Bulldogs fall in defensive contest; draw road game at IF-A

HAMPTON – Two solid defenses clashed in Hampton on Friday, Oct. 9 and visiting Forest City came away the 27-13 victor for it.

Two scores in this game resulted from interception returns and a third nearly was brought back all the way for another, but ended up reaching the end zone a play later as the Bulldogs finished the regular season 3-4.

The good news for coach Andy Bruemmer and his team is the fact that they are playoff-bound, anyway. Bruemmer said that he couldn’t venture to guess where the Iowa High School Athletic Association would send his Bulldogs, but it turns out not far: they get a re-match with Iowa Falls-Alden this Friday, Oct. 16 in Iowa Falls.

“Defense played tremendous,” Bruemmer said. “They were playing lights-out and we went back to blocking the way that we can’t be blocking. I told the guys, ‘we’re going to watch the film, feel crappy for 10 hours and then we’re going to start working on getting ready for next week.'

“We’re sitting right in the middle of three different places: they say we’re not supposed to get a district team, but that could mean we are traveling two hours, also. I don’t know if they want that happening with bus rides and COVID and all of that. I’ve given up trying to figure out who we are going to get with the last nine years where I was at, seven of those, it’s a crapshoot.”

Both the Bulldogs and Iowa Falls-Alden are 3-4 going into this Friday’s game after West Marshall convincingly took the Class 2A District 3 title with a 47-7 win over the Cadets.

Forest City and the Bulldogs traded essentially three three-and-outs to start the game with the fourth series culminating in the first of two interceptions by H-D quarterback Cal Heeren. The Indians were unable to capitalize, however.

The Bulldogs first extensive drive was thwarted by a couple of holding penalties and each team hadn’t scored after the first quarter.

When Tate Schmitt stepped in front of Forest City quarterback Carter Bruckoff’s pass and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown with 2 minutes, 39 seconds left until halftime did either team crack the scoreboard.

However, Forest City answered with a huge Reese Moore kickoff return that went 61 yards, setting up the Indians with first and 10 from the 15. Four plays later, the score was tied at 7 heading into the break.

The second half, the teams were able to move the ball a little more, but the Bulldogs saw more of a heavy dose of Reese Moore, who scored all three offensive touchdowns and went for 135 yards for Forest City, scoring from 12 yards away on the Indians’ first offensive series in the second half.

After a seven-play drive for the Bulldogs went for naught, Jordan Severs picked Bruckhoff for 26 yards to set up first and goal from the one. Heeren called his own number to bring the Bulldogs within one, but Severs’ kick failed as they still trailed 14-13.

Two possessions later, Brock Moore intercepted Heeren for 26 yards. Devin Alamysa’s kick was blocked to keep the Bulldogs within a score at 20-13. Logan Pfeffer later also intercepted Bruckhoff, but it was deep in Bulldogs’ territory and they were unable to capitalize on that, setting up a late drive and score by Forest City to clinch it.

“We’re working on it, get back to it,” Bruemmer said. “I told the guys we’re going to get back at it.

“Our defense kept us in the game all night and we couldn’t get a rhythm offensively, that’s the big thing. Their two defensive ends, they controlled our offense, just the two of them and then their two defensive tackles were just as good. Their defensive front six is as solid as probably as we’ve seen, that’s what we were struggling with. The only ones who were probably better was West Marshall.”

FC               0       7       7     13        -     27

H-D              0       7       6       0        -     13

SECOND QUARTER

H-D – Tate Schmitt 65 INT return (Jordan Severs kick) 2:39

FC – Reese Moore 7 run (Devin Alymasa kick) 0:58

THIRD QUARTER

FC– R. Moore 12 run (Alymasa kick) 5:32

H-D – Cal Heeren 1 run (kick fail) 0:26

FOURTH QUARTER

FC– Brock Moore 26 INT return (kick blocked) 10:00

FC– R. Moore 3 run (Alymasa kick) 0:53

TEAM STATISTICS

                                             FC            H-D

First downs                              8                5

Rushes-yards                 39-168         23-40

Passing                                 53              51

Comp-att-int                    8-26-3        8-26-2

Punts-avg.                       3-34.3        7-31.4

Fumbles-lost                         0-0             0-0

Penalties-yards                   7-45           4-33

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – FC, Reese Moore 26-135-3, Brock Sobek 6-23-0, Carter Bruckhoff 6-9-0, Kellen Moore 1-1-0. H-D, Logan Pfeffer 9-48-0, Bryan Flores 9-8-0, Max O’Dell 1-(3)-0, Cal Heeren 4-(13)-1. PASSING – FC, Bruckhoff 3-13-53-0-3. H-D, Heeren 8-26-60-0-2. RECEIVING – FC, Dawson Urbatsch 1-24-0, Michael Olson 1-20-0, Brandon Leber 1-9-0. H-D, Jordan Severs 2-18-0, Benji Sauke 1-11-0, Pfeffer 1-7-0, O’Dell 1-6-0, Tate Schmitt 1-4-0, Marco Guerrero 1-3-0, Zayden Erdman 1-2-0. TACKLES – FC, Andrew Snyder 3-6.5-1.5, Xavior Holland 5-6-2.5, Kaden Hagy 3-4.5-3, Brock Sobek 2-4-0, Austin Kirschbaum 4-4-0, Olson 2-3-0, B. Moore 2-3-0. H-D, Mario De La Cruz 5-10-0, Kale Folkerts 3-7-1, Payton McNealy 1-3.5-1, David Cornejo 0-3-1, Zach DeVries 2-3-1. SACKS – FC, Hagy, Holland 0.5, Snyder 0.5. H-D, DeVries. FUMBLE RECOVERIES – FC, None. H-D, None. INTERCEPTIONS – FC B. Moore 1-26-1, Holland 1-2-0. H-D, Schmitt 1-65-1, Severs 1-26-0, Pfeffer 1-13-0.