Dogies lose heartbreaker

The Dogies hosted the first round of the 2A Football Playoffs Friday as they welcomed the Cokeville Panthers to Schoonmaker Field. Head coach Matt Conzelman and crew knew that the Panthers were coming in with a history of winning in the post-season, and both teams also knew that the other would bring their very best to this pivotal match-up.

It was a battle for the entire 48 minutes, but time ran out on the Dogies, which resulted in a heartbreaking 20-28 loss and brought about the end to their 2024 season.

“I don’t think the game ended the way anybody wanted it to, but the guys showed a lot of fight and they never gave up,” Conzelman said. “The line of success is so thin, and I think that if just two or three plays had gone our way, we would have seen a different ending.”

The Dogies knew they needed to start strong and the first few seconds of the contest could not have gone better. Newcastle received the ball to start the game, and senior Connor Stohlhammer returned the kick-off 16 yards before the offense began their first drive.

That drive was short-lived as Stohlhammer got the handoff on first down and took it to the house 63 yards for a quick touchdown. The kicking team took the field for the point after touchdown, but a five-yard penalty on the Panthers encouraged the Dogies to go for two. Unfortunately, Landon Hatheway’s attempt was stopped short, so the Dogies stayed at a 6-0 lead.

Cokeville had a quick answer as they punched one in about a minute later and were good on their two-point conversion to take an 8-6 lead. The Panthers got one more into the end zone before the end of the first quarter, but the Dogies thwarted the 2-point conversion attempt. As such, the Panthers boasted a 14-6 lead as the second frame got under way.

Midway through the second quarter, Collin McConkey ran three yards for his first touchdown of the night, and Teddy Troftgruben was good on a gate play and added two points to the scoreboard for the Dogies. As the first half ended, the teams were knotted up at 14-14.

Cokeville scored again in the third quarter and converted on their two-point PAT attempt to go up 22-14.

However, the Dogies had an answer as McConkey had a huge 81-yard run to punch it in the end zone. McConkey was stopped short on the two-point conversion attempt, so the Panthers held a slim 22-20 lead to end the third quarter.

“This was such a cool play!” Troftgruben said. “I’ve played with some of these guys since the second grade and sometimes the chemistry is just great. Collin was in the perfect spot and I pitched it to him and he was off to the races.”

The final quarter was a fight to the finish for both teams who were determined to continue their season. Late in the game, Cokeville drove the ball down the field finishing it off with a two-yard scamper.

“We were just trying to get them stopped,” Conzelman said. “It would seem like we had them in a good spot for us and then they’d make a big play and they kept moving the sticks on us.”

With the go-ahead touchdown scored by the Panthers, the Dogies knew they had to deny the two-point conversion attempt if they wanted a shot at pushing the game into
overtime.

“I could see the scoreboard, and I knew that if they got the two-point conversion, the game was over,” Troftgruben said. “We just needed to sell out or we might as well just go to the sideline.”

The Dogie defensive stance was effective. They kept the game within reach, and had a minute and a half to march the ball down the field to get a touchdown, and successfully finish a two-point conversion to get the game into extra minutes.

“During that whole drive (by the Panthers), I had been trying to communicate to our backers that they were running behind their No. 65, their best blocker, and I think they finally heard me and we got them stopped on their two-point conversion,” senior Aidan Butler said. “Then it was just a hurry up offense to try to get in as many pass plays as we could.”

The Dogies used their final timeout of the game when they found themselves short one yard of a first down. Unfortunately, Cokeville was able to stop them on fourth and one, meaning Newcastle turned the ball over on downs. With 28 seconds to play, the Panthers knelt on the ball, bringing the game to a disappointing end for Conzelman’s crew.

“I was super proud of how we responded and how we played in this game,” Conzelman said. “Things happen for a reason and I guess this just wasn’t meant to be. We definitely showed a lot of growth this year and I think we can use it to work toward next season.”

The Dogies will graduate seven seniors from the squad and will lose two foreign exchange students from the roster as well. Those seniors include Stohlhammer, Butler, Dayne Evenson, Jonathan Anderson, Scott Larson, Dustin Boyer and Damon Oliver.

“The seniors were huge for us and they definitely left a legacy for our program,” Conzelman said.

“It was a really great season to go out on,” Butler said. “We had a great conference record (6-2) and the pain of this loss was significantly less than the pain of losing to Torrington last year. The team worked their tails off, and this last game was a close one, so it actually feels good to know we gave it everything we had.”

With the Dogie football season at a close, Conzelman wanted to give a shoutout to all those who supported him and his team throughout the season, and send out special thanks to Deckers for donating the watermelon for the watermelon relays, Woody’s Food Center for recognizing the players of the game each week, Pizza Barn for giving the team a free meal after the Tongue River game, Pinnacle Bank for the half-time tennis ball throw, Voelker’s Auto Body for the Pink Game helmet, Scott Beehler for being the team statistician, Gary Clarke for being the team’s “ball boy,” Chris Gray for announcing the games, Whitney Rawhouser for being the team barber and Bucky Rawhouser, Brad Troftgruben, Justin McConkey, Tristan Troftgruben, and Billie Gordon for being the “chain gang.”’