MASON - Under a full November moon the Division I football spotlight shined on Moeller High School Friday night as the Crusaders will return to the state semifinals for the first time in seven years.
Moeller scored first and last and ended the season for Lakota West 21-17. Both scores featured No. 24 Jordan Marshall.
After going 2-8 in 2019 and 3-6 last year, Mark Elder has the Crusaders in the state final four. The key was not changing anything.
"We just came out and played our game," Elder said. "(We have) a ton of respect for Lakota West. We knew we had to go out and play our game which is, we're going to run the ball and we're going to throw the football. I know they're very, very talented in the back end. We didn't shy away from that. We kept a balanced attack throughout the game."
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Marshall, a sophomore running back, ran for 123 yards for the Crusaders and had the last score of the game early in the fourth quarter. Senior Noah Geselbracht gets to continue his career after going 14-for-20 passing for 140 yards. Geselbracht and Marshall collaborated on the opening score.
"Not many expected us to be in this situation at the beginning of the season besides ourselves," Geselbracht said. "Nobody predicted us to be at this point. It's an amazing feeling! Best feeling I've felt in my high school career for sure!"
As Geselbracht continued his interview, fellow Crusaders surrounded him echoing the thought that no one thught they would be the last Division I team standing in the Southwest District.
Afterward, the regional championship trophy was presented to tight end Josh Kattus, a Kentucky commit who is out for the season and on crutches. Helping achieve that trophy was the return of another UK commit, Brandon White who torched Lakota West twice for 63 yards..
"When Josh went down, we all talked with Brandon (who was also injured) and he told us he was coming back the next week," Geselbracht said. "We knew with Josh going down we were down an offensive weapon. Brandon coming right back gave us that explosiveness again."
Junior Mitch Bolden was 14-for-23 passing for 194 yards and a touchdown to another Kentucky commit, Alex Afari. Afari had five catches for 89 yards, but both he and junior Trent Lloyd dropped would-be touchdown passes that might have changed the outcome. Bolden also had a touchdown called back for crossing the line of scrimmage in the first half.
"Losing ain't fun brother, it's tough," Lakota West coach Tom Bolden saod. "Hat off to Moeller, they made more plays than we did tonight. We just didn't make the plays. From the first play of the game (dropped touchdown) to later on. I feel so bad for those kids. We just missed making those plays plain and simple."
Moeller, which came in as the No. 1 seed according to the OHSAA computer ratings, is now 11-3.
After early sputtering attempts to move the ball by both sides, Moeller caught a break late in the opening quarter when Joseph Ginnetti recovered a Firebird fumble on the 7-yard line. A play later Geselbracht zipped a touchdown pass to Marshall for the early edge.
Mitch Bolden got Lakota West in scoring position later with a 48-yard run to the red zone. However, the Firebirds were limited to a 30-yard Tyler Bohn field goal. Moeller responded on the next drive with a long completion from Geselbracht to White who used his blazing speed to make a 40-yard leaping catch.
Moeller would score on a Geselbracht to Jared Merk pass to get out to a double-digit lead. The lead would be cut when Bolden hit Alex Afari for a 37-yard tally.
Moeller was driving for another score late in the half, but junior linebacker Mike Brankamp snared Geselbracht's pass at the 1-yard line to stifle the threat, making it a 14-9 game. It was the first time Lakota West had trailed at half all season.
They answered quickly in the third quarter on the Bolden to Afari 37-yard touchdown, but that would be their last trip to the end zone of the season.
Marshall's fourth-quarter score put Moeller back up and the Crusaders' defense was able to keep the Firebirds off of the scoreboard as they had run out of timeouts and eventually time.
"We didn't change anything," Marshall said of Moeller's plan. "We did the same stuff we've been doing these past couple weeks. I did this for my team, not just for me."
Lakota West had reeled off 11 straight wins since dropping its season-opener at St. Xavier 31-14. The Firebirds season ends at 11-2.
In addition to Afari moving on to Kentucky, it was the final high school game locally for Ohio State Buckeye commits Jyaire Brown and Tegra Tshabola.
"It's tough to swallow," Coach Bolden said. "I feel terrible for the seniors. Listen, we're going to be really good next year. We're going to be fine. We've got a lot of guys coming back. I just feel bad for the seniors knowing we probably didn't play our best."
Moeller now faces Springfield in the state semifinals at a location to be determined. The game will be Friday, Nov. 26 at 7 p.m.
"It means the world to those kids," Elder said. "This senior class before this year won five games in two years. It's hard to walk the hallways. They believed in themselves and believed in each other."
LAKOTA WEST 0 9 8 0 17
MOELLER 7 7 0 7 21
M - Geselbracht 7-yard pass to Marshall (Steele kick)
LW - Bohn 30-yard FG
M - Geselbracht 4-yard pass to Merk (Steele kick)
LW - Bolden 37-yard pass to Afari (kick blocked)
LW - Bolden 6-yard run (Bolden pass to Lloyd)
M - Marshall 3-yard run (Steele kick)
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