Cadott TD on final drive ends Falcons’ season

For a moment, it had appeared that the second-seeded Abbotsford Falcons had survived a late comeback effort from the seventh-seeded Cadott Hornets.

With mere seconds left in the contest, the Falcons defense had bent but not broken, still nursing a 20-16 lead in their first round playoff matchup against Cadott. While the Hornets had managed to drive down inside Abbotsford’s 25-yard line, the home team had forced them into a fourth-and-ten situation. And when the pass from Cadott’s quarterback Jordan Peters was picked off by Abbotsford on the ensuing down, it seemed that the Falcons had escaped with the win.

However, a penalty was called on Abbotsford during the play, erasing the interception and giving the Hornets one last opportunity. The visitors took advantage, as Peters found Nolan Blum in the back of the end zone to take the lead. Despite not trailing for the near entirety of the 48 minute contest, the Falcons found themselves on the wrong side of a 22-20 score in its final moments.

“Overall, I think it’s easy to blame the game on the officials who let a lot of late, chippy, dangerous plays go and then made a questionable call to change the complexion of the game, but ultimately there were 10 plays that if we did what we were supposed to, the game shouldn’t have been close enough to put in the hands of an official,” head coach Jake Knapmiller said following the loss. “I hope our returning players learn from the idea that no lead is safe and playoff football is a matter of a few plays needing to be made.”

It was a deflating end to the season for a Falcons squad that had secured a twoseed after having missed the postseason tournament last year.

The loss was especially tough given that, for much of the contest, Abbotsford seemed relatively in control of the affair. They held Cadott scoreless in the first half and had a 20-8 lead with under six minutes left in the game following a 76yard touchdown run from senior quarterback JV Castillo. Yet, despite being down for most of the evening, Cadott refused to go silently into the night. On the kickoff immediately following Castillo’s monster touchdown, the Hornets came up with a game-changing play of their own, returning the kick for a touchdown and once again pulling themselves within a score. They then recovered an onside kick and pushed down the field to try to take the lead, getting inside Abbotsford’s 20 yard line.

With their playoff journey in jeopardy, the Falcons got a big play from another one of their seniors. For the second week in a row, Evan Reis came through with a big defensive play at the end of the game, forcing a fumble that teammate Chase Boller was able to recover at the 17 yard line.

The play had ended the Hornet threat, but Cadott still retained all three of their timeouts. Abbotsford managed to burn through all of them on the ensuing three plays, but came up one yard short of the first down that would have sealed the win. Instead, they had to punt the ball back to the Hornets one final time, a possession that eventually ended in Cadott’s game-winning touchdown.

In his final game for the Falcons, Castillo was the focal point of the offense. The senior collected 173 yards on 20 carries and completed three of his six pass attempts for 21 yards. He was also part of all three of Abbotsford’s scoring plays. In addition to his second half touchdown run, Castillo put the Falcons up in the first quarter with another rushing touchdown and then found Boller on a red zone touchdown pass in the second quarter that put Abbotsford up 13-0 at halftime.

Christian Fuentes added 60 yards on 13 carries and had two catches for nine yards. Boller had a 20-yard run on the same drive that ended in his touchdown reception, Emilio Escalera added 18 yards on two carries and Irvin Aguilera had 17 yards on three touches.

On defense, AJ Brodhagen had 11 tackles to lead the Falcons. Fuentes added eight more and Andres Lopez ended the night with seven.

Abbotsford will finish 2023 with an overall record of 6-4 in games played. They opened their season with five straight wins, picking up four victories over non-conference opponents before defeating Marathon in their first Marawood game of the season. Three straight losses followed as they ran a gauntlet of the Marawood’s toughest teams before ending their regular season with a win over Pittsville. It was an improvement over their 2022 season, where their only wins came over non-conference opponents.

“Our four seniors did an amazing job all year with a group of young, inexperienced, athletic teammates,” Knapmiller said. “As a team we lacked focus and maturity at times, but the seniors stepped up when the kids looked to them.”

“On both sides of the ball we really improved from week one, but especially our defense,” Knapmiller added. “We locked down Cadott’s running back who had 300 yards rushing the week before and made them do some things that they hadn’t done all year. Our special teams and pass defense had been our toughest areas all year and continued to make life hard on Friday. Our team loses some awesome kids but also will have a huge amount of talent and experience for next season.”