Bulldog Rally Comes Up Short As Creighton Falls In Semis

In front of a massive crowd, Creighton fought all night for their first trip to the state finals since 2010. There opponent that year in the finals was Guardian Angels Central Catholic, who topped them 45-30. Unfortunately for Creighton, they took on the Bluejays again on Monday night with a similar result.

The Bulldogs fell to GACC in a close one, 48-44.

Creighton started off the night in explosive fashion, with Bryce Zimmerer and Ryan Neumann scoring on runs of 56 and 47 yards, respectively, within the first few minutes of the game. They added two takeaways in the first quarter as well to hold the Bluejays at bay and take a 16-0 lead into the second quarter. 

In the second, it didn't take long for GACC to find the end zone as they scored less than three minutes into the quarter. Creighton responded with a 66 yard reception from Neumann to the versatile, 250 pound Sam Morrill, a play in which he took a short pass and broke numerous tackles before out racing the defense to the end zone.

That big play gave the Bulldogs a 24-8 lead and it looked as if they were preparing to run away with the game before the Bluejays took over. GACC connected on two deep touchdown passes and a bad snap out of the end zone gave them a safety to jump out to a 26-24 lead halfway through the second quarter. The Bluejays added one more score just before half to push their lead to 32-24 at the break.

In the third quarter, both squads move up and down the field with relative ease, but neither was able to punch it in. That led to a fourth quarter that was full of fireworks. 

GACC connected on yet another deep toss to push their lead to 40-24. However, the Bulldogs showed no quit, responding just over a minute later on a Zimmerer dive to narrow the gap to 40-32. A few plays later, Noah Lilly picked off GACC quarterback Noah Plagge and Neumann followed that up by taking the ball 29 yards for the score. However, a missed two-point conversion left the Bulldogs behind 40-38.

The Bluejays immediately drove down the field and scored on a short run before Neumann connected on one final touchdown to bring the Bulldogs within four. Unfortunately, they were unable to recover the onside kick and GACC was able to run out the clock to advance to the state finals.

Creighton's season ended at 10-2. They averaged an amazing 68 points per game while giving up just 23 per game.