Fort Madison gets a little help from its '12th man,' earns first playoff berth since 1989

FORT MADISON − The Texas A&M University football team is well-known for its 12th man, the raucous Aggies home crowd.

Texas A&M's 12th man pales in comparison to the 12th man the Fort Madison High School football team had looking down on them Friday night.

Less than a week after his father, G.J. Lozano, died suddenly after last week's game against North Scott, Fort Madison senior center Mateo Lozano went out and left his heart on the field in his final football game at Richmond Stadium.

And, inspired by G.J. Lozano, the Bloodhounds put together a championship drive in the final five minutes to come away with a thrilling 28-24 victory over Burlington in a Class 4A District 3 game at Jim Youel Field.

Fort Madison has earned a playoff berth for the first time in 33 years.

There was no way Mateo Lozano was going to let his father down, and the Bloodhounds certainly weren't about to let their teammate down, either.

"It was a devastating game and I put it all out there for him. This could my last game. Hopefully it isn't, but it was all out there for him." said Mateo Lozano, whose play at center helped the Bloodhounds score 21 fourth-quarter points. "I was going to play no matter what for him. He would have wanted me to play. He would be telling me good job and that he loves me."

"Mateo is tough. We've all been there for him," said Henry Wiseman, who hauled in the 23-yard game-winning pass from Aidan Boyer with 28 seconds to play.

"That's one of the things I love most about Fort Madison is just the people. Our message tonight was we are in it together all night. Together. They rallied behind each other tonight for the game. They've rallied around Mateo's family. Fort Madison has a lot of special people. I'm so happy to be here," Fort Madison head coach Derek Doherty said. "It's hard because Mateo is such a stoic person. He's not extremely emotional. However he is feeling, he hides. Just checking in with him. We didn't want to push anything, force anything. Let Mateo be Mateo, but letting him know anything you need, name it. We've got you."

A final drive for the ages

Trailing 24-21 after Burlington Caden Schisel scored on a one-yard run with 5 minutes, 44 seconds to play, the Bloodhounds' season hung in the balance.

"We talked about being calm, going out there playing football and having fun," Lozano said.

Doherty turned over the play calling to assistant coach Justin Menke, who had the hot hand.

"Justin Menke is as calm as they come. I'm glad that he was in the pilot's seat for that one," Doherty said. "He just took over. I'm usually the two-minute guy, but he was just in a zone. He kept it going and I was 100 percent okay with it. I'm an emotional person and he is very calm. It was the right recipe."

Hayden Segoviano, who seemed to be in on every play defensively in the first half, stepped up as a running back in the second half out of necessity. He rushed five times for 24 yards on the final drive.

"Me playing running back was a last-minute decision. I thought somebody needed to step up because Teague was playing both ways and special teams. So I thought if someone is going to step up, I want it to be me. I went in there, learned the playbook and used my athleticism to play the game," Segovano said. "I played inside receiver a little bit and I knew the running pays. I'm not going to lie. I usually look at my quarterback and go, 'Am I running to the guard or the other guard?'"

The Bloodhounds converted on a third-and -1 play, then faced a third-and-2 from the Burlington 23 with 35 seconds left.

Boyer then hit Wiseman on a post pattern between two defenders for the game-winning score.

"I feel like the passing game was working. It was there all night. In film we saw their secondary was kind of week, so we wanted to attack that," Wiseman said.

"What another wild one. All the emotions of last year and you're going through the roller-coaster of this year. I like this year a lot better than I liked last year," Doherty said.

"We probably left too much time on the clock on our last drive, but I can't tell my guys not to make a long run or not to score," BHS head coach Jim Krekel said. "We had a turnover down there at our two and that opened the door for us to let them back in and they took advantage. It was a good high school football game."

On the horizon

Burlington ends the season with a 5-4 record, 2-3 in District 3.

Fort Madison (7-2, 3-2) advances to the playoffs for the first time since 1989. Fort Madison will travel to play Waverly-Shell Rock (9-0) at 7 p.m. Friday.

The Bloodhounds, who were knocked out of a playoff spot last year in a season-ending loss to Burlington, are ready to play at least another week.

"I feel like our kids deserve to go and give it a shot. We'll see what happens. We're just excited and very proud of them," Doherty said.

"This is one of the biggest games of our lives, if not the biggest," Lozano said.

"We're getting back to practice Monday. We're going to keep grinding no matter who we play," Wiseman said.

By the numbers

    BHS.  FM

First downs.  13.  14

Rushes-yards    52-202.  26-73

Passing yards    18.  173

Comp-Att-Int.  1-3-0.  18-28-1

Total offense.  220.  246

Fumbles-lost.  1-1.  0-0

Punts-average.  .2-25.5.  2-38.0

Penalties-yards.  10-84.  6-65

3rd Down Efficiency.  5-11.  4-10

4th Down Efficiency.  4-4.  3-4

Time of possession.  31:29.  16:31

Scoring by quarters

Burlington 7 7 3 7 — 24

Fort Madison 0 7 0 21 — 28

Scoring

B—Caden Schisel 9 run (Brennen Winke kick)

B—Dimitri Donald 1 run (Christian Snyder kick)

FM—Aidan Boyer 1 run (Leif Boeding kick)

B—Winke 33 FG

FM—Teague Smith 2 run (Boeding kick)

FM—Smith 2 run (Boeding kick)

B—Schisel 1 run (Snyder kick)

FM—Henry Wiseman 23 pass from Boyer (Boeding kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Burlington — Schisel 27-130, Donald 13-69, Gabe Robinson 6-10, Nolan Simpson 5-8, Team 1-(-15). Fort Madison — Hayden Segoviano 10-50, Smith 9-26, Boyer 3-(-3).

PASSING: Burlington — Robinson 1-3-0-18. Fort Madison — Boyer 18-27-1-173.

RECEIVING: Burlington — Noah Nixon 1-18. Fort Madison — Wiseman 10-107, Kane Williams 4-33, Boeding 3-15, Smith 1-12.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Fort Madison rallies to stun Burlington in battle for playoff berth