Bison stampede Newcastle team

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies’ home opener, zero week game against the Bison of Hot Springs was a bit of a safety dance, which is rare in high school football. On the kickoff of each half, the kicking team was able to take down the ball carrier in the endzone to earn two points and steal possession of the football.
Unfortunately, the Dogies were on the receiving end of that situation to start the contest, as Hot Springs kicked off first.
“The kick got behind us, and we always preach to the guys to get back to the middle of the field,” head coach Matt Conzelman explained. “Realistically, he should have faked to the middle and then get as much as he could up the sidelines before stepping out of bounds, but he ended up getting taken down in the endzone.”
Fortunately, the Dogie defense was able to hold the South Dakota team out of the endzone on that possession, but were unable to find it themselves. 
With less than a minute on the clock in the first half, down 14-0 the Dogies took possession of the ball and made a quick drive down the field to get within striking distance
of their first touchdown of
the night. 
The final play of the half ended with a reception by sophomore Slade Roberson who was within a hair’s breadth of the endzone. Unfortunately the clock helped to thwart the Dogies in getting on the board.
“That one would have been huge for us, and it was hard to let that go when we were so close, but got nothing out of it before time ran out,” Conzelman frowned. “We had to burn our timeouts because we were taking too much time getting the plays off throughout the first half, so we didn’t have any left at the end. We will be more conservative with timeouts going forward.”
The second half started off positively for the Dogies as they repeated what Hot Springs accomplished on their first play of the game. The Dogies kicked off to the Bison and brought the receiver down in the endzone picking up a safety of their own, two points, and possession of the ball. 
However, despite offensive movement down the field, Newcastle was still unable to break across the goal line.
“Offensively, we still struggle with getting in the endzone which was a problem last year too,” Conzelman admitted. “We were probably in the red zone four times and came out with zero points. We’re just going to have to coach them better and make sure that we finish drives.”
Though a 32-2 loss was not what the Dogies had hoped for in this first contest of the season, Conzelman saw several positives to take from the game.
“Even though we weren’t ahead on the scoreboard, I think we outplayed them in the first half to three quarters of the game. I thought our overall defense played well swarming to the ball and we had some kids step up. We need to get the offense and special teams going and then we’ll be in business.,” he stated. “I guess that’s why you play those preseason games to get some of those things figured out, and find those things that need to be fixed before we get into the real deal this week.”
The Dogies will open up conference play this Friday in Wheatland with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m. The Bulldogs scrimmaged Douglas last weekend so this will be their first game of the year.
“We’ll be challenged again this weekend, defensively. Typically, they are pass heavy and run some spread sets so it won’t be the last time our young guys will get picked on a little bit,” Conzelman predicted. “This should be another one of those games where people are still trying to find their identity so it will be good for us.”