SIOUX CITY --- As the final pass of Saturday’s 49-45 Sioux City Bandits loss to the Omaha Beef fell to the ground, there was a mixture of emotions.
For the Beef, there was joyous victory as they are on to the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) championship game, but for the Bandits, there was disbelief, frustration and ultimately, heartbreak.
“When we brought this team in, this group of guys, it was pretty much championship or bust, and unfortunately we couldn’t get it done,” Bandits head coach Erv Strohbeen said. “This group of guys mean the world to me. They’re all good people, I’m friends with them, I love them to death. As a coach, that’s the hardest thing.”
The top-seeded Bandits hosted fourth-seeded Omaha in the CIF semifinals, a rematch of the 2021 semifinal the Beef won by one point. The regular season match-up in the Tyson Events Center was a dramatic finish as well, as the Bandits scored late to take down the Beef 60-49.
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After a back-and-forth first half, the Bandits took a 34-28 lead into the intermission, but Omaha had the momentum as Beef quarterback Andrew Jackson found Alexander Noble for a touchdown with five seconds left in the half to cut a 13-point lead down to six.
Omaha’s second half kickoff hit a Bandit blocker and was recovered by Omaha, giving the Beef an extra possession to start the second half. Jackson threw a touchdown pass to Rashad Pargo and after a missed field goal for Sioux City, Jackson threw a second touchdown to Noble and Omaha held a 42-34 lead.
“The momentum flipped at the beginning of the half when we could have gone up by two touchdowns and they kicked the ball off of Braden Meints,” Strohbeen said.
The Bandits tied the game early in the fourth quarter on a Lorenzo Brown touchdown pass to Damond Powell and a two-point conversion pass from Brown to Sammie Epps. Omaha attempted a field goal on the ensuing possession that was blocked by Dajon Emery.
Sioux City marched down the field, but got stopped on a third down play, and Greg Conry booted a field goal through the uprights to give the Bandits a narrow 45-42 lead. The Beef marched down the field in the final two minutes, getting to the one-yard-line with 11 seconds left. Jackson pushed his way into the end zone to give the Beef a 48-45 lead. The extra point was good and the Bandits needed a touchdown to win.
“We talked about it prior to, if we block that field goal, it would have been a nice opportunity to set up a field goal (for the Bandits), but unfortunately we had to go for the touchdown,” Strohbeen said.
After failing to convert a quick pass with five seconds left, the Bandits had three seconds for one last heave, with Brown’s pass to the end zone falling to the ground. The celebration was on for Omaha, and the Bandits season came to an end.
With 10 seconds left, the guys said, we've been here before,” Strohbeen said. “Obviously, we weren't looking to lose that game even with 10 or 11 seconds left. We just needed somebody to make a play and unfortunately we fell short.”
The mood in the locker room following the game could have been summed up in one word.
“Disappointment,” Strohbeen said. “This was a championship team. They weren’t the number one seed in the playoffs and 9-91 for nothing, then to fall short, it’s a bummer. They expected to be playing next week and we’re not, it’s kind of a shocker for them.”
This Bandits team is a veteran group, a lot of whom came back for another year with the belief they can win a championship. Strohbeen said it is way too early to say whether who is coming back and who isn’t, but what this group was able to do this year was something special.
“I know the work that they put in and the kind of people they are,” Strohbeen said. “The community relation events we did this year, you know, they did a lot for our community. Ownership group did a lot for the community, donated money to different causes and we did a lot of cool stuff on the field. We did a lot of cool stuff off the field too and for us not to be able to finish this with a championship is a pretty big bummer for me.”