Northeastern, hosting a playoff game for the first time in school history, finished its season 7-4.
“We played hard and we played tough, we just didn’t make enough plays when we needed to make plays,” said Jets coach Jake Buchholtz. “We told our kids all week that (Anna’s) 4-6 record doesn’t mean anything. Whenever you’re in the playoffs, regardless if it’s expanded, you’re going to be facing good teams. It just wasn’t our night.”
Anna improved to 5-6 and will host 13th-seeded Midwest Athletic Conference rival Fort Recovery in a regional quarterfinal game on Saturday, Nov. 6. Fort Recovery beat third-seeded Arcanum 40-30 in their first-round game.
“Northeastern played tough tonight,” said Rockets coach Nick Marino, an Urbana grad. “The quarterback (Cade Houseman) is a stud. He ran around and we had trouble tackling him all night. We’re glad to move on from this one, enjoy the win and get out of this sloppy weather.”
Northeastern drove into Anna territory on its first possession, but Caleb Smith missed a field goal. The Rockets countered with a field goal by Zach Ambos to make it 3-0 with six minutes remaining in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Seigle hit Brandon Axe on a 5-yard TD pass to give the Rockets a 10-0 lead.
Smith hit a 29-yard field goal to cut the lead to 10-3 as time expired in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Rockets scored on a 20-yard pass from Seigle to Kohlten Carey to make it 17-3. With about eight minutes remaining, Houseman hit junior Dylan Haggy on a 41-yard pass to move the Jets to the Rockets 19-yard line. Northeastern drove to the 12, but Anna sophomore linebacker Colin Elliott intercepted Houseman’s pass on fourth down to seal the victory.
Credit: Name Test
Credit: Name Test
“We had a lot of opportunities to be successful, we just didn’t put it all together and we came up a little short,” Buchholtz said. "
The Jets will graduate five seniors who played a key role in bringing Northeastern’s program back to winning ways.
“I feel for our seniors,” Buchholtz said. “It’s one of those things where they’re not going to like it, but it’s going to make us better as we move forward as a program. It’s something we should be proud about — we had a lot of firsts this year. I think once the dust settles, they’ll be happy with what we accomplished. It just stung tonight.”
The playoff experience will make the Jets hungry for next season, Buchholtz said. Northeastern fell to 0-9 all-time in playoff games.
They’ll have high expectations with the majority of its roster expected to return next fall.
“For so long, the last 18 years, the goals have shrunk,” Buchholtz said. “It was, ‘Let’s get to 5-5,’ or ‘Let’s just get to the end of the year and be competitive.’ I thought we took a huge jump to say we’re hosting and this is what the playoffs are like. … We’re going to be able to say we’ve been there and we know what to expect and we know the quality of opponents we’re going to face. It’s going to make us hungry to move that bar.”
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