Dawgs End Regular Season With Battle Of The Elkhorns
 | Author:
Grady Erickson, BHS Sports Reporter
MT43 News Sports Reporter |
Dawgs End Regular Season with Battle of the Elkhorns
Grady Erickson
BHS Sports Reporter
This past Friday night the Townsend Bulldogs traveled to Boulder to play the 6-2 Jefferson Panthers in the Battle of the Elkhorns. The game was also Jefferson’s senior night.
The Bulldogs kicked off first with them wearing their road white jerseys with black pants. The Bulldogs started the game strong forcing Boulder into a three-and-out. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs couldn’t get much going on offense. Boulder started the scoring off with a rushing touchdown with 4 minutes left in the first quarter to take a 7-0. The quarter ended with the Bulldogs in prime scoring position after a risky 4th down attempt that went the Bulldog's way.
The second quarter started with a Bulldog field goal by Logan Johnson to bring the score to 3-7. This unfortunately was the only Bulldog score of the game. On the next Panther possession, Cael James-Darwin Sell got his 8th sack of the season. There was little offense either way during the second quarter with the quarter ending with a missed Panthers field goal. The score at the half was still 3-7 with the Panthers leading.
The third was a struggle for the Bulldogs offensively, they couldn’t get a spark. The Panthers scored another rushing touchdown to bring the score to 14-3. Sawyer Horne on the Bulldogs had an impressive 20-yard run but unfortunately, the Bulldogs couldn’t keep the momentum rolling and turned the ball over on downs. The Bulldogs really struggled to stop the Panthers rushing attack and the third quarter ended with the Bulldogs down 14-3.
In the fourth quarter, the Panthers ran away with the game with another rushing touchdown to bring the score to 21-3. The Townsend offense struggled getting drives put together and a Bulldog fumble set up Boulder for a passing touchdown to make the score 28-3. Deegan Mattson picked the ball off in the endzone to keep the Panthers from scoring on their next drive. This was his 7th interception of the season; he leads the Bulldogs in interceptions and has had a strong defensive year. The Panthers also had an interception of their own with around 5 minutes to go in the game. The Panthers were not done scoring and kicked a field goal toward the end of the fourth quarter to bring the score to 31-3 which was the final score. The Bulldogs end the regular season 4-4, but this gets them into the playoffs!
Next week is the first week of the playoffs and has the fourth-ranked Bulldogs traveling to the number-one-ranked team from the East - the Red Lodge Rams. The Bulldogs are hoping for an upset. The game is set to kick off on Saturday, November 2nd at 1 pm Mountain Standard Time. The starting linebacker Trenton Hoveland says that going into next week the team is focusing on “good mental reps and not beating ourselves”. Good Luck next week and GO DAWGS!!
