BELMONT — The De Soto High School football team couldn’t recover from a series of big second-half plays by Belmont and was knocked out of the WIAA 8-player playoffs by the Braves on Saturday.
The fifth-seeded Pirates (5-3), who pushed Belmont in an overtime loss during the regular season, were outscored by 24 points in the second half and allowed two fourth-quarter touchdown drives in a 44-32 loss to the fourth-seeded Braves (8-1).
Belmont, which took its first lead and then kept it on an 85-yard interception return late in the third quarter, advances to play at top-seeded Oakfield (9-0) in the second round.
De Soto built a 24-12 halftime lead with four touchdown drives in the first half.
Senior quarterback Finn Wrobel opened the scoring with a touchdown pass to senior Bryce Schultz and then gave the Pirates a 12-0 lead with a 2-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter.
Schultz finished with 11 catches for 196 yards and two touchdowns. Wrobel completed 16 of 21 passes for 314 yards, three touchdowns and was intercepted twice.
After Belmont came back to tie the score, Wrobel completed a 35-yard scoring pass to Jackson Trussoni.
Senior Austin DeFlorian gave De Soto its halftime lead on his touchdown run with 2 minutes, 28 seconds on the clock.
DeFlorian carried eight times for 38 yards and the touchdown, and Trussoni had seven receptions for 115 yards and his touchdown.
The 85-yard interception return came with 1:39 on the clock, followed a 66-yard touchdown run on the first possession of the third and gave the Braves a 28-24 lead. A defensive stop om fourth-and-3 and two late touchdown runs by senior Tyler Kisamore propelled Belmont near the end.
Wrobel threw his third touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, and the 35-yard completion to Schultz cut Belmont’s lead to 36-32 with 5:06 left, but the Braves responded by recovering the ensuing kickoff and gaining two first downs before Kisamore’s final scoring run with 1:08 left.