Wayzata has all the answers in state football win over Eastview
Already down their two best players due to injury, and suddenly 7-0 on the scoreboard not even a 15 seconds into the Class 6A state football quarterfinals, Wayzata needed an answer.
As usual, the Trojans had a few.
And as a result, the team is back within a game of the Prep Bowl.
Wayzata (9-1) stiff-armed its way past Eastview Nov. 9, erasing that one touchdown deficit 11 seconds into the game with an immediate response from Jeff Borchardt on the ensuing kick-off, before pulling far enough away to keep the Lightening at arms length throughout the rest of what was a 35-21victory for the Trojans.
Borchardt ended up with three touchdowns on then night, Tanner Bedard added a 44-yard run late in the first quarter that pushed the Wayzata lead to 21-7, and quarterback Nick Olmanson also threw for a critical score just shy of halftime.
That touchdown pass – a back corner strike to Matt Blanchard 23 seconds before the intermission – gave the Trojans a 28-14 edge at the half.
Like Borchardt’s 98-yard kick-off return, which capped a crazy opening 24 seconds in which both teams scored touchdowns, Olmanson’s touchdown toss served as an immediate response to an Eastview threat.
The same could be said for Borchardt’s third touchdown, as he countered another Lightning score with a 69-yard run two plays into Wayzata’s next drive, extending what was a 28-21 advantage to the 35-21 margin the game would end with.
“We answered them three times, and that was important,” said Wayzata head coach Brad Anderson. “The [kickoff return] was an answer. I thought right before the half was an answer, and then again when they closed it to one score in the fourth and we come back and two plays later we are back in the endzone. Those are three answers after momentum had shifted to their side. All three of those were big.”
The first might have been the most critical. Wayzata received the game’s opening kick-off, then set up a scheme the Trojans had planned for all week.
Borchardt, who the week prior toasted Champlin Park with a six-touchdown performance, lined up wide instead of his usual tailback spot.
The plan was to send him deep, with the hopes of catching the Lightning off guard. Instead, Olmanson’s pass was tipped and then picked by Jacob Bechstein, who returned the interception 11 yards for the game’s first touchdown.
“I thought if we could get Jeff out there on the corner on the first play before they really had a chance to recognize that he was out there, we would go play action pass and go up top,” Anderson said. “I think we had him. The problem was they had a guy that tipped it and went the other direction.”
Borchardt, however, made sure it didn’t matter, helping send Wayzata into another match-up with its Lake Conference brethren from Eden Prairie.
The two teams played in the Prep Bowl last year, when the Eagles won 13-3.They met again in the 2012 regular season finale just a few weeks ago, when Wayzata was the victor 16-0.
