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WAHOO — When the 2024 football season started, few people outside of Cedar County had high expectations for the Cedar Catholic football team.
The 2024 Trojans took pride in proving their naysayers wrong each and every week, compiling a 7-2 regular season record and advancing to the Class C2 State quarterfinals.
Cedar came up just short of advancing to their sixth trip to the State Semifinals in school history.
The Trojans saw their courageous effort to advance fall just short as a long field goal attempt with no time on the clock sailed to the left a gainst Bishop Neumann here, giving the Cavaliers the 24-21 win and sidelining the Trojans for the rest of the season.
The Cavaliers were called for a pass interference on the final play which expired the clock, giving the Trojans one more chance to find paydirt.
Coach Chad Cattau then sent the kicking team out to try and knot the game at 24-24.
Despite the disappointing ending, Coach Cattau and his Trojan crew had plenty to take pride in this year.
“I was really proud of the way we competed against Neumann,” Cattau said. “They competed the entire game. We knew it was going to be a difficult task to stop their run.”
Cavalier, Conor Booth, who accounted for nearly all of the Neumann offensive production, ran for 250 yards and a couple of touchdowns on the night which accounted for the entire Cavalier offense excluding nine yards from quarterback Beau Fujan on his six carries and o ne pass completion of 13 yards, which scored the Cav’s other touchdown.
Booth, a Nebraska Cornhusker football recruit, gained most of his yards out of the Wildcat formation. His future Cornhusker position coach E.J. Barthel was on hand watching him and cheer him on.
Barthel was impressed with what he saw on the field Friday night. “I’m a believer,” he said, after watching Booth pick up one of his many big gainers.
Coach Cattau was pleased with the way his team took on Booth and the Cavalier running game.
“It isn’t often we play a Division I running back so we knew it was going to be a great challenge,” Cattau said. “The kids took it head on and really gave it all they could. I thought the kids really made them work for their yards.”
Cedar Catholic scored first in the game when Braeden Riefenrath connected with Nolan Becker from nine yards out for the first of three touchdown passes for the senior quarterback.
A Bodie Hochstein kick put the Trojans up 7-0 with 6:27 left in the opening 12 minutes.
A little under two minutes later, Booth found the end zone from just over midfield and the first quarter ended with the teams deadlocked at 7-7.
Booth scored from 67 yards out in the second and the Cavaliers got a 31-yard field goal to go up for an apparent, 17-7 lead heading into the halftime huddle.
Reifenrath had different plans as he hit Jaymison Cattau for a s ixyard score with just 28 seconds left before the intermission and the teams went to the break with Neumann clinging to a 17-14 advantage.
“We played really well on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball,” said the coach. “We just needed to make one more play somewhere along the line that could have flipped the game in our favor. ”
The Cavaliers added a touchdown in the third quarter then Cedar Catholic got bust in the final frame and narrowed the gap again on Reifenrath’s third touchdown pass, this one to Keyton Arens from the Bishop Neumann 16 with 8:29 left in the game.
Reifenrath finished his senior season with a very efficient and productive night under center.
Later in the set, the Lady Wildcats went up 11-5, but the Trojans came back again.
Walter slammed a winner in the middle of the Superior defense, another Lauren Bernecker kill and a double hit called on the Lady Wildcats and Cedar was back to within three, 11-8.
Superior took it from there and finished with the final four points to close out the set and the match, 15-8.
“We really played well and very hard,” Buss said. “It’s a shame our season ended like this, but like I said, we have a lot to be proud of and we’ll build on this for next year.”
After the Lady Wildcats won the opening set, the Lady Trojans rallied to take sets two and three to grab some momentum in the match.
“We really played great defense and stayed aggressive on offense,” Buss said. “We were looking good and I thought we were really going to get by this match at that time.”
Brynn Bernecker blocked an attempted spike to put Cedar Catholic up 16-13 in the second set causing a timeout by the Lady Wildcats.
After the timeout, the Lady Trojans committed a hitting error, but five of the next six points would go to Cedar Catholic.
Lauren Bernecker hit a winner, McGregor served an ace and after Superior scored, Walter rifled a kill though the middle of the Wildcat defense, Wortmann had a stuff at the net and Lauren Bernecker hit another winner to make it 21-15.
With the score 22-19, Katelyn Arens won a joust at the net, Lyndsey Hamilton served an ace and Arens got an ace block to close out the set and even the match at one set apiece.
Set three was a little closer at the end, but Cedar Catholic scored four of the final five points to seal the deal and go up 2-1 in the match with the 25-22 win.
McGregor had a great match, finishing with a triple-double with the 14 winners, adding 28 set assists and 18 digs. Hamilton recorded a double-double with 22 assists and 11 digs. Lauren Bernecker and Arens each had 13 kills and Bailey Hochstein had 34 digs.
Superior moved on to take the D1 State title after a win over Bruning-Davenport-Shickley in the semifinals on Nov. 8 in another five-set thriller before sweeping Exeter-Milligan/Friend in the state finals on Nov. 9.
BDS went on to defeat Southwest in a sweep in the third-place match.
Cedar Catholic (14-19) 22 25 25 26 8 Superior (27-7) 25 19 22 28 15
CEDAR CATHOLIC (kills-aces-blocks-digs): Bailey Hochstein 0-1-0-34; McKinlee Lammers 0-1-0-13; Brynn Bernecker 6-0-1-6; Anisten Wortmann 5-0-1-7; Lauren Bernecker 13-1-4-7; Katelyn Arens 13-0-3-0; Lyndsey Hamilton 3-3-0-11; Melayna McGregor 14-1-2-18; Addison Walter 8-0-1-5.
SUPERIOR (kills-blocks-aces-digs): Khloe Mundorf 0-0-0-1; Core Schnakenberg 5-0-1-6; Faith Butler 2-0-1-14; Sadie Cornell 6-0-3-22; Halle Bargen 14-1-2-17; Ava Kirchhoff 1-0-2-0; Reagan Meyers 36-3-0-20; Mia Gardner 0-0-0-18.
Set Assists: Cedar Catholic 55 (Hochstein 5; Hamilton 22; McGregor 28); Superior 54 (Schnekenberg 1; Butler 49; Meyers 4).
