Friday Night Stars: Week 6’s top performances in Nebraska high school football
By Nathan Charles
Teammates at Pierce, Hastings St. Cecilia and Ord might be spending the week arguing who had the better performance. Elsewhere, two quarterbacks on the list passed for more than 300 yards, four players had six or more touchdowns and one running back turned five touches into four scores.
Feature photo: Ainsworth tight end/quarterback Carter Nelson takes in the scene Saturday night before the Nebraska vs. Indiana home game in Lincoln. Nelson had three passing touchdowns, two on the ground, made 12 tackles and picked off a pass in an eight-man win Friday night.
Zane Flores, Gretna Quarterback
What’s the difference between Gretna and most teams? Well, a lot. But specifically, having a Division I quarterback gives the Dragons a bullet most teams don’t have in their clip. Flores was huge late when his team had barely seven minutes and needed 23 points to tie. The Oklahoma State recruit answered the bell, went 24 for 40 on the night, passed for 382 yards, three touchdowns and found the end zone twice with his legs.
Cole Ballard, Elkhorn South Running Back
Ballard started with three straight 100-yard rushing games then cooled off recently with just 10 carries in a pair of blowouts. It was another blowout Friday, but this time Ballard made sure to get in enough work before the backups were inserted into the lineup. He found the end zone six times in the first half of a win over Fremont and set a new school record for single-game touchdown runs.
John Brase, Papillion-La Vista Linebacker
Brase was simply unblockable in Friday’s shutout win over Burke. The Monarch senior made nine stops in the win, which doesn’t sound all that impressive, but five of those stops were tackles for loss, and one was a sack. Oh, and he had an interception as well in what was a career defensive performance.
Cal Newell, Lincoln Southwest Running Back
Newell was the bell cow for Southwest in an emotional overtime win over Southeast. The Silver Hawks gave the ball to Newell 33 times in the run game and picked up a tough 124 yards and found the end zone twice. He also caught two passes for 34 yards and now has five 100-yard rushing games on the season.
Trey Bird, Bennington Quarterback
As Bird’s nights go, Friday wasn’t the most spectacular performance of his career. But at this point you hope he’s not taken for granted by Nebraska high school football fans. Bird was 11 for 17 with 167 yards and three touchdown passes in a 45-7 win over Blair. It was the sixth time in his career he’s thrown three or more TD passes.
Jake Garcia, Gross Running Back
Garcia was undoubtedly champing at the bit to get back in regular action after he was needed for just two carries the previous week in an easy win over Ralston. It was another easy win over Plattsmouth, but this time Garcia turned 18 carries into 187 yards and found the end zone. He’s averaging a stout 13.8 yards per carry on 59 carries through six games with 815 total yards.
Tanner Gartner, Gering Running Back
Gartner’s night was emblematic of the Bulldogs overall. During a tough 14-0 win, Gartner turned a career-high 33 carries into 188 yards and scored a touchdown. It was just the second time he took 30 or more handoffs, his second 100-plus rushing performance of the season and the fifth of his varsity career.
Parker Borer, Boone Central Running Back
Borer was the picture of efficiency during a 55-7 win over Wayne. His 12 carries generated 170 yards and two touchdowns. Defensively, he intercepted a pass and returned it 84 yards.
Nathan Reynolds, Broken Bow Running Back
Reynolds wasn’t called on often, but he showed quality over quantity. On nine carries, Reynolds amassed 158 rushing yards – an average of 17.6 yards per carry – and scored three touchdowns. He had a long of 64 and bested his previous career best from the week before by 30 yards.
Hyatt Collins, Adams Central Running Back
Collins was another ball carrier who didn’t need many opportunities to be effective. During a 34-3 win over St. Paul, Collins churned up 130 rushing yards on just 14 carries to go with three touchdowns. It was Collins’ fourth 100-yard game of the season. He’s averaged more than eight yards per carry in those four performances and scored 10 touchdowns.
Quinn Bailey, Chadron Running Back
Bailey, just a sophomore, gave the coaching staff, teammates and fans reasons for expectation last year when he averaged 8.8 yards per carry on 51 rushes. Those expectations are become a reality this fall, especially the last two weeks. In Friday’s 19-13 win over Sidney, he piled up 153 yards, his second 100-yard game of the last three and third of the year. His 34 carries were a new career-high.
Tate Hug, Auburn Running Back
Hug was part of an Auburn rushing effort that totaled 410 yards, and the Bulldogs needed every one of them in a 28-20 win over Lincoln Christian. His contribution was 29 carries, 214 yards and a touchdown. He went for 70 yards on one of those carries, had just the third 100-yard game of his varsity career and first with more than 200 yards.
Carlos Collazo, Aurora Running Back
Collazo rushed for 134 yards and three touchdowns in Week 1. Looking back on that now it seems Collazo might have been slacking. Since then he’s put together 200-yard rushing totals in each of the past five games including a new career-best 299 in Friday’s 54-14 win over Minden. Collazo scampered for scores of 47 and 65 in just the first six minutes, had an 80-yard reception and scored a total of six touchdowns. His rushing total was also a new single-game program record.
Keenan Valverde, Pierce Running Back
Valverde had the best statistical night of his career during a 54-20 win over O’Neill. For the second time this year, he eclipsed 200 yards rushing, had 203 total, averaged over 13 yards per carry and found the end zone four times. His total was more than half of the team’s impressive figure of 487 rushing yards on 40 carries. Valverde had rushed for 100 yards once before in his career prior to this season but now has four of those games and a new career-high.
Ben Brahmer, Pierce Tight End
Valverde’s teammate gets on the list as well for a big night through the air that was part of an overall offensive total of more than 650 yards for the Bluejays. Brahmer produced all 167 yards of passing with seven catches and scored two touchdowns. He’s had more than 100 yards in every game this season and is less than 300 yards away from back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons.
Carson Kudlacek, Hastings St. Cecilia Quarterback
Kudlacek connected with five different receivers, completed 17 of his 21 throws and piled up 313 passing yards during a 49-7 win over Kearney Catholic. His three touchdowns gave him five games in six starts in which he’s had three or more passing touchdowns. It’s also his second straight game with more than 300 passing yards.
Cooper Butler, Hastings St. Cecilia Wide Receiver
When a quarterback passes for over 300 yards and spreads it out over just five receivers, surely one of those had a big night. Butler was that guy for Kudlacek on Friday, catching six passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns. The Kudlacek to Butler connection is quickly becoming one of the most potent in the state. Friday followed a win over GICC in which Butler had eight catches for 176 and three TDs.
Zach Krajicek, Yutan Running Back
Krajicek continues to roll after a relatively slow start. The Yutan senior had just 152 yards on 35 carries in the first three games but has since put up 482 yards on 53 carries in the last three, including Friday when he totaled a career-high 203 yards on 19 carries and three touchdowns.
Trent McCain, Ord Running Back
McCain will sleep well this weekend. The junior had more than 100 yards rushing for the fourth game in a row, this time totaling a new career-high 275 yards with two touchdowns, and did it all on a workmanlike 52 carries. As if 30 carries for 143 yards two weeks ago didn’t prove McCain’s endurance, he was handed it 22 more times in Friday’s win over Ord, averaged 5.5 yards per carry and had a long of 55.
Blake Hinrichs, Ord Running Back
Hinrichs makes it three sets of teammates on this list, and would have easily been the headliner for his team were it not for another Chanticleer running back who had twice as many carries. Regardless, Hinrichs was still very good with 162 rushing yards of his own on 26 touches and three scores.
Carter Nelson, Ainsworth Tight End/Quarterback
Nelson did it in all aspects for the Bulldogs in an eight-man win over Elgin Public/Pope John that made them 6-0 for the first time in 30 years. Through the air he completed 18 of 32 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns. On the ground he carried it 23 times for 138 yards and found the end zone two more times. Most importantly, Nelson was the leader in a 28-point comeback that saw Ainsworth overcome a 36-8 hole late in the first half. He also had 12 tackles and an interception on the other side of the ball.
Kyle Cox, Sandhills/Thedford Quarterback
Cox couldn’t quite match last week’s seven-touchdown performance under center while leading the Knights to a 60-8 win. So instead he tossed six touchdowns as part of a 49-8 eight-man win Friday over Anselmo-Merna. How many teams in Nebraska don’t yet have 13 touchdown passes in six weeks while Cox has achieved that figure in just two games?
Jackson Roberts, North Platte St. Patrick’s Running Back
The Irish are 7-0 and two games away from a perfect regular season thanks to several factors, one major one of which is Roberts. The junior came up big again on Friday in a 67-16 eight-man win over Maxwell, turning nine carries into four touchdowns. He set the tone early with two first-quarter punt returns for touchdowns.
Kason Loomis, Bridgeport Running Back
Loomis earned just five handoffs in Friday’s 67-22 eight-man win over Kimball. But while that wouldn’t normally be enough to become a star, Loomis maximized his chances with four touchdowns and 155 yards – an average of 31 yards per carry. He’s had four or more touchdowns in three games this season, now has six games of 100 or more yards and has gone over 200 twice.
Lance Brester, Howells-Dodge Running Back
What happened to Brester the last two weeks when he ran for less than 100 yards and had just 13 total carries? Well, Howells-Dodge has yet to face much of a challenge this year, and Brester’s previous two games were a reflection of that. The Jaguars were too much again during a 44-8 eight-man win over Humphrey St. Francis, and this time Brester left his mark – 26 carries for 279 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
Aidan Kuester, Neligh-Oakdale Quarterback
Kuester continues to carry the load for the Warriors, following up his 10-touchdown performance from a week ago with seven more, one through the air and six on the ground. He was 16 of 24 passing for 173 and rushed 29 times for 248 in a 64-36 eight-man win over Summerland. Kuester has 13 passing touchdowns, is 10 yards away from 1,500 rushing yards, 23 rushing touchdowns and 52 yards back of 1,000 rush yards.
