Dogies stampede the Herders

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The Dogies got a taste of victory against Tongue River, which made them hungry for more, and the Friday Night Lights burned a little brighter as the Dogies rolled over the Glenrock Herders at Schoonmaker Field Friday with a 25-6 win.  
Last week, the Dogies relied more on their running game, however early in the contest against Glenrock, quarterback Slade Roberson took to the air and would go on to connect often, finding three receivers for touchdowns throughout the night, and a couple more for big plays as they marched down the field.
“It was an awesome win,” head coach Matt Conzelman said. “It was a different feeling being able to hit some big plays and also to be able to force mistakes and then capitalize on them.”
The first big connection came early in the first quarter where Roberson hit Aidan Chick with a 40-yard pass up the middle. Though he had the defense on his heels, Chick was unable to keep his footing, however the play brought the Dogies deep into Herder territory. 
“That was great to have that on our first possession, and I kind of wanted to run that play first,” Conzelman said. “But I kept holding off thinking that if they had watched our film of the last couple of weeks, we could get them bunched up, and we did.”
The Herders were able to get a stop on that first promising drive which led to the Dogies attempting a field goal for the first time this season. The snap was a little off, however, so Dylan McFarlin’s attempt was blocked by Glenrock and the Dogies were held scoreless. 
“We’re still working on timing with those guys,” Conzelman noted. “It’s got to be snap, place, kick and it has to happen pretty quickly.” 
With 4:16 to go in the first, Chick stopped a promising drive by the Herders when he intercepted a pass and brought it back 45 yards to give the Dogies promising field position.
The Dogies ended up getting backed up a little bit on that possession, however on third and 11, Roberson connected with Holden McConkey for a 29-yard scamper into the end zone to put the Dogies up 6-0. McFarlin’s PAT went wide left so Newcastle stuck with the 6-point advantage.
“We ran the screen to Holden on the left side, and he got the slip on them and was off to the races,” Conzelman said. “Aidan’s interception was huge in giving us momentum going into that drive.”
Late in the second quarter, the Dogies finished off a 60-yard drive as Roberson found Chick in the end zone with a 15-yard toss to go up 12-0 with only 27.4 seconds left to play in the first half. The missed PAT on the first touchdown prompted Conzelman to make the call to go for the two-point conversion, but Roberson was brought down short of the goal line. 
“It was nice to be able to gamble a little with that since things were going pretty good for us,” Conzelman explained. “But credit to their defensive line for stopping things up.”
The Dogies received the ball to begin the third quarter, but came up dry on their first possession. However, Jacob Prell knocked down the Herder quarterback’s pass attempt causing him to fumble, and Heath Henkle fell on the ball to recover it for his team on the Dogies’ 36-yard line to once again thwart Glenrock’s ensuing offensive push. 
Roberson and his crew then went to work and marched the ball 64 yards down field and finished off the drive with a 14-yard pass to Tanner Neilsen for the third Newcastle touchdown of the night. 
“Tanner is really elusive and it’s hard to get a read on him,” Conzelman said. “Once he gets the ball in his hand, he’s tough to take down.”
McFarlin came out and was positioned for the PAT, however a pass interference call against the Herders gave the Dogies half the distance to the goal line. With so little ground to cover, Conzelman opted to go for two, but once again, the Dogies were held out of the end zone so had to settle for the 18-0 lead. 
Glenrock was finally able to find some offensive momentum early in the fourth quarter and finished an 80-yard drive with a touchdown with 9:56 to play. They were no good on the two-point conversion, however, so the Dogies maintained the 18-6 advantage.
With 4:26 remaining, Hogan Tystad put a huge hit on the Herder quarterback, sacking him on his own 3-yard line on fourth down. Roberson made quick work of that possession, by putting his head down and punching it in for the fourth and final TD of the night for Newcastle.
This time, McFarlin put the ball through the uprights on his PAT attempt, scoring the final point of the night and giving his team a 25-6 margin of victory.
From there, it was a matter of running out the clock. Neilsen was able to cap off his night with a beautifully snagged interception with short time to play, and Roberson knelt for the final two downs of the night. 
The “bend but don’t break” defensive philosophy of the Dogies was on point in all four quarters of play. Their hard-nosed tenacity effectively turned the Herders over on downs several times throughout, often leaving Newcastle with pretty advantageous field positions.
“It was a good overall team effort and it’s exciting that we are starting to feel our stride a little bit,” Conzelman said. “We got 11 guys to the football, and that was no easy task because the offense they run is smash-mouth, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust heavy hitting, so the guys did a great job defensively.” 
The Dogies have a challenging opponent Friday when they travel to Torrington to take on the No. 3-ranked Trailblazers. Torrington won against Big Horn in OT but Conzelman is of a mind to think that his team had a shot against Big Horn.
“We’re a different team than we were in Big Horn, and we banged with them pretty good,” he determined. “I know that Torrington is pretty big, but I think it’ll be a good one down there and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us in the game.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7.