“Storybook ending” doesn’t do justice to what played out at Elkhorn Stadium on Thursday night as Elkhorn North scored on the final play to knock off Bennington — with head coach Sam Stanley back on the sideline.
On Saturday, Stanley lost his 11-month-old son Grant after a battle with congenital heart disease. Stanley has been away from the team in recent weeks to focus on his family, with Anthony Dunn stepping up as acting head coach.
Stanley stopped by practice on Wednesday and was with the team on Thursday as the Wolves closed out the regular season against EMC rival Bennington. Both student sections hung signs and players on both sides wore purple accessories and athletic tape to show their support for the Stanley family.
Elkhorn North spent much of the season atop the NebPreps Coaches Poll before suffering losses in each of the past two weeks, dropping to No. 7. With Stanley back on the sideline to support his team, the Wolves got back in the win column to finish 7-2.
“He stopped by practice yesterday, and the energy was palpable,” Dunn told NebPreps. “You could feel it, and to be honest with you, we were really just barely holding it together for the last few weeks. He came and you could just feel it. The coaches got to sort of step back and watch him do his thing and him being in his element, and there was just a different juice yesterday.
“Obviously for our defense against that team to go throw up a shutout in the first half, really inspired football. Jase Reynolds getting a pick-six to start, I was on the sideline crying.”
Reynolds, a senior linebacker committed to Nebraska, jumped a pass on the second play from scrimmage and took it 20 yards to the end zone to put the Wolves in front before their offense touched the ball. On the first play of the next drive, another Elkhorn North defender punched the ball out at the end of a run and Alex Uchtman scooped it up, running it back to the 15. The Wolves got a short field goal from Zac Keenan (who went 3-for-3 in the game) to take a 10-0 lead just over two minutes into the game.
“It was awesome,” Elkhorn North quarterback Ethan Beachy said of the start. “As soon as Jase caught that, that was awesome. It was hard to keep my composure, that’s for sure. It was awesome to see, and then the fumble just added on to that. It was awesome to see, and it really just gave us that momentum and that energy to start the game.”
The Wolves tacked on another field goal midway through the second quarter and took a 13-0 lead into halftime, with both teams south of 100 yards of offense in a defensive struggle. Elkhorn North got a stop on fourth-and-goal at the 2 at the end of the half to maintain the shutout.
Things turned in the second half, however. Bennington used a couple big plays on offense to gain some traction and put two touchdowns on the board — one on a 60-yard bomb from Ty Bouaphakeo to Jake Russell — to take a 14-13 lead into the final period.
After combining for just 27 points in the first three periods, the two teams put up 29 in the fourth with five lead changes. After three straight incomplete deep shots, Bennington used a 55-yard pass on fourth-and-10 from Bouaphakeo to Lane Molacek to regain the lead with just under two minutes to play.
Trailing 27-23 and needing a touchdown, Beachy led the offense back onto the field with a message from Dunn.
“He started off with, ‘You do your thing. I’ve got full confidence in you, and you just go make plays,’” Beachy said. “That confidence was insane. He’s had confidence in me all season, and I have confidence in him as well. We just knew that if each person did their job, we’d go out and we’d punch it in.”
Beachy hooked up with sophomore wide receiver Drew Meyer for gains of 21 and 30 to reach the red zone in a hurry then carried the team home himself with runs of 7, 8 and 4 yards, the last carry a diving attempt for the end zone that came up just short on third down. Dunn let the clock run down to two seconds then called a timeout, setting up one final play to decide the game.
Elkhorn North — who had struggled in short-yardage situations against a fierce Bennington defense at multiple points throughout the game — ran a quarterback sneak and got the push it needed, with Beachy crossing the goal line as time expired.
Ethan Beachy with the game winning touchdown.
As he points to his wrist and says “that’s for Grant.”
Coach Stanley’s son Grant who passed away on Saturday.
Final score Elkhorn North 29 Bennington 27. #nebpreps pic.twitter.com/1YhWbfhYK4
— Mike Sautter (@MikeSautter_) October 24, 2025
“I knew I was in the whole time,” Beachy said. “There was nothing going to stop me. I was punching that in. Stanley told me that there were some little hands that pushed me as well, and without a doubt that’s true. Grant watched over us tonight and we got that W for him.”
After the postgame handshake and a TV interview, the players began chanting Stanley’s name and gathered around him to hear from their head coach, who was initially overcome with emotion.
“You had every reason to quit, to feel down on yourselves, to feel like this got away from us,” Stanley told his team. “You never did that. You never did that. You believed. You believed in yourselves, and you brought the definition of family to life … That’s the best team we’ve played all year, and you guys made a huge statement tonight. I don’t know that there’s anybody playing better football than them coming into this thing, and I think, ultimately, what this shows you is what you’re capable of, which we’ve known. We’ve known all along.
“What did I tell you yesterday before I left? We are becoming whole again. We knew we were going to take a step forward tonight; didn’t know what it would look like, but I’d say we have to be pretty happy with not just the outcome, but the way you guys played and establishing yourselves as a team that nobody wants to play moving forward, nobody.
“Guys, what this has meant to me, I can’t put it into words. I love you all, I’m proud of you and I’m excited about what we’re going to do moving forward … We continue on your quest for a title. You can feel it in your hands, man. You can feel it in your hands. We just have to keep fighting to get better and keep working our butts off and playing for each other, which is exactly what you did tonight.”
After Stanley concluded his speech, Elkhorn North students swarmed the field to celebrate with their classmates, many of them donned in purple, including the student section leaders who had painted purple butterflies on their chests.
“This is just an embodiment of how special it is to be a part of a team and be a part of something bigger than yourself,” Dunn said. “This is what sports is about, to be honest, and obviously we’re on the winning side, but man, just us coming together is pretty cool.”
Beachy finished with 255 yards passing and 90 yards on the ground, scoring both of the Wolves’ offensive touchdowns with his legs. Seventy-one of those 345 total yards came on the game-winning drive.
“He embodied the toughness that that our team did, honestly, at the QB spot,” Dunn said. “He just kept responding and responding, and obviously he uses his legs really well and runs hard, but him throwing it down the stretch, and he hit a couple bombs over the top. The collective seniors are such a special group for us, and so to get this on senior night, and for Coach Stanley, it’s just honestly a really special moment.”
In addition to seniors like Beachy, Reynolds and Uchtman making big plays, the sophomore Meyer exploded for a career-high 161 yards, including gains of 49 and 55 plus the two big catches on the final drive.
“That dude’s a monster, man,” Beachy said. “He’s a monster. During the summer, I wasn’t sure, but he came in and he’s just been a weapon out there. He’s 6-5, big dude, easy to throw to, so he comes down with a lot and as a sophomore, just his influence and impact on the game is insane.”
The win was Elkhorn’s first over Bennington, the football powerhouse who won three straight Class B state championships before finishing runner-up a season ago. It ended the Wolves’ skid and put them firmly back in the race for the Class B crown, with the playoffs set to start next week.
“It’s huge,” Beachy said. “All the guys, we were bought in, but I think we’re even more bought in. We know we can win the big game. The two weeks prior, we’ve been giving up in the second half, but this week, we stuck with it and when it came down to it, we made plays and we put the ball in the end zone and we scored touchdowns.
“I think that just boost everyone’s confidence, and it’s just a huge boost for the playoffs.”
