JACKSON — A furious second half rally came up on play short for the Edwardsburg Eddies in the Division 4 football state semifinals at Tony Dungy Field at Jackson High School Saturday.

Trailing 35-14 at halftime to three-time state finalist Grand Rapids South Christian, the Eddies (11-2) outplayed the Sailors in the second half and came within a 2-point conversion of forcing overtime in a 50-48 loss.

South Christian (11-2), the 2012 state champions and 2013 state runner-up, will face Lansing Sexton Friday for the Division 4 title.

“I can’t be any prouder with what these kids did,” Edwardsburg coach Kevin Bartz said. “We’re down 35-14 at the half. But we talked at halftime about the fact that we’ve been in situations like this before. Maybe we haven’t been down this much, but we’ve battle all season and we’ve been a second-half team.

“I was just so impressed with the tenacity of our kids to come out and make big plays. We finally got some stops on them defensively and our offense kept clicking.”

The two teams went toe-to-toe through the first quarter and a half.

But with the score knotted at 14-14 late in the second quarter, South Christian was able to score three unanswered touchdowns to open up the 21-point halftime advantage.

Led by running backs Isaiah Miller and Dustin Vires, the Eddies came out of the locker room and played their way back into the contest.

Vires, who finished with 210 yards rushing, scored three of his four touchdowns in the second half. Vires found the end zone on runs of 38, 6, 73 and 25.

His final touchdown with 3:02 remaining in the contest, pulled the Eddies within two points of South Christian.

After having scored back-to-back 2-point conversions on pass plays, the Sailors send an all our blitz as Edwardsburg attempted to tie the game.

Eddies’ quarterback Dante Razzano was hit as he threw the ball, which came up short of its mark.

On the ensuing kickoff, Jacob Niewiek was able to recover for the Sailors, who were able to pick up enough first downs to run out the clock.

Edwardsburg, which finished with 511 yards rushing, also got 235 yards and a score from Miller, who played much of the game feeling sick to his stomach and eventually threw up in the fourth quarter.

“Vires and Miller are extremely good running backs,” Bartz said. “The problem is if you try and stop one, you’ve got to leave somebody open. And Razzano poses a problem as well. It makes it tough to stop all three of them.

“They ran hard and it wasn’t easy yards that they got a lot of the time. They broke takes, they bounced off, they scrambled around and they did a tremendous job of getting the extra yards as well.”

Razzano finished with 103 yards of total offense as he scored on a 60-yard run and threw and 8-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Gaideski.

South Christian all-state quarterback Jon Wassink was as advertised. The senior signal caller finished with 150 yards passing and two touchdowns, while he rushed for 146 yards and a pair of scores.

The two teams combined for not only 98 points, but nearly 1,000 yards of total offense.

The Eddies ended the night with 557 yards in total offense compared to 427 for the Sailors.

With the 11 victories, Edwardsburg ties its school record for most wins in school history. The 2010 quarter, which also reached the state semifinals, also had 11 wins.

“This run means a a lot, ” Bartz said. “We’ve been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round the last three years. We had a real solid mature team last year and that was really disappointing. We came out this year and we were very young, actually.

“We weren’t expecting to end up here. But to be in this situation against a quality team is big for our program right now. To show that we can stand up with a team that’s been to the state finals the past two years and won one, showed we belong.”

 

South Christian         14       21       7          8 – 50

Edwardsburg               8          6    12        22 – 48

G – Geff Plasman 28 run (John Masselink kick)

E – Isaiah Miller 66 run (Mason Tinch pass from Dante Razzano)

G – Plasman 4 run (Masselink kick)

E – Dustin Vires 38 run (run failed)

G – Plasman 44 run (Masselink kick)

G – Eric VanVoorst 32 pass from Jon Wassink (Masselink kick)

G – Wassink 5 run (Masselink kick)

E – Vires 6 run (run failed)

G – VanVoorst 21 pass from Wassink (Masselink kick)

E – Vires 73 run (pass failed)

E – Jackson Gaideski 8 pass from Razzano (Devon McGrath pass from Razzano)

G – Wassink 4 run (Wassink run

E – Razzano 60 run (Vires pass from Razzano)

E – Vires 25 run (pass failed)