Dragons Seek To Sneak Past Warriors Again

Last season on November 23, 2021, Gretna and Westside battled each other in Nebraska Class A State Championship. It was a hard hitting, low scoring game and Gretna came up with a stellar stop at the goal line to hold on to a 7-3 win. The lone touchdown of the game was on a QB sneak by Gretna's Zane Flores. Tonight these two powerful teams will meet again and this year's game should be more high scoring. Zane Flores has been the starting quarterback of the Gretna Dragons since his freshman year. He was the first freshman to start varsity for the Dragons in school history. As a junior, Flores threw for 2,885 yards and 26 touchdowns. There have been just three quarterbacks since 2004 from the state of Nebraska that have signed with a Power Five school.

This season, Zane Flores has thrown 28 TD's, completing 66% for 2703 yds and has committed to play next year at Oklahoma State.

Whichever team has the fewest turnovers is likely to win tonight's battle at Memorial Stadium. In last years title game, Mason Goldman #58 caused a fumble of Westside's Elite QB, Anthony Rezac and he's even stronger this year. As the leader of Gretna's defensive front, Goldman leads the Dragons’ linemen with 45 total tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery. Goldman is two-way lineman this year for Gretna and has numerous scholarship offers. Among the Power 5 teams, Nebraska, Arizona State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri have offered Goldman. If Mason signs with Nebraska, he would join other Husker pledges, Gunnar Gottula from Lincoln Southeast, Sam Sledge from Creighton Prep and Brock Knutson from Scottsbluff.

Gretna Head Coach Mike Kayl

Gretna’s first ever trip to a state championship game will be remembered for a long time. the Dragons beat the Westside Warriors in a tight game that went down to the wire. The final score was 7 to 3. Westside scored a field goal in the second quarter to make it 3-0 and it stayed that way until under 7 minutes to go. That’s when Zane Flores hit Joe Roll on a huge passing play to put the Dragons down near the goal line. Flores finished off the drive with a QB sneak. It was Gretna’s first points of the entire game and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The defense would still have to earn them the win.

With 32 seconds left, a big pass from Anthony Rezac to Grant Guyett put the Warriors in prime position to score the go-ahead goal, but the Dragon’s defense along with a few errors by Westside earned the victory. That included getting a stop on Westside’s final play that started with just two seconds on the clock. The win for Gretna ended Westside’s long win streak. The Warriors had not lost a game since they were defeated by Bellevue West in the 2019 state championship game.

In January 2022, Gretna’s Class A football championship was vacated by the Nebraska State Activities Association board after the school was determined to have used an ineligible player. The board voted 8-0 Thursday to take away the title from the Dragons, however, the Gretna players were allowed to keep the medals from their 7-3 win over Omaha Westside in last November’s state final at Memorial Stadium. The ruling means there will be no 2021 Class A football champion. Tonight, once again the teams will battle on the field to determine who's the best Class A Team in Nebraska.

Joe Mixan

Date

November 21, 2022

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