Wolverines win wild one on homecoming in Griswold

East Mills survived a late Griswold comeback in a wild 58-56 shootout victory in Eight-player, District 10 football on homecoming in Griswold Friday.
The two teams combined for 114 points and over 800 yards of offense in a three plus hours game the Wolverines led by 18 points with just six minutes to go in the contest before taking a knee on its final snap to ice the victory.
 “We just battled hard,” said East Mills coach Trent Turney after the game. “Griswold is full of seniors, it was their homecoming, their senior night, and it was a great eight-man football game. They came and executed. We came up a little short on defense but offensively we stuck in there, special teams we stuck in there.”
Both teams came out moving the ball early but after a quiet quarter and a half, the Tigers held a slim 6-2 lead before the Wolverines were able to find the endzone. Quarterback Caleb Urban’s four-yard scamper and the point-after put East Mills out front 9-6 with just over six minutes to go in the half.
The two would trade touchdowns on each of their ensuing drives, and Griswold would wrestle the lead back to 20-16 on Bode Wyman’s 14-yard TD toss to Auden Wilson with just under two minutes remaining in the half.
The Griswold defense then forced a punt to get the ball back to their offense, but disaster struck when Wolverine linebacker Jackson Embree forced a fumble, scooped it up and rumbled down to the six-yard line with :29 left in the half. On the very next play, Urban connected with Nick Mayer for a touchdown to give East Mills a 22-20 lead heading into intermission.
The Wolverines would carry that momentum over into the third quarter when they forced a three-and-out and then blocked a Tiger punt to take over at the Griswold two-yard line. Embree capped this drive himself to make the lead 29-20 with 10:24 to go in the frame.
The lead was just nine points, but the momentum swing was palpable for East Mills. They scored on their next six drives to take a 58-40 lead with 6:24 to go in the game.
But the Tigers would not go so quietly. Their defense would stiffen to force a turnover and two punts on the next three Wolverine possessions and Wyman would engineer touchdown drives of 58 yards and 26 yards to trim the lead to 58-56 with 1:28 to go. East Mills would recover the Tigers’ onside kick and take a knee twice to run out the clock on the comeback and the game.
Griswold coach Seth Lembke said how his team closed the first half and then opened the second proved pivotal at time when the game was up for grabs.
“When making that play call at the end of the half, we were kind of floating around with ‘Ok, what do we do?’ So, we figured we’ll run one play and see where we go from there and it did come back to bite us but that does happen from time to time. That’s football, that’s life. We kind of dug ourselves a little more hole with that blocked punt but proud as all get out with how they fought back. No quit.
“In the last couple of years maybe that would have done us in, but they kept coming back and kept fighting hard.  We are really proud of how they fought back.”
Turney was quick to praise his special teams after the game. Kicker Fletcher Proctor was 5-of-7 on extra points and his career-long 38-yard field goal in the fourth quarter proved crucial in the win.
“We would not have won that game if we did not make that,” Turney said. “Right now, it is, yes, his career high. In practice he’s been hitting from 40, 45, so we knew it was in his range and so we went for it, we trusted him.”
For the game, East Mills tallied 378 yards with a balanced attack that produced 194 yards passing a 184 rushing. Urban finished his night 13-of-19 for 166 yards and two TDs. He also ran for 48 yards and two scores. Sheldon Vandenberg paced the rushing attack with 91 yards and two TDs on 17 carries.
“Last week we didn’t have very many rushing opportunities,” Turney said of his team’s ability to use the run to set up the pass. “FM (Fremont-Mills) just beat us. This week we had more balanced offense, more pro-style offense than we’ve done in the past and so we really got some good runs, some good blocking. Sheldon and Jackson did a great job running the ball. Caleb did a great job running the ball. We hit our holes in our gaps for those runs to work and so we’re really happy about that.”
Wyman led the Tigers with 322 yards passing and six TDs. He also added a touchdown run.
The high scoring affair marks the second straight shootout for the Tigers after last week’s 55-45 win over Stanton. Lembke said
“You play well in one game and that gives you a little momentum so now we’ve got a little bit more momentum going into West Harrison next week,” Lembke said. “I think we clean up some of these assignments and it’s going to be a good game next week.”
The Tigers (1-5) head to West Harrison this week for a non-district game. East Mills (4-2) hosts Exira-EHK. Both games are slated to kick off at 7 p.m.