Bulldogs punch ticket to 8-man Championship with win over Holly

The Haxtun Bulldogs are perfect on the season and just one game away from the end goal ... a championship trophy. A 46-26 win at home over Holly Saturday afternoon punched the Bulldogs' ticket to the championship contest slated for this Friday at the CSU ThunderBowl in Pueblo. Haxtun, who holds the number one seed in post-season play, will take on the number two ranked Mancos Bluejays in the Colorado 8-man Championship. Mancos slid past Sanford 26-16 for their spot in the final contest this week.

Bulldog captains won the toss on their home field Saturday afternoon, electing to receive the ball. Holly kicked off the 2 p.m. match up and Haxtun's offense went to work although the first outing didn't prove strong as the Wildcat defense held the Bulldogs on downs, forcing a punt. Holly took over just past mid-field but a personal foul call pushed them back even further towards the Bulldogs' endzone, proving to be the perfect set up for a scoring opportunity. On Holly's third down, Haxtun's Kailin Kelley came up with a fumble recovery that resulted in a 40-yard Bulldog touchdown. The added two-point conversion from Michael Gerk put the home team on the board first with an eight point advantage.

Three minutes ticked off the clock as Holly inched closer to their end zone, ultimately punching in a one-yard run for the Wildcats' first points of the game. The Bulldog defense held them out of the en zone on the two-point run attempt to keep Haxtun in the lead by two.

The Bulldogs went to work, marching up the field and taking advantage of yet another personal foul call on Holly for added yards to mark the ball at the Bobcats 31 yard line. Senior quarterback Owen Knode found junior receiver Kyle Fryrear open in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown to put the Bulldogs on top by another six. Haxtun attempted a two-point conversion run but fell short of the goal line.

Shortly before the end of the first quarter, the Bulldogs capitalized on some open field position for a long-touchdown run but a holding call on the home team brought it back but the Bulldogs continued to grind. With just 14 seconds left on the clock, Knode connected with Fryrear in the end zone again, this time with a seven-yard pass, for another Bulldog six. Holly's defense shut out the conversion attempt but Haxtun held the lead after one, 20-6.

Two minutes into the second quarter, the Wildcats managed an interception resulting in a 95-yard touchdown run to narrow in on the scoring gap. The visiting team attempted the point after kick but the kicker sailed it to the left leaving Holly with just six on the play. The Wildcats held the Bulldogs on downs in their next drive but a just seconds later, senior Osman Coss came up with the ball for a fumble recovery at mid-field.

Several plays later, a personal foul call which ended up in an ejection on a Holly Wildcat player, gave Haxtun a first down. The Bulldogs continued to march up field and with just five and a half minutes left on the clock in the first half, senior Isaac Andersen ran in a short, four-yard touchdown for the Bulldogs. As the clock ticked away Haxtun senior David Avery came up with a pick off the hands of Holly's quarterback to put his team in scoring position once more before half time. With just seconds left on the clock, junior Michael Gerk punched in a touchdown from nine-yards out to put the Bulldogs up 34-12 at the half.

Haxtun opened the second half with an early touchdown run from Andersen from 18-yards out. Just four minutes later, Holly answered back with a one-yard run but the Bulldogs maintained the lead and widened the scoring gap even more with a second, third quarter touchdown from Andersen. The Bulldogs struggled to make good on the two-point conversion attempts on both scores but maintained a large enough lead to give the starters a break.

Going into the fourth quarter, coaches gave junior varsity and underclassman playing time in the state semi-finals contest, including all seniors on the field in the final plays of the contest. Holly would manage one last touchdown in the final minute and a half in the game, but a 46-26 win for the Bulldogs sends them straight to the Championship contest later this week.

"Holly was a good team, they were physical and athletic," Head Coach JD Stone said. "It was great getting up on them, we were able to get a lot of minutes for our young guys in the semifinals. We are extremely excited to be playing at this point, but we have a lot of work we need to put in this week. We have one more week to go and our guys are very focused on our goal."

The Bulldogs completed 19 first downs of their 66 plays on Saturday afternoon against Holly. In the quarterback position, Knode completed eight passes for 156 yards in the air and two touchdowns. He averaged 19.5 yards per pass in his final outing in front of a home crowd as a Haxtun Bulldog. Freshman Ryland Wolff completed one pass for eight yards.

Receiver Fryrear caught four passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns in the contest. Maclin Tempel registered 16 yards from one catch.

Andersen led the Bulldogs' ground game with 109 rushing yards from 17 carries and three touchdowns. Gerk tallied one touchdown as well as 84 yards on the ground from 15 carries.

On the defensive side, as a team the Bulldogs registered 72 tackles in the semifinals match up. Three team members lead with double-digits including freshman Grant Statz with 12 total tackles. He tallied six solo and six assisted tackles. Andersen and Kelley each registered 10 total tackles; Anderson splitting his evenly while Kelley tallied three solo and seven assisted. Victor Knapp had eight total tackles followed by Wolff with seven and Gerk with five.

The win pits the Haxtun Bulldogs against the also undefeated 10-0 Mancos Bluejays this Friday at 6 p.m. in the 8-man Championship at CSU Pueblo's Thunderbowl. Mancos moved past Fowler, Dayspring Christian and Sanford in the 16-team playoff bracket on their way to the championship.

To help celebrate the Bulldogs' State Championship appearance, the School has planned a pep rally for Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 6 p.m. in the high school gym. Then Thursday, Thanksgiving day, a send off is set for downtown Haxtun at 1:30 p.m.

Plans are also to welcome the team back to town following Friday's game with an official escort; time may be very late evening, early morning hours of Saturday morning.

"We have to work on our eyes this week, Mancos runs the ball extremely well and then they catch you with play action," said Stone.