Tigers fall in first round of state playoffs to Gilbert
GILBERT — For the second consecutive year, the Red Oak Tigers football team fell short in the first round of the state playoffs.
Red Oak lost in the 2A state playoffs first round last Wednesday to Gilbert, 44-12.
Up 7-0 after one quarter, Gilbert scored 29 second quarter points to take a 36-0 lead at halftime, leading to a running clock for the second half.
“I thought they did fine. One of the things is, you’re happy to get there but I think it’s in our mind set, we can’t be happy with getting there, we’ve got to make sure we get the monkey off our back some time,” Red Oak football coach Barry Bower said.
The Tigers scored two fourth quarter touchdowns, both by sophomore running back Brock Isaacson, who finished with 124 yards on 25 carries to lead Red Oak.
Darin Rinehart kicked off the scoring effort for Gilbert with a nine-yard touchdown run with 8:20 left in the first quarter.
Gilbert put together a 10-play 62-yard opening drive that included a couple of third down conversions and culminated in the Rinehart touchdown.
Both teams forced a three-and-out on each other.
Red Oak picked up their lone first down of the first half on their second drive thanks to a Ryan Leininger quarterback keeper on third and three from the 35.
Two plays later, Leininger completed a pass to Phillip Decker, who ran it well into Gilbert territory, but a personal foul call negated the play. A penalty on the next play stalled the Red Oak drive, forcing them to punt.
With 1:32 remaining in the first quarter, Gilbert moved the ball down the field, leading to an eight-play drive and culminating on a Jared Geschiedler quarterback keeper for a touchdown.
Following the point after try, Gilbert’s lead was 14-0.
Gilbert started gaining steam and soon had their second touchdown of the quarter, a 69-yard run by Christopher Culek on the second play of their next drive. Gilbert led 22-0 after the two-point conversion with 8:51 left in the first quarter.
Gilbert forced another three-and-out for Red Oak and scored once again with 6:23 left. The touchdown, which came on the fourth play of a minute long drive, was scored by Zachary Becker for 17-yards. Gilbert’s lead was 29-0.
The final touchdown before halftime came with 1:20 left when Gescheidler completed a 19-yard pass to Wyatt Rhoads.
With the running clock in full effect, Gilbert scored once more in the second half when Becker had a 15-yard touchdown run with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
Isaacson scored the first of his two fourth quarter touchdowns with 10:28 left on a 17-yard run. Red Oak missed the PAT and trailed 44-6.
The Tigers were set up for the Isaacson touchdown, courtesy of a big run by fullback Evan Mellott, who got Red Oak inside the Gilbert 30 on third down. Mellott finished the game with 62 yards on seven carries.
Isaacson followed up with another first down run, before scoring on the next play.
Gilbert used their next drive to run down the remaining minutes of the game. This included a couple of quarterback kneels with more than five minutes left in the game.
Red Oak got the ball back after a turnover on downs and quickly moved down the field with runs by both Isaacson and Mellott.
Isaacson got Red Oak into the red zone with several minutes remaining and were able to get more, thanks to a personal foul call on Gilbert that involved Isaacson being body slammed by a defensive player.
A couple plays later, Isaacson scampered into the end zone on a three-yard run.
Red Oak missed the extra point and the score was 44-12 with less than a minute in the game.
Gilbert ran down the final seconds of the game, as fog and mist filled the air.
Red Oak finishes the 2013 season with a 3-7 record for the second straight season. It’s also the second straight time the Tigers have lost in the first round.
“You’ve always got to have that positive mind set, but you also got to get to work in the offseason and I think that’s where kids have finally realized, even this summer, they said, ‘hey we got to make sure we get ourselves to work’,” Bower said about the season.
Red Oak loses a number of seniors who were all key in making those consecutive playoff appearances. Leininger, Mellott, Austin Streicher, Phillip Decker, Eddie Perez, Dakota Petty, Nick Black, Derrick Linthicum, Keaton Kephart, Evan Drake, Reza Sperling, Bryan Gross, Nathan Guffey, Marc Enderes and Dylon Anderson were all key contributors over the past couple of seasons.
The group went from a 0-9 season their sophomore year in 2011, to consecutive playoff appearances for their junior and senior seasons.
The group has also gone through multiple head coaches throughout the past four years.
“To go through that amount of change is remarkable,” Bower said. “They came in with a very positive outlook when I came in and they bought in.”
For those returning, Bower said it’s all about establishing a mind to work to the best of the team’s abilities.
“Number one is to keep the great mind set we’ve got going on right now,” Bower said. “Number two is, I think they need to find themselves in the weight room, which they are doing a pretty good job of doing that and keeping the conditioning going.”
Gilbert advanced to play in the second round Monday night against North Polk, who defeated Greene County in the first round.