Making strides in right direction
Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
After struggling with their offensive game the last couple of weeks, the Dogies were able to put together some drives against the Bighorn Rams last Friday that resulted in putting some points on the board at Schoonmaker Field.
Unfortunately, a few bad snaps and some momentary lapses by the Dogies allowed the Rams to take advantage of some unexpected opportunities which they were able to use in conjunction with some big plays of their own to finish the night with the 35-12 win.
“It was still not the overall result that the Dogies were looking for, but it was still a little bit better,” head coach Matt Conzelman began. “I was surprised at our snapping because we haven’t had any issues with that for two weeks, but Friday it did kind of jump up and bite us in the first half.”
The team enjoyed the sophomore-to-sophomore connection of Quint Perino and Hogan Tystad in the fourth quarter as Perino took to the air and found Tystad in the end zone for the team’s two touchdowns.
“It’s great to have a couple of guys we can throw out there at QB. Tate [Engle] and Quint both bring some pretty good things to the table,” Conzelman nodded. “Quint and Hogan have a pretty good chemistry in the JV games, and we got to see that on the field on Friday night.”
The Dogies were looking sharp as the Rams kicked off to them to start the contest. The squad picked up a few first downs and were driving down the field, however couldn’t keep it clean enough to punch it in the endzone.
“We still need to work on finishing when we have the ball,” Conzelman declared. “We were doing good and then committed a couple of mistakes that just snagged up the drive, and then it’s game over.”
The Rams finished quarter one with a 7-0 lead, and went into the half up 21-0 over the Dogies. One of Big Horn’s TDs resulted from a bad snap on a Dogie punt which they fell on in the endzone for six points.
The half-time break gave Conzelman a chance to talk things over with his boys, and they came out in the second half playing a little cleaner than the first.
The Rams got one in during the third quarter to go up 28-0 as the fourth got underway, however, it was then that Dogies got into an offensive rhythm which resulted in a 13 yard touchdown pass from Perino to Tystad to put the first six points on the board for the team since their opening contest in Hot Springs.
Emily Beastrom took the field for her second attempt of the year at the PAT, but some missed blocks contributed to her having her kick blocked by Big Horn.
Another TD by the Rams in the fourth put them up 35-6, but the Dogies had one more answer for them on another 17-yard toss from Perino to Tystad. Unfortunately, the two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful to end the contest 12-35 in the Ram’s favor.
Given the final score, the game breakdown revealed some surprising statistics. The Dogies ran 65 plays on the night to the Ram’s 45, and Newcastle ended up with 235 total yards, while Big Horn just edged them out with 242.
“Other than the mistakes, everything was pretty equal,” Conzelman pointed out. “There is definitely stuff we can build on going forward.”
Holden McConkey and Kale Corley did some nice work running the ball on the night. McConkey ended the game with 20 carries picking up 55 yards while Corley rushed eight times and netted 35 yards of his own.
“Offensively, I thought we looked a lot better this week, and defensively we also played pretty well given the circumstances,” Conzelman determined. “It was nice for the guys to be able to finish some drives and get some points on the board moving forward.”
This week the Dogies head to Tongue River, which Conzelman thinks will be a pretty good matchup for his team. The last time the two squads met was in 2013, after which the Eagles dropped down to 1A for a time. The Dogies came out with the 56-15 victory in that contest. Tongue River is back in the 2A conference this year, and the Dogies are excited to see them again this season, and are hoping for a repeat of the game seven years ago.