Miscues Cost Audubon Against Bishop Garrigan in Semis, 60-36

Audubon's Brody Weber (11-12-25)

Audubon's Aiden Kjergaard (11-12-25)

Miscues Cost Audubon Against Bishop Garrigan in Semis, 60-36 -

(11-12-25) – Mistakes sometimes make the difference.

Audubon played top-ranked Bishop Garrigan in the 8-Player Football Semifinals at the UNI Dome on Wednesday and the Wheelers couldn’t overcome five turnovers as they fell to the Golden Bears, 60-36.

Audubon quarterback Aiden Kjergaard rushed for 151 yards and 3 scores. He said his team knew what they were up against.

“Yeah, we knew Bishop was going to be a fantastic team. Turnovers hurt us and had too many turnovers and that's what cost us the game.”

The problems started early for the Wheelers. After stopping the Golden Bears on their opening drive, a 52-yard punt by Mike Joyce would go out-of-bounds, pinning Audubon on their own 3-yd line. The ball was fumbled on their first play from scrimmage and gave Bishop Garrigan a short field that led to an Ethan Marso TD for an early lead.

Audubon responded with a 10-play, 60-yd drive that ended with Kjergaard getting into the end zone and converting a 2-pt conversion to take their only lead of the game at 8-6.

The teams would trade scores and be tied at 14 with 4:06 remaining in the first half. That’s when things went sideways for the Wheelers.

A drive to Golden Bears 19 would lead to a Madden Miller interception that was returned to the Audubon 25. Tate Foertsch would score to put Bishop Garrigan back on top with :36 remaining in the half.

The Wheelers would get the ball back, but a bad snap would led to a fumble recovery by Matt Besch of the Golden Bears on the Audubon 6 and lead to Foertsch hitting Madden Miller for two scores in 35 seconds and giving Bishop Garrigan a 16-pt lead at the half.

Audubon would get a 72-yd kickoff return from Jorge Nowatzke and rushing touchdowns from Carson Wessel and Kjergaard in the 2nd half, but the defense couldn’t slow down a Bishop Garrigan team that put up nearly 297yds of offense.

Austin Christiansen had 11 tackles for Audubon while Mason Kasperbauer had

For the Wheelers Brody Weber, who caught two passes for 25 yds, the loss doesn’t take away from what this season meant to him.

“I had so much fun this season. I'm so proud of my guys and how much effort we put in the offseason and during the season. I'll never forget.”

Audubon finishes their year 11-1.

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