The Paynesville Bulldog football season came to an end on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at Litchfield. The Bulldogs lost to the Dragons 24-14. The story of the game was turnovers as the Bulldogs turned the ball over seven times. Two of the turnovers were bad snaps on punts, which resulted in Litchfield recovering one in the end zone for a touchdown and scoring a safety on the other. Another of the turnovers was an intercepted pass that the Dragons returned for a touchdown.
The Bulldog bench watches as the Dragons recover a Bulldog fumble. The Bulldogs turned the ball over seven times in their 24-14 loss.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring with a four-yard pass from Ben Bork to T.J. Schultz in the first quarter. The quarter ended with the score: Paynesville 6, Litchfield 0.
The second quarter saw the Bulldogs dominate as they piled up 118 total yards for the quarter, but ended up with no points to show for it. The defense also did an outstanding job, as they held the Dragons to 24 total yards for the quarter. This all looks good on paper, but the bad part was the Dragons outscored the Bulldogs 8-0 during this quarter. This was because of a high snap on a punt by the Bulldogs that the Dragons recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.
The third quarter started off like the second quarter ended, as another high snap cost the Bulldogs a safety which gave Litchfield two more points. The Paynesville offense was not able to move the ball at all this quarter. The defense meanwhile was fighting to keep the Dragons out of the end zone as the Dogs turned the ball over on a fumble deep in their own end.
The defense did a great job until early in the fourth quarter when they gave up a 20-yard run for a touchdown to the Dragons, who were playing without their starting quarterback, Alex Carlson. This was the only score the Paynesville defense allowed all night.
Then the Bulldogs were intercepted at their own 20-yard line, and it was returned for a touchdown by the Dragons.
Again the defense had a great quarter as they held Litchfield to a total of 22 yards of offense for the quarter. This quarter saw the offense again able to move the ball, but because of penalties and turnovers they only managed eight points on a 23-yard run by Jeff Voss and the two-point conversion run by Voss.
The Bulldogs outgained the Dragons 267 to 207 in total yards, but came up short on the score, 24-14. The Paynesville team dominated the game, but costly turnovers and penalties cost them the game.
One highlight of the night was senior Jeff Voss breaking the Paynesville single season rushing record, which dated back to 1970. Voss ended this season with 1,184 yards on 206 carries.
| Paynesville-- | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | -- 14 |
| Litchfield-- | 0 | 8 | 2 | 14 | -- 24 |
Scoring summary
Pay--T.J. Schultz 4 pass from Ben Bork (run failed);
Lit--Brent Jergens fumble recovery in end zone (Lyle Olberding pass from Mike Patten);
Lit--Safety, ball knocked out of the end zone;
Lit--Olberding 20 run (Jergens kick);
Lit--Ryan Gulden 19 interception return (Jergens kick);
Pay--Jeff Voss 23 run (Voss run).
Individual statistics
Rushing (attempts-yards-TDs): Jeff Voss 28-122-1; Ben Bork 10-31; Josh Roemeling 6-32; Joe Hiltner 5-15; Adam Schaefer 1-0;
Passing (completions-attempts-yards-TDs): Roemeling 3-9-45; Bork 2-4-17-1;
Receiving (receptions-yards-TDs): Voss 2-48; T.J. Schultz 1-4-1; Chris Sogge 1-5; Hiltner 1-5.