Panhandle Post by Jake Schrantz
ALLIANCE, Neb. - After finding just one win all last year, the Alliance Bulldogs football team has started the 2025 campaign off with a balanced combination of bark and bite.
After a week one offensive onslaught - scoring 72 points in a road win over Gordon-Rushville - the Bulldogs returned to Bulldog Stadium for the home opener of the 2025 football season on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. After the showcase of scoring prowess from third year head coach, Tristin Stein, and his team in the season opener, Alliance looked to prove that the rout of the Gordon-Rushville Mustangs was no fluke. And did they ever.
A final score of 28-14 over the Holdrege Dusters saw Alliance earn its first 2-0 start since the 2011 season. That year saw Alliance make it to the Class B state football playoffs for a first round matchup with McCook, in which the Bulldogs lost 37-14.
The significance to this start to the season cannot be overstated. Alliance found just four combined wins in the previous five seasons, with two winless years in 2021 and 2022. Dating back to the 2015 season, the Bulldogs have strung two wins in a row just six times, and have not won three consecutive games in a single season since 2007.
Alliance worked hard in developing young talent over the past few years, and it is clear that development time is paying off. On offense, the ground game has carried the team to victory in both games this season. Junior running back Trini Trejo leads all players in Nebraska high school football, regardless of class, in rushing yards. His 519 yards on the ground through the first two games of the season edge out the next closest runner, Jaydon Sutko of Elkhorn South, by 10 yards.
The 5-foot-6 tailback has gone for over 250 rushing yards in each of the Bulldogs' first two games of the season, including a career-best 265 yards and four rushing touchdowns on just 13 carries against Gordon-Rushville. Trejo had an incredible sophomore season in 2024, eclipsing 1,000 yards for the first time in his young career. However, he is certainly on pace to blow last year's numbers out of the water. Going into week three against Gering, Trejo needs just one rushing touchdown to match last year's career-best total of seven scores in a single season.
Even though Trejo has been the headliner in 2025, sophomore Caysen Robertson has been menacing as a two-way game wrecker. He has rushed for over 170 yards as the secondary back for Alliance so far this season, but has been even more impressive as a linebacker living in opposing teams' backfields.
Robertson's four sacks through the first two games is second-most among players in Class C-1, only trailing Brownell Talbot's Sean Webster (5.0 sacks). Coming off a freshman season where Robertson landed in the top-20 in tackles, regardless of class, in the state, 2025 has been just as dominant defensively for him.
The 5-foot-10 linebacker's six tackles for loss leads the Bulldogs defense, which has made huge strides in terms of getting to the quarterback and making tackles in the backfield. After recording just 25 tackles for loss a season ago, Alliance is off to a blazing start in 2025 - recording 14 TFLs in the first two contests. Other defensive standouts, like Jett Herian, Ethan Schulze, Lucas Weber, Cole Stoike, Nason Robertson, Jadon Guerra and Mikey Johnson have helped that total against Gordon-Rushville and Holdrege over the past two weeks.
Pounding the rock on offense has been the bread and butter for Alliance when they are not wrapping up ball carriers in the backfield defensively. However, the passing attack has flashed some really impressive ability early in the 2025 season. The connection between sophomore signal caller Jay Shelmadine and senior pass catcher Espen Lanik has found pay dirt three times already in 2025.
Lanik entered his senior season with some high expectations. As a two-sport athlete, who is a career 16.3 ppg scorer with Bulldogs hoops, he showed his ability to impact the game as a receiver in 2024. He followed up a career-best 46 receptions in 2023 with just under 400 yards receiving in 2024 on 40 catches. In 2025, Lanik looks ready to obliterate both of those previous seasons.
In the first two games for Alliance this year, Lanik has scored three times as a receiver, leaving him just one score shy of tying his previous single-season career-best total of four touchdowns in 2023. Shelmadine has found his favorite target nine times for 128 yards through two games, including a key 37-yard strike over the middle that went for six against Holdrege this past Friday.
Overall, the Bulldogs seem to be playing with an improved level of energy, aggressiveness and confidence. Coach Stein has said multiple times this season that his team needs to "just be bullies," on the field. It is the combination of those traits that has the 'dogs barking at opposing teams looking to take them down. However, some other dogs are ready to bark back this coming Friday, as the undefeated Gering Bulldogs step into Bulldog stadium for a matchup of two 2-0 teams.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. MT, and the game can be heard on AM 1400 and 92.5 KCOW, or streaming on www.kcowradio.com