has suffered through a Dark Age of heavy losses before storming the gridiron this fall.
"I wish we were still playing," Lucht said. "I've been sitting around, wondering what we could have done differently, but a lot of good things happened this season. The biggest thing will be next year and how the team responds. That will be the big test.
"It was phenomenal what this season did for the program. There were at least 500 people that traveled to the game Saturday. It was great to see so many people there, players, coaches and members of the community happy and excited about Red Bud football."
