Football team looks to finish season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies have been experiencing one of the most challenging seasons in recent years, facing adversity after adversity. Following their loss to Burns last Friday, and with the season ending game in sight, head coach Matt Conzelman has identified three goals for his team to get them through their final week.
“First, we want the guys to be true to their talents. We want to make sure that we are doing everything possible through the week and on game day to play to our ability level,” Conzelman began. “Second, we want to be coming together as a team, being positive to one another and just helping each other out. And finally, we want to finish … finish everything we do, finish practices, finish plays, and finish the season out.”
These goals came about as the Dogies headed to Burns without six key players for the team, all absent due to injuries. As such, the squad started two seniors, one junior, one freshman and the rest were sophomores. 
Outsized and out-experienced, the Dogies found themselves in a deep hole early in the contest.
“They jumped on us pretty fast, and we suffered the same struggles we’ve been facing,” Conzelman sighed. “They had some big plays on offense, and we couldn’t get them tackled. Add on top of that we had three turnovers on special teams in the first half, and things don’t look so good for us.”
The first turnover was on a punt return and the next two were on kickoff returns. Unfortunately, the latter two occurred right after the Broncs scored, giving the ball right back to them. Time of possession was pretty lopsided during the first two frames, allowing Burns to go into the break with a daunting 34-0 lead over Newcastle.
“That’s never a good situation to be in, but I did think that at the half we came out better,” Conzelman began. “We switched some stuff up and we looked better, but when you’re down that much, it really just takes the wind out of your sails.”
The Dogies did continue to play hard and fight in the remaining minutes of the contest, and were able to punch in a touchdown near the end of the third quarter to get on the board.
The TD came about on a pass play from quarterback Bradyn Frye to Aaron Fullerton, and the two-point conversion attempt by Dayton McFarlin that followed was a success, giving the Dogies their eight points on the night to their opponent’s 54.
“You know, they were pretty physical and athletic and we just couldn’t handle their weapons,” Conzelman admitted. “We had opportunities to get them stopped and we were able to at times in the game, but that just wasn’t enough.”
With the playoffs out of reach, this Friday will mark the end of the 2018 season for the Dogies as they head to Buffalo to take on the number one ranked Bison.
“They’re really good at every single position. They’re loaded, fast, big and athletic” Conzelman described. “A lot of the young guys have deer-in-the-headlights looks right now, but the game time experience they are gaining is valuable so they can take a look at it and know where they need to get to since this is what we’re facing.”
Conzelman is hopeful that he will have some of his injured players back for the last game of the season, especially the three seniors for whom this will be the last time they will suit up for the Dogies.