Hemingford 44, Bayard 42
It took a total team effort, but the Hemingford Bobcats got back in the win column on Friday with a 44-42 win over Bayard. The offensive line of Drew Varner, Gavin Bell, Theron Miller, Owen Plog, Aiden Benda, and Anthony Haas paved the way for Bobcats ball carriers Jacob Bryner, Zaine Feist, Cody Galles, Ryan Ragsdale, and Talon Payne, who ran for over 300 yards and five touchdowns as a team.
Hemingford had 78 plays to Bayard's 43, largely to the Bobcats dominating on the ground while Bayard had success through the air, passing for 241 yards. While Hemingford did not play a perfect game, they found a way to pull out the victory.
"Mistakes are going to happen in a game, but I'm proud of the different ways our guys responded to the mistakes throughout the afternoon," Coach Josh Dean said. "I never hear the guys getting down on each other, that is so important for holding everything together in tight games."
Feist had 91 yards rushing and two touchdowns, but all Hemingford rushers had at least one run over ten yards.
The win for Hemingford evens their record to 3-3 and puts themselves in a better position for a run to a potential spot in the playoffs.
Alliance 30, Mitchell 65
The Bulldogs have one of the top passing offenses in Nebraska, and that was on full display on Friday night as Senior quarterback Landen Crowe threw for three touchdowns and 257 yards, but Alliance had no answers for the Mitchell running game as the Tigers ran for 480 rushing yards in their 65-30 win.
The game was extremely competitive early on as Alliance and Crowe threw a pair of TD passes to Jonah Amill and Seth Meyring to help the Bulldogs lead 16-13 after the first quarter. Tristen Timbers had an interception as well to help give the Bulldogs a big defensive stop in the red zone in the first half.
A pair of 2nd quarter TD runs from Dez Smith and Ace Hobbs gave the Tigers a 28-16 cushion midway through the 2nd quarter. Crowe though found the endzone with just nine seconds to play in the half to get the Bulldogs within four points, 28-24.
Alliance received the 2nd half and minutes later, Crowe threw his 3rd touchdown of the game, a 66-yard strike to Espen Lanik to give the Bulldogs a 30-28 lead.
The rest of the game belonged mostly to Mitchell and their running game, as Smith went on to score four second half touchdowns and 247 rushing yards as Mitchell went on to score 47 unanswered points.
The loss drops the Bulldogs to 2-3 as they travel to fellow 2-3 team McCook for a big test for both the teams.