Sandhills/Thedford Faces Elgin PPJ for the Right to Play for the Class D2 State Football Championship

The Nebraska state high school football semifinals will be played today across the state of Nebraska in all classes.  The winners of today’s games will advance to the state championship game of their respective class.  The Sandhills/Thedford Knights are in the Class D2 state semifinals for the second year in a row.  Sandhills/Thedford has rolled through the playoffs to this point with wins over Lawrence-Nelson in round one (60-20), Mead (62-6) in round two, and Osceola (46-14) last week in the quarterfinals.  The Knights played in the D2 state championship in 2020 falling just short to BDS (Bruning Davenport Shickley) 36-28.  S/T head coach Josh Deines told KCNI/KBBN sports that his team is excited about being back in the state semifinals and is looking forward to the opportunity ahead of them.

 

Sandhills/Thedford will face Elgin Public/Pope John in the semifinal round.  EPPJ ended the regular season at 5-3 but has gotten on a roll in the playoffs.  Their playoff run began by avenging one of their regular season losses winning over St. Mary’s of O’Neill in round one 30-26.  The Wolfpack then defeated Bloomfield in round 2 (70-40) and knocked off Johnson Brock in the quarterfinals (22-10).  Both teams will look to run the ball tonight.  Sandhills/Thedford averages 282 rushing yards per game and is led by 1,000 yard rushers Dane Pokorny (1,081) and Trae Hickman (1,064).  Elgin Public/Pope John averages 275 rushing yards per game.  The Wolfpack is led by Jack Wemhoff who enters tonight’s game with 1,895 rushing yards on the season.  Coach Deines told Central Nebraska’s Sports Source than one of the keys defensively for the Knights will be the ability to adjust and handle the wide splits implemented by EPPJ.

 

Tonight’s game will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com.  Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.  The other Class D2 semifinal will feature undefeated Kenesaw against defending D2 champion BDS.  The game will take place at Kenesaw with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m.  The D2 championship game will take place November 22nd at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln with kickoff scheduled for 2:45 p.m.

Other semifinal games today include:
Class A
Omaha North vs Gretna
Bellevue West vs Omaha Westside

Class B
Bennington vs Elkhorn High
Omaha Skutt Catholic vs Aurora

Class C1
Pierce vs Battle Creek
Columbus Lakeview vs Kearney Catholic

Class C2
Norfolk Catholic vs Wilber-Clatonia
Ord vs Archbishop Bergan

Class D1
Burwell vs Howells-Dodge
Hitchcock County vs Cross County

Six Man
Potter-Dix vs Spalding Academy
Wallace vs Cody-Kilgore

Share: