Bulldogs pick up first win at home against Kansas team on Friday

Friday night lights were back on at Adam Wernsman Field as the Haxtun Bulldogs hosted Wichita County in the season home opener last week. The Bulldogs picked up their first win and in front of a home crowd with a 22-12 win on Friday, Sept. 6.

The Bulldogs dominated throughout the first half, putting 16 unanswered points on the board in the first 24 minutes of play.

Haxtun added six points to the board after half time and the Indians, from Leoti, Kan. managed their first six in the third.

The visiting team added another touchdown shortly into the fourth but the Bulldog defense held the Indians out for the remainder of the game to maintain the 22-12 lead at the final buzzer.

The win marks the first for the Bulldogs this season to put the team 1-1 at week three.

"We worked the last two weeks on getting the boys' bodies right and cleaning up the mental mistakes," said Head Coach JD Stone of his team's work during the bye week and since their week one loss against Melrose, N.M. "Getting the players' bodies right is a huge goal of ours right now. We can't have the fatigue and cramping."

Junior Colin Cone played quarterback for Bulldogs this week. He completed eight passes for 183 yards earning an average of 22.9 yards per pass.

Zach Statz caught three passes for 66 yards with a long of 26. His brother Grant caught two passes for 23 yards with a long of 15. Madden Larsen had one catch for 21 yards.

On the ground, Grant Statz racked up 81 rushing yards including one touchdown. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry. Ryland Wolff carried the ball six times for 36 yards. Cole Firme carried the ball twice for 26 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 13 yards per carry on Friday.

Grant Statz led the Bulldogs in tackles with 18. He earned those with 12 solo tackles and six assisted. Corbin Andersen and Seth Seger both tallied 12 tackles followed by Cole Firme with 10. Wolff registered nine tackles, Cone had eight and Zach Statz registered seven.

"We had a lot of guys playing new positions with illness and injuries. I was so proud of the mental prep of the team to execute with everything going on. We platooned our defense most of the game, hats off to Coach (Marc) Bornhoft and (Andy) Wernsman for the organization and the guys for executing and not being selfish," said Stone.

This week the Bulldogs are slated to travel to Sanford to take on the Mustangs. According to MaxPreps, they too are 1-1 thus far this season and will be looking to pick up their second season win. Sanford dropped their season opener to West Grand and beat Swink last week.

"Sanford is an old school smash mouth team; we must be ready to match them blow for blow," Stone said.