Nemaha Central, Silver Lake roll with 2020 punches

Administrators and football coaches across the state knew the 2020 season was going to be unlike any other, one where adjustments on the fly would more than likely had to be made.

As both athletic director and head coach at Nemaha Central, Warren Seitz has experienced somewhat of a double shot of the madness. One perhaps nobody else in the state has had to go through.

“It seems like a day is a week now and it seems like it should be spring now for as much work and effort as we’ve put in,” Seitz said. “2020, what can you say?”

Nemaha Central has survived a somewhat tumultuous season to continue its march to a second straight Class 2A state championship. That march continues Friday when the Thunder (6-2) play host to No. 3 Silver Lake (6-1) in the second round of the playoffs.

The path for both teams to get to Friday’s big showdown has been an interesting one.

Nemaha opened the season with a controversial 15-13 loss to Holton in which the Wildcats kicked a last-second field goal after the Thunder argued time had run out following a block of a first field goal attempt.

As crazy as that finish was, it was only the start of the abnormal season. On three different occasions, Nemaha lost opponents due to COVID-19 concerns — Week 2 against Royal Valley, Week 6 against Maur Hill and Week 8 against Republic County.

Seitz was able to fill two of those holes with late replacement games against 4A Eudora and 3A Baldwin with the Thunder dominating both games. Nemaha’s only other loss came to arch rival Sabetha in a game where the Thunder turned it over on its last four possessions.

Despite the being in almost constant flux, Seitz said he couldn’t be more pleased with how his team was able to handle things

“I’m very proud of both our assistant coaches continuing to get our kids ready to play and also the players for going out and giving it their best effort every Friday night,” Seitz said. “I really do think that we’ve rolled with the punches. Our philosophy is always to be ready to play until the last minute when you’re not going to play this year. It’s always better to do that than have to turn it on on Friday night.”

Silver Lake, meanwhile, had to deal with its own bumps in the road right away. Getting ready for its season opener with Rock Creek, the Eagles were forced to quarantine only days before the opener and had to cancel its first two games of the year.

Though there haven’t been any changes to the schedule since, getting over the initial hurdle was something the Eagles handled well.

“Yeah, it’s been an interesting season,” Silver Lake coach C.J. Hamilton said. “We had our early and they’ve been battling with teams that have been not able to play and made them reschedule. It’s made things interesting for sure.

“We’ve handled things pretty well and maybe even better than what I expected with the uncertainty of things and being able to adjust on the run. That’s always a good thing when you can handle tough situations and move on and we’ve done that for the most part.”

Silver Lake’s only loss was 50-35 to No. 1 and arch rival Rossville, a game in which the Eagles were trading blows with the Bulldawgs before turnovers and a pair of bad snaps proved costly.

Both teams can credit at last part of this season’s success to the emergence of their first-year starting quarterbacks, each of whom are equally dangerous throwing and running the ball.

Zac Kramer stepped in to replace departed Dylan Schultejans and has enjoyed a big season, throwing for 1,226 yards and 11 touchdowns while also leading the Thunder in rushing with 765 yards and 12 scores.

His Silver Lake counterpart, Daigan Kruger, has posted remarkably similar numbers in his first year starting. The junior has thrown for 1,478 yards and 23 touchdowns while also leading the Eagles on the ground with 495 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Though both teams have other weapons — Nemaha WR Tyler Gerety has 33 catches for 678 yards and 6 TDs, while Silver Lake’s Gannon Remer has 432 yards and 8 TDs receiving and another 281 yards and 5 TDs rushing — containing the other team’s quarterback will be a big key to victory.

“He can throw it and he loves to run it,” Seitz said of Kruger. “A multi-dimensional quarterback is always a problem. You can drop eight in coverage and try to stop the pass or are we going to have somebody spy him. We’ve got to get some pressure on him and on the back end, we’ve got to play good coverage and be well-disciplined.”

Hamilton echoed Seitz’s concerns when it came to Kramer.

“We’ve just got to maintain the line of scrimmage,” Hamilton said. “They have some good speed on the perimeter and a lot of good athletes. You’re not the defending state champ without having athletes that have experience in big games.”

The last time the two teams met, Silver Lake upset No. 1 Nemaha Central with a 25-7 victory in a battle of unbeatens in the 2017 Class 3A playoffs. The year before, Nemaha Central beat No. 1 Silver Lake 21-14 in the playoffs, also in a game between unbeatens.

Neither coach thought those past games would play much of a factor in Friday’s showdown.

“We’ve got to do our thing and they’ve got to do their thing,” Hamilton said.