Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – With a roster filled with underclassmen West Branch head coach Matt Hughes expected his team to get better the more it played.

The Bears did exactly that while closing the regular season with three consecutive wins.

Even in a 12-7 loss to tenth-ranked Osage (8-1) in the opening round of the Class 2A playoffs on Friday the Bears never stopped improving.

“I told our kids they have nothing to hang their heads about,” Hughes said. “This is a team that just continued to get better week in and week out and it stinks because the season is over but man this group is special and they are starting something in this school that we are going to ride for many years to come.”

West Branch (4-5) gave Osage everything it could handle and more on Friday at the Little Rose Bowl in West Branch but couldn’t quite get over the hump.

Osage senior Gavin Muller rushed for 223 yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries as the Green Devils rolled up 265 rushing yards.

“That running back is a load,” Hughes said. “We talked all week that we had to gang tackle, we had to get multiple people to the ball and you could still feel them just inching down the field.”
In a game that featured limited possessions as both teams held on to the ball Osage made the most of its offensive opportunities.

After a scoreless first quarter Muller capped a 17-play touchdown drive with a 1-yard scoring burst with 9:50 remaining in the second quarter.

Muller carried nine times and threw a 19-yard pass to quarterback Griffin Uhlenhopp on the Osage scoring drive that took eight minutes and 44 seconds.

The Green Devils converted a third-and-16 and overcame a pair of penalties on the drive.

“That’s a 7-1 team and credit to them, they had a good game plan, a strong backfield and they did what they needed to win but,” Hughes said. “In the same sense we let them out of a third and long, we let them out of a fourth and long, we had a wide open screen that we didn’t connect on and that’s football, it’s a game of inches and little things and as a young team you can’t have those little mistakes you have to be perfect when you are playing a team like that.”

Osage took a 12-0 lead with another long drive on its opening possession of the second half.

The 220-pound Muller carried the ball on the first seven plays of an 18-play, 80-yard march that took nine minutes and 32 seconds.

Muller capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run.

“They definitely wanted the game to go fast, they had a good plan,” Hughes said. “It was just a slugfest.”

West Branch got back in the game and had a chance to take the lead late.

Sawyer Jefferies picked off a Uhlenhopp pass at the Osage 32 yard line to set West Branch up with great field position.

Dillan Schenkel connected with Gabe Depoorter for 12 yards on a third-and-11 play and Keaton Gates ripped off a 21-yard touchdown run on the next play to cut the Osage lead to 12-7 with 6:19 remaining.

West Branch got the ball back at its own 15 yard line with 1:58 remaining but the Osage defense forced a four-and-out to secure the win.

Freshman quarterback Teddy Bucknell rushed for 42 yards and passed for 22 yards and Gates ran for 35 yards and a touchdown for West Branch.

“History is going to look at this season and say it was a 4-5 season, it’s a mediocre season,” Hughes said. “But we did things this year for this program that will go far beyond this year.”

                                      WB                 OSA

First downs                9                      16

Rushes-yards             22-76               49-265

Comp-Att-Int            5-13-0             5-6-1

Passing yards             34                    42

Total yards                110                  307

Punts-Avg.                 3-39.3              1-34

Fumbles-lost              1-0                   1-0

Penalties-yard           0-0                   11-100                   

Osage                         0  6  6  0  –  12

West Branch           0  0  0  7  –   7 

OSA – Gavin Muller 1 run (Run failed)

OSA – Muller 5 run (Run failed)

WB – Keaton Gates 21 run (McGavin Smith kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – WB: Keaton Gates 11-35, Teddy Bucknell 10-42, Dillan Schenkel 1-(-1).

OSA: Gavin Muller 37-223, Griffin Uhlenhopp 4-40, Cooper Street 5-3, Tate Tabbert 1-3, Team 2-(-4).

PASSING – WB: Teddy Bucknell 5-10-0 22, Dillan Schenkel 1-5-0 12. OSA: Griffin Uhlenhopp 4-5-1 23, Gavin Muller 1-1-0 19.

RECEIVING – WB: Thomas Pedersen 2-9, Gabe Depoorter 2-5, Ethan Humphrey 1-8.  OSA: Tate Tabbert 3-16, Muller 1-7, Griffin Uhlenhopp 1-19.

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