Following record rainfall in October, the most valuable person at football games being played on natural grass fields on Friday was the ball boy.

Keeping the ball dry and uncaked of mud was important for the Westminster Wildcats in their bid to reach the playoffs for the second time in school history. Duchesne shut down the Wildcats’ ground game in the first half and moved out to a 3-0 lead in the Class 4 District 6 game in St. Charles.

So Westminster head coach J.D. Perona put the ball in senior quarterback Zack Dorton’s hands on the Wildcats’ final drive of the first half, and Dorton completed all four passes he attempted. Dorton moved the Wildcats from their own 33-yard line to the Pioneers’ end zone with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Smallwood to give them a 7-3 lead.

"I trust the coaches and their play calling," Dorton said. "They know what’s best. I made my reads and the coaches made it real easy on me.

"Somehow our coaches were able to keep the balls dry. Our offensive line, I’ve believed in them all year and they’re a great group of guys."

Westminster added two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter and beat the Pioneers 21-3. Duchesne finished the season with a record of 1-9. With the win, the Wildcats (8-2) wrapped up the No. 2 playoff berth in District 6 and will compete in a regional playoff game on Wednesday. MICDS was the District 6 champion.

"We didn’t win last time. So that’s the challenge this time," Perona said. "Normandy and U. City are both good teams so we’ll give it our best shot."

Duchesne took the opening kickoff from its own 25 to inside the Wildcats’ 30 on 10 running plays. But running back Blake Caimi was stopped on fourth-and-5.

The Pioneers’ defense held Westminster to minus-3 yards on its first series, then linebacker Mike Macke recovered a fumbled exchange by Dorton and running back Ryan Allee.

Senior Andrew Tegethoff, who rushed for a game-high 120 yards, had a 69-yard run that set up Tyler Lowenstein’s 23-yard field goal to give the Pioneers a 3-0 lead with 9 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first half.

"We need to finish," said Pioneers coach Charlie Elmendorf. "We had chances to score in the first half and in the second half we were in bad field position most of the time. We couldn’t change the field position and ended up giving them a couple of big plays and it’s 14-3."

After Dorton was tackled for a loss trying a fake punt later in the second quarter, the Pioneers took over at the Westminster 43 and had a chance to increase their lead. But three plays resulted in just four yards and punter Jordan Genenbacher pinned the Wildcats at their own 7.

On third-and-12 on the resulting drive, the Pioneers had a chance to make the Wildcats punt from inside their own 10-yard line, but Dorton completed a 19-yard pass to Alex Cacciarelli. The drive eventually stalled, but the play kept the Pioneers from getting great field position.

"Dorton is a playmaker. We had to keep his hands dry, and he did everything we asked him to," Perona said. "Our receivers were running good routes, and our offensive line was hustling. We kept throwing curl routes, they jumped on them, so we started to throw deeper."

Neither team was able to score in the third quarter, but the Wildcats began a scoring drive from their own 48 as time expired in the third. They started using Max Piazza in a two-back set and Piazza’s 224 pounds started to wear on the Pioneers. He gained the final 23 yards of the scoring drive which culminated with his 3-yard TD with 9:48 left in the game.

"We didn’t save him for the end, but we knew we had him in the package," Perona said. "We went two backs, and were trying to keep them off balance."

Smallwood intercepted Duchesne QB Jake Tweet on the second play of the next series, and two plays later Ryan Allee gave the Wildcats a 21-3 lead with a 5-yard scoring run with 7:58 left. David Rohlfing kicked all three extra points.

"Turnovers in a game like this are part of it, but they hurt us in the first half when we were moving the ball," Elmendorf said. "To make the playoffs, you have to make those plays."

rkorando@yourjournal.com