The Paynesville Bulldogs football team finished its regular season by losing to the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle Thunder Wednesday night in Paynesville. The final score was LPGE 28 and Paynesville 8. Aaron Lang (55) makes block so Josh Trees (41) has some running room.
The Bulldogs came into the game knowing they had to stop Clint Deezeuw, the LPGE running back who was averaging 140 yards a game running the ball, to have any chance of winning the game. The Bulldogs did just that, holding him to just 35 yards in 18 carries. The problem was the Bulldogs offense could not get anything going all night and were plagued by fumbles.
The game opened up with the Bulldogs defense led by two T.J. Schultz interceptions in the first quarter which shut down the high-powered Thunder offense and kept them off the scoreboard for the first quarter. While the defense was coming up with some big plays the offense only ran five plays in the entire first quarter.
In the second quarter after the second of T.J. Schultz's interceptions, the Bulldogs scored on a five-yard run by Josh Trees and a two-point conversion run by quarterback Chris Fuchs to take the lead 8-0. The Bulldogs then drove down to LPGE's 10-yard line late in the second quarter. It looked like they were ready to score when the offense sputtered and gave up the ball on downs to the Thunder on their own 14-yard line.
The Thunder then picked up 14 yards on the first down and followed that up with a 72-yard bomb for a score. This made the score at halftime Paynesville 8, LPGE 7.
This long scoring pass at the end of the second quarter seemed to take the wind out of the Bulldogs' sails as they proceeded to fumble the opening kickoff of the second half and wound up on their own four-yard line. The Bulldogs then fumbled the first play of the second half and the Thunder recovered on the Paynesville five-yard line. One play later the Thunder were in the endzone and led 14-8.
On the next offensive series, the Bulldogs ran three plays and lost nine yards. Then on the fourth down, the ball was snapped over the punter's head to give the ball to the Thunder on Paynesville's 23-yard line. Two plays later, the Thunder threw a 24-yard pass for a touchdown, which made the score LPGE 21, Paynesville 8. The Thunder had just scored three touchdowns in three minutes and twenty-six seconds, to give them a two touchdown lead.
The fourth quarter saw the Thunder add one more touchdown to make the final score LPGE 28, Paynesville 8. The Thunder ended their regualr season at 8-0 while the Bulldogs end their regular season at 2-6 overall and 2-3 in the conference, which gives them a tie for third place.
The Bulldogs had a chance to get even with the Thunder on Tuesday night as they played at LPGE in the first round of the section playoffs. If the Bulldogs won, they will play on Saturday, Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m at the winner of the NLS-Melrose game. If they lost on Tuesday, the Bulldogs' season is over.
| LPGE | 0 | 7 | 14 | 7 | -- 28 | ||
| Paynesville-- | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | -- 8 |
Scoring summary
Pay: Josh Trees 5 run (Chris Fuchs run);
LPGE: Troy Tschida 72 pass from Ryan Tschida (Matt Larson kick);
LPGE: Ben Urman 5 run (Larson kick);
LPGE: Eric Sullivan 24 pass from R. Tschida (Larson kick);
LPGE: R. Tschida 20 run (Larson kick).
Individual statistics
Rushing (attempts-yards-TDs): Josh Trees 12-47; Milan Virant 13-35; Adam Schaefer 7-13; Chris Fuchs 8-4;
Passing (completions-attempts-yards-TDs): Chris Fuchs 1-3-20; Logan Louis 0-3-0; T.J. Schultz 0-1-0; Steve Mages 0-1-0;
Receiving (receptions-yards-TDs): Milan Virant 1-20;
Interceptions: T.J. Schultz 2.
Team statistics
Paynesville:
Rushing Yards 44-113
Passing yards 1-8-20
Total offense 52-133
Total first downs 7
Penalties 1-5
LPGE:
Rushing Yards 40-184
Passing yards 7-10-153
Total offense 50-337
Total first downs 9
Penalties 4-36