Bunnies' historic season ends in sectional finals

MONTICELLO – There weren’t many Fisher/Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley football players on the bus ride home Wednesday night.

Tears and emotional hugs had already been shared.

But Fisher/GCMS coach Robby Dinkins had a chance to connect with one of his assistant coaches and former players, Graham Voelker, after Normal U-High defeated the Bunnies 4-0 in a Class 1A Monticello Sectional title match.

Even if the Bunnies (20-4-1) won’t make any more bus runs this season after being eliminated by the Pioneers (22-5-1).

Keaton Ash scored two goals for Normal U-High, which led 2-0 at halftime, and handed Fisher/GCMS its first loss in a month as the Pioneers advanced to Saturday’s Herscher Super-Sectional against Manteno.

“They’re very good,” Dinkins said of U-High, last year’s 1A state runner-up. “I would be shocked if they don’t win state.”

The fact that Fisher/GCMS was just two wins away from reaching its first state tournament in program history was no coincidence.

The Bunnies have consistently built their program over the past decade, increasing their numbers, their talent and the cohesion between the two schools that are part of the co-op program.

“It was cool talking about all the past times with Graham on the ride home,” Dinkins said. “He talked about the first time we beat Uni High and it was really nice to hear. It was great to see how far we’ve come, because you don’t really get the chance to do that during the season.”

Parker Baillie finished with nine saves against Normal U-High despite the abnormal weather conditions.

“The wind was brutal, especially early on,” Dinkins said. “We coaches both said afterward that this is not ideal for a championship game, but that both teams had to play against it. You’re obviously angry that you lost, but we’re proud of the way the kids handled it. They never gave up.”

Baillie is one of 12 seniors the Bunnies will have to replace next season. Such as main contributors Logan Heath, David Hull, Spencer Kleist, Sid Pfoff and Zack Zbinden, along with Hunter Martin, Daniel Santos-Castaneda, Gaines Parsons, Alex Pollard, Calvin Rachiell, Daniel Santos-Castaneda and Caleb Zwilling. On Wednesday they all played their last match in the Orange and Black.

It is a group that has seen and contributed to the success of previous Fisher/GCMS teams. But not like this season, when the Bunnies won their first long-awaited regional championship since 2001, Baillie set a single-season record for shutouts in a season and had the team set a single-season record for goals scored.

“With this group coming in, it was definitely a group that didn’t pull away from the older groups as freshmen,” Dinkins said. “They always pushed the groups ahead of them. Some of them earned those spots early. David and Sid played a lot of minutes as freshmen. They’re a fantastic group of young guys. They have a great bond. They let us know we were going to get better, and we did that throughout their careers.”