The Paynesville Bulldog football team lost a close game to St. Cloud Cathedral in Paynesville on Friday. The Bulldogs came up just short, losing 27-20 after giving up the winning touchdown with just over one minute left in the game.The Paynesville defense started out the game with some trouble handling the passing offense of the Crusaders as they drove 65 yards on the Bulldogs to open the scoring on the first drive of the game. The Bulldogs responded on their next possession by scoring on a 55-yard jaunt by halfback Jeff Voss to make the score 7-6 in favor of the Crusaders.
Bulldogs Steve Flint and Josh Bork rush the Cathedral quarterback.
Cathedral then came right back and using a short passing attack scored before the end of the first quarter to extend their lead to 14-6. The score remained 14-6 at the end of the quarter in favor of the Crusaders.
The Bulldogs defense seemed to figure out Cathedrals passing game in the second quarter as they held the visitors to negative 13 yards total offense for the quarter.
Meanwhile, the Bulldog offense came to life and ran off 25 plays in the second quarter while gaining 112 total yards. The problem was that the host team could only manage eight points for the quarter. The combination of penalties and turnovers killed three Paynesville drives that were inside the Cathedral 35-yard line.
The third quarter was an evenly played quarter of football as both teams scored a touchdown and failed on their conversion attempts. The Paynesville touchdown was an eight-yard run by Ben Bork. This made the score 20-20 starting the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs started the fourth quarter by going on a 14 play 67-yard drive starting on their own 13-yard line and driving all the way to the Cathedral 20 before being stopped on a fourth and five. Cathedral then took possession and drove 80 yards to score the winning touchdown with just over a minute left in the game.
Paynesville then threw two interceptions on their final two possession, which ended any chance of a comeback.
The Bulldogs now are 1-1 for the young season and will face the Albany Huskies on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Paynesville. The Huskies were rated number 10 in the last state rankings for Class 3A schools.
Cathedral: 14 0 6 7 - 27
Paynesville: 6 8 6 0 - 20
Scoring summary
Pay: Jeff Voss 55 run (kick failed);
SCC: Shaun Simmones 45 pass from Brad Meyer (Bob Knapp kick);
SCC: Steve Herdan 3 run (Knapp kick);
Pay: Voss 13 run (Voss run);
Pay: Ben Bork 8 run (kick fail);
SCC: Simmones 8 pass from Meyer (kick fail);
SCC: Meyer 2 run (Knapp kick).
Individual statistics
Rushing (attempts-yards-TDs): Jeff Voss 27-170; Ben Bork 14-110; Joe Hiltner 7-38;
Passing (completions-attempts-yards-TDs): Bork 1-2-6;
Receiving (receptions-yards-TDs): Voss 1-6-1
Interceptions: T.J. Schultz and Voss
Tackles (solo-assists): Voss 7-1; Joe Nosbush 6-3; Shaun Fleischhacker 5-4; Schultz 6; Matt Brauchler 2-4; Chris Rohe 3-2.