Duchesne’s playoff run ends in Class 1 semifinals to defending champ East Buchanan

GOWER — Less than a mile from East Buchanan High, a sign reads, “Welcome to Gower: A Nice Place to Call Home.”

The hometown Bulldogs sure enjoyed some nice home cookin’ Saturday afternoon.

Behind the ever-so versatile Trevor Klein, East Buchanan powered past Duchesne 41-14 in a Class 1 football state semifinal at East Buchanan High.

Winners of 12 successive games, the defending state champions advanced to play Adrian (12-2) at 3 p.m. Dec. 3 in the Class 1 title game at Faurot Field in Columbia. Adrian defeated Monroe City 32-16 in the other semifinal.

“(Duchesne) is a really good football team,” East Buchanan coach Dan Ritter said. “For us to come out and hold them to (14) points, I’m so proud of those young men. Offensively, we put up 41 points on the board. That was our coming out party. That’s what we talked about all week and we got it done.”

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Klein did most of the heavy lifting Saturday.

At just 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds, Klein provided punch after punch, often times carrying two or three Duchesne defenders with him. Klein scored all six East Buchanan (13-1) touchdowns, five of which came on the ground. He also hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass and finished with three catches for 63 yards.

Not a bad day at the office.

“It was kind of surprising,” Klein said. “We knew they were a good defense. They have great linebackers.”

Klein opened the scoring with a 2-yard gallop to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead with 9 minutes and 28 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Later on, Klein was on the receiving end of Gage Busby’s 26-yard touchdown toss to make it 14-7 Bulldogs.

Klein scored on a pair of 3-yard runs in the second quarter to push East Buchanan’s lead to 28-14 at halftime.

“He was a boss,” Ritter said.

The Pioneers remained in the game at the intermission because of a key turnover late in the second quarter. Senior Amorion Oliphant stripped the ball out of the hands of Klein and dashed 38 yards into the end zone for the Pioneers’ second and final score of the afternoon.

“At a certain point, you’ve got to take risks,” Duchesne coach Vince Morris said.

“(East Buchanan is) a physical, tough football team. We had to start taking chances that normally we wouldn’t take. And with that, you live and die by the sword a little bit. We had to get away from our run game, which also caused us problems, too.”

Duchesne quarterback Josh Baker-Mays stared at pressure all game from a physical and agile Bulldogs defense. He completed 15 of 26 passes for 131 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown toss to Ethan Kissell in the first quarter. Baker-Mays also threw a pair of interceptions.

Pioneers running back Jamon Mathis was gobbled up and held in check as well. Mathis finished with 12 carries for 66 yards on the ground. Cameron Lee snagged seven balls for 54 yards for Duchesne.

Klein, who ran for more than 100 yards in the first half, added two more scores in the second half — runs of 7 and 2 yards, respectively — to round out the scoring and hand his team a chance at a second successive state championship.

“It feels amazing,” he said. “We hope we can do the same as we did last year. Obviously, that’s the goal for every team. Now, we’re just one step closer and need to win one more game.”

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