Cougars Fall Short for District Championship

By Clare Wiltse, Sports Contributor

The Cougars efforts for a district championship fell short as they lost to Wynot 52-36. They end the regular season with a 5-3 record. Their district record is 4-1. Wynot has a 7-1 mark with a 5-0 showing in district action.

Wynot used a 32 point first quarter to pull away for their16 point win. They were led by Cody Stratman who rushed for 162 yards and 4 touchdowns and caught one pass for 34 yards.

“Stratman is a very nice athlete,” said Coach Maresh. “He is not really physical, but is really quick and hard to corner.” Stratman is the defending State Champion in the Class D long jump.

Montana Riecken had a 162 yard rushing night for the Cougars. He scored 2 touchdowns. For the season he has 1344 yards and 25 touchdowns. He completed 2 of 6 for 26 yards passes with 1 interception. Benny Estrada broke a sixty yard scoring run as he led the Cougars with 143 yards.

The Blue Devil defense bottled up Northeast for most of the night. They held Marcus Hegy to just 43 yards on 17 carries. They recovered two LDNE fumbles along with one interception.

Wynot had a total of 398 yards. They ran for 258 and passed for 140 yards. Northeast came up with 309 rushing yards and only 26 passing.

Bren Shatto, Marcus Hegy, and Montana Riecken had double figures in tackling. Shatto and Hegy had 13 while Riecken had 11. Hegy Caused a fumble and had a pick six.

The Cougars made the field of 32 in the D-2 State Play Offs with their 5-3 record. Their power rating of 40.50 earned them the #11 seed in the East Bracket. They will play at #6 seed Lawrence-Nelson on Thursday. The Raiders have a 7-1 record with their only loss to 2014 State Champion Exeter-Milligan.
LDNE 6 0 8 22 -36
Wynot 32 20 0 0 -52

1st Quarter

Stratman 16 Yard TD Run 0-8
Pass good

Riecken 1 Yard TD Run 6-8
Run no good

Stratman 40 Yard TD Run 6-18
Pass Good

Stratman 34 Yard Pass Reception 6-24
pass good

Stratman 5 Yard TD Run 6-32

2nd Quarter

Sudbeck 23 Yards Pass Reception 6-38
pass no good

Wieseler 4 Yard TD Run 6-44
pass no good

Sudbeck 10 Yard TD run 6-52
Pass good

3rd Quarter

Riecken 4 Yard TD run 14-52
Riecken to Kroger good

4th Quarter

Hegy Int return 78 Yards 22-52
Riecken to Vetick good

Benny Estrada 9 Yard TD run 30-52
pass no good

Benny Estrada 60 yard td run 36-52
Riecken run good

Tackles

Solo Assisted Total TFL
Hegy 5 8 13
Vetick 3 3 6
Riecken 3 8 11
Hardeman 0 1 1
Shatto 6 7 13
Christiansen 4 0 4
Kroger 3 5 9 1