Dogies dominate
The Dogie football team traveled to Glenrock Friday where the motherless calves turned the tables on the Herders. Although head coach Matt Conzelman’s squad had an admittedly slow start to the contest, they showed their grit in the second half and dominated to run away with the 34-6 victory, which improved their record to 3-1 in the 2A East Conference.
Despite fumbling on the first drive of the game, the Dogie defense was able to stand their ground against the Herders who had established great field position. After forcing a fourth and out, the Dogies launched a drive down the field, culminating in a nine-yard scamper into the end zone by Landon Hatheway. Cole Erb put the PAT through the uprights to give Newcastle a 7-0 lead to end the
first quarter.
Defensively, the Dogies were wreaking havoc on the Herders’ run game, so Glenrock went to the air to try to get some offense going.
In the second quarter, the Rock was successful in getting ahead of the Dogie coverage and connected on a pass into the end zone to get their one and only score of the contest. They couldn’t convert on the PAT, so the Dogies held a slim 7-6 lead.
Prior to time ticking off the clock in the second quarter, Erb attempted a 31-yard field goal that was just a little short, so Conzelman’s team headed into the half up one point over
the Herders.
“We had two turnovers in the first half,” Conzelman said. “Realistically, we should have had a couple more touchdowns, but we went into the half up, so that was good.”
After that sluggish first half, the Dogies came out with a chip on their shoulder and scored three more touchdowns while denying the Herders the end zone.
In the third quarter, Hatheway punched in his second TD of the contest, and Erb was again on point with the PAT.
“Landon had a nice 25-yard run to set us up for the touchdown,” Conzelman said. “He was just wheeling and dealing and he was able to punch it in.”
Drew Conzelman also got into the stat column for a touchdown when he connected with quarterback Teddy Troftgruben on a 16-yard pass for six. Again, Erb was good with the PAT. Conzelman not only punched one in for the Dogies but also had a good night defensively with four tackle assists and one pass breakup.
“Teddy threw me a great ball and I was wide open for the touchdown, so it was pretty awesome,” Drew said, smiling. “Then, I read their (the Herders) pass to the tight end and was able to knock that down, and I think we did a good job of adjusting to their passing game in the second half.”
Finally, in the fourth quarter, Troftgruben ran one in for the final score of the night with Erb going 4-4 on PAT attempts to elevate the Dogies to their 32-6 victory.
“We ran a backside power play with Teddy for the touchdown,” Conzelman explained. “He had a 14-yard gain in the play before, and then he finished it off.”
This week, the Dogies will host the Wolves of Moorcroft on Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. The contest will be both the Pink night and Senior Night for the senior players for football and cross country.