A game of inches: Spartans fall just short in season-ending loss to Wapsie Valley (with photo slideshow)

A pair of squandered scoring opportunities and a controversial fourth down conversion in the last minute on a fake punt sunk Grundy Center’s playoff hopes against Wapsie Valley as the Spartans dropped a 14-7 heartbreaker on their home field last Friday night.
           
Grundy Center (5-4, 3-3) managed just 135 yards of total offense and failed to capitalize on a crucial Tanner Appel interception return to the Wapsie Valley 13-yard line late in the fourth quarter, but considering the injuries his team was facing (six players were out, including quarterback Logan Knaack) and the level of the competition, head coach Brent Thoren couldn’t be prouder of the effort he witnessed.
           
“If we’re at full strength, it’s a different game—period,” he said. “I’m not going to take anything away from Wapsie, but we fought our butts off. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, but our kids came to play.”
           
The Warriors (7-2, 4-2) and Spartans traded unproductive drives for most of the first quarter, but Wapsie Valley running back Trevor Sauerbrei finally broke a big play with a 26-yard run with less than two minutes to go. A subsequent pass from Kobe Risse to Connor Franzen moved the ball to the Grundy Center 21, and two plays later, Sauerbrei got into the end zone from 13 yards out to make the score 7-0.
           
Much like the first quarter, the second was largely uneventful, and the only real threat came when the Warriors took possession just before halftime. A Spartan defender jumped offside on a fourth and two at the Grundy Center 44, but defensive lineman Matthew Sternhagen sacked Risse to put Wapsie Valley out of scoring range heading into the locker room.
           
“They were coming after us like gangbusters, and we had to figure out a couple things we wanted to do at halftime. We started to kind of get some momentum a little bit. We started to block a little bit better,” Thoren said. “Unfortunately, it just wasn’t consistent enough, and that was the biggest thing.”
 
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