By Alex Benzegala
Panhandle Post
The Alliance Bulldogs started their away game at Gothenberg by recovering a fumble recovery on the opening kickoff, and later had two touchdown receptions from Espen Lanik, but not much else went the Bulldogs way on Friday night in a 46-12 loss to the Swedes.
"I think we shot ourselves in the foot a few times, " Head Coach T.D Stein said. We made some mistakes and I think if a couple plays go different, it's a whole different game."
After Alliance recovered an Evan Johnson fumble on the opening kickoff, the Bulldogs drove inside the Gothenburg 40-yard-line, but the Swedes forced a turnover on downs as Freshman running back Trini Trejo was held less than a yard away from the first down. Gothenburg capitalized as Johnson scored on a 9-yard run, his first of four touchdowns to make it 7-0 Swedes.
Alliance on their next possession had a Tristen Timbers punt blocked and recovered by Gothenburg's Kade Cox to make it 14-0, with 4:09 left in first quarter. Alliance responded on their next drive by converting on a 4th and 3 from the four-yard line and Landen Crowe found Espen Lanik in the endzone for the touchdown to get the Bulldogs on the board 14-6 late in the 1st.
Alliance had issues all game with Evan Johnson and Swedes running attack, Johnson found the endzone again with a 12-yard TD run to make it 20-6. Gothenburg had a chance to extend the lead inside the final minute of the half as they had a first and goal, but the Bulldogs held the Swedes out of the endzone as the clock expired going into the 2nd half.
"That stop was huge and going into halftime we felt like we could win, and it just came down to executing, we didn't execute." Stein said.
Alliance got the ball to start the 2nd half and the 3rd quarter was a nightmare as Gothenburg's defense forced a pair of interceptions, and two more rushing touchdowns for Johnson helped the Swedes outscore Alliance 20-0 in that 3rd quarter. Lanik did find the end zone for the last scoring play for Alliance midway through the 4th quarter on another touchdown pass from Crowe to make the score 46-12.
The Bulldogs fall to 2-2 on the season while Gothenburg improves to 3-1. Next up is homecoming at Bulldog Stadium for Alliance against 2-2 Ogallala.