MEAD — The Mead High School band played Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at halftime.

Quite appropriate for the night after Halloween, and for a Class 3A, white-knuckle showdown between No. 1 Windsor and No. 2 Mead.

In the end, the Wizards knocked the Mavericks from the ranks of the unbeaten and took control of the North 2 League with a 13-7 victory at Mead Stadium.

Mead, set up by a 37-yard halfback pass from Ethan Elmore to Ryan St. Aubin, appeared to be driving to the game-tying score in the final moments, but another Elmore halfback pass was broken up inside the Windsor 10-yard line.

“Our guys came up big at the end,” Windsor coach Chris Jones said. “But man, they had a third-and-12 play and we were telling the guys, ‘Halfback pass, halfback pass.’ But we still bit on it.

“But we came through. That was a good game, and that’s a well-coached team over there. Jason (Klatt) has that team well-oiled over there. They are fundamentally sound and it’s a tough team to beat and make plays on.”

The Wizards emerged from the rugged affair with an 8-1 record and a perfect 4-0 league mark. Mead tumbled to 8-1 and 3-1.

Windsor’s kicking game gave it a 10-7 lead with 4:26 left in the third quarter. Senior Matt Zenger pinned Mead at its own 4-yard line. The Mavericks went four-and-out, giving the Wizards a short field. The Wizards didn’t do much with it but Kale Frederick drilled a 33-yard field goal.

Early in the fourth quarter, Windsor began feeding the ball to junior Adrian Czyszczon and he delivered with runs up the middle.

“It was just 3 or 4 yards on every play,” Czyszczon said. “They just gave me the ball over and over again. Their (defense) started making adjustments and we were getting hit in the backfield, so we finally said, ‘Let’s not go with any trickery or anything like that. We are just going to run it right down their throats.’”

However, a holding penalty wiped out Czyszczon’s 5-yard touchdown run and Frederick was called on to make another field goal. He was perfect again, drilling a 29-yarder to increase the lead to 13-7 with 10:10 remaining in the game.

“We knew it was going to be close,” Frederick said. “They are a hard team to beat. They battle on the ground, we battle on the ground. So making the kicks was what we needed, at least this time around.”

Frederick felt the pressure, but he didn’t let it spook him.

“I just knew I had to do my job,” he said. “I could hear the fans in their stands getting loud and I just wanted to shut them down.”

The two rivals were deadlocked at halftime, 7-7, with jarring defense the predominant theme.



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