Hall beats Bureau Valley, becomes playoff eligible

SPRING VALLEY – When Randy Tieman returned as Hall’s head coach, he took over a program that won one game in each season of his two-year absence.

Still, he had the playoffs in mind this fall.

“I always think it is [a possibility],” Tieman said about the postseason. “I do. It’s my goal.”

On Friday, the Red Devils made that goal a reality.

Hall used a quick-strike offense and just enough defense to beat Bureau Valley 44-34 in a Three Rivers Conference Mississippi Division game to become playoff eligible at 5-4.

“It feels great,” Tieman said. “The only ones who have had this experience are the three seniors who were here in my last year [in 2019]. So it’s going to be a great experience for the kids. It’ll be a fun week and we’ll go play where we have to play.”

Senior Mac Resetich was a contributing member on the 2019 playoff team as a freshman, and he played a starring role Friday as he has all season.

Resetich broke off scoring runs of 21, 55, 52 and 61 yards and returned a kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown as the Red Devils used big plays to counter methodical drives by the Storm.

Hall’s first-half scoring drives lasted three plays, one play and four plays with a kick return TD mixed in, while Bureau Valley’s drives lasted 12 plays, 10 plays and 11 plays.

“Mac does a great job of reading the zone and once he hits the second level, there’s nobody who can catch him,” Tieman said. “That’s the advantage we have with him.”

The Storm seemed to grab the momentum as quarterback Bryce Helms dropped back to pass then scrambled for a 15-yard touchdown run with 19.7 seconds left in the first half to take a 21-18 lead.

However, Resetich and the Red Devils responded quickly with Resetich connecting with Braden Curran for a 38-yard touchdown as time expired to take a 26-21 lead at the break.

“The score right before halftime was big,” said Resetich, who ran for 272 yards and four TDs on 15 carries and eclipsed 2,000 rushing yards on the season. “When that happens, [the opponent] goes into halftime with their heads down. That’s a big score.”

Hall started to take control out of halftime as Resetich ran for a 52-yard TD on the second play of the third.

Joel Koch then forced and recovered a fumble on BV’s ensuing drive and Hall’s Joseph Bacidore went up the middle for a 22-yard TD run that extended the Red Devil lead to 38-21.

Hall led by at least 10 points the rest of the way.

The Red Devils will gather in the school cafeteria Saturday to watch the playoff pairings show to learn their opponent.

“It feels amazing,” Resetich said. “This is my first time having a winning record in three years, so it feels good.”

For the Storm, freshman Brady Hartz made his varsity debut, rushing for 146 yards on 22 carries.

Helms ran for 75 yards and two TDs on 17 attempts while completing 5 of 6 passes for 57 yards, including a 29-yard TD to Isaac Attig, who outleapt a defender and juggled the ball before coming down with the catch. Attitg also ran in a 7-yard TD in the fourth quarter, while Elijah Endress had 49 yards, including a 1-yard TD, on nine carries.

“The kids battled,” BV coach Mat Pistole said. “It would have been really easy for our kids to give up and just go through the motions, but these kids just keep showing up every day and working their butts off and it’s a tribute to their character and how much it means to them. I’m super proud of them.”

The Storm finish 1-8.

“We didn’t have the success we wanted to (this season), and I feel bad for the seniors because they deserve it and they’ve worked really hard,” Pistole said. “But we were very young this year. We only really played three seniors for most of the season. We played a lot of sophomores and juniors so a lot of those guys grew up as the season went on.

“We have to find a way to have that competitive spirit and to get that toughness out of them and that want-to-win attitude. That’s going to be the biggest thing we work on this season is to change the whole attitude in the program and get more competitive.”