Florence unable to sustain fast start in 2A football quarterfinal

ERIE • Florence fulfilled its first objective in Saturday’s Class 2A state quarterfinal football playoff game at Tiger Stadium:
Start off fast.
After that, however, not much went right.
Michael Chambers rushed for 142 yards and four touchdowns, and Erie scored 35 unanswered points to pull away from the Huskies, 35-10, to move on to the semifinals next Saturday at top-ranked Platte Canyon (12-0).
“For much of the season, we’ve been a second-half team,” Chambers said. “When we came out of the locker room for the second half, they were on our side of the field, and that got all of us fired up. Our line stepped up, and our defense really came on strong in the second half.”
Things were quite different in the first quarter. No. 5 seed Florence (10-2) scored the first two times it touched the ball, out-gaining No. 4 Erie, 131-13 in the opening period.
The Huskies took the opening kickoff and a 3-0 lead after a 26-yard field goal by Chris Cash ended the 11-play drive.
After an Erie punt, Florence increased the lead to 10-0 on Bret Leader’s 2-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, completing a 12-play, 71-yard drive.
It was all Erie (11-1) after that, scoring twice before halftime on touchdown runs by Chambers.
Alex Ortega forced four Florence turnovers, helping the Tigers defense limit the Huskies to just 90 yards in the final three quarters.
Still, the Huskies were only down 14-10 at halftime.
“Even after they got the second touchdown, I still felt good at halftime,” veteran Florence coach Mark Buderus said.
“I knew our offense had to get points and move the ball to change the field position. We’re not a good enough football team to expect to win after turning the ball over and giving them a short field.”
A Chambers 11-yard run made it 21-10 with 4:46 left in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Florence ran just eight plays in that period, gaining one yard while committing two turnovers.
It got worse in the fourth quarter when a Florence fumble and interception led to Chambers touchdown runs of 1 and 38 yards.
“We didn’t make very good decisions but we will have to learn to from it and get better,” Buderus said. “You have to be real good to win in the playoffs.”