It was a picture-perfect evening for football in mid-September. Great temperature and nice nice-sized crowd from both the Sutherland and Dundy County Stratton fans. The Sailors entered this matchup at 0-2 and wanted to play spoiler to top-10 rated Dundy County Stratton. Well, that wasn't the case as Dundy County Stratton moved to 3-0 convincingly beating Sutherland, 44-0.
Initially, Sutherland seemed to have a little bit of control of the game. They were playing stout defense and keeping the Tiger offense in check. The problem for the Sailors was the Tigers were doing the same to them. After the first 12 minutes, it was 0-0.
In the second quarter though, DCS got after it. Dante Horner found August Shaw on a nine-yard pass with 11:15 to go in the period. The two-point conversion was good and it was 8-0. The Sailors coughed up the ball on their next possession. DCS made quick work of it as D. Horner had another touchdown pass; this time to Ethan Latta from 25 yards away and it was 14-0 with 10:13 remaining.
The Sailors would move the ball a little against the Tigers, but every time they would get something going, DCS would shut it down. On the Tigers' next possession Latta had a video-game-like 63-yard touchdown and about halfway through the quarter it was 20-0.
On the very next possession, Jackson Saner threw an interception to D. Horner near the Sutherland 30-yard line. D. Horner took it to the house. The conversion was no good but it was 26-0 with 4:06 remaining before halftime.
You could not fault the Sailors' effort. They tried to get the offense rolling again, but they stalled out again after another turnover.
The Tigers took over on their own 28 with not much time remaining before the half. They went to work and the drive was capped off by a 21-yard touchdown pass from D. Horner to Latta, which was an impressive display of footwork and toe-tapping by Latta to stay in bounds on the reception. This score came with just three seconds remaining before halftime.
The two-point conversion was no good and it was 32-0 going to halftime.
In the third quarter, DCS came out firing. It was just a four-play drive and D. Horner found Shaw again, this time from 25 yards away. It was 38-0 with 9:47 in the third. Just one more score took place and it was Owen Matthews who ran it in from eight yards away in the last few minutes of the game. It was 44-0 at that point and the Tigers closed it out.
Unofficially for Sutherland, Oliver Nutter had 15 carries for 50 yards. Nutter had 26 yards passing on a fake punt. Jackson Saner had 20 yards rushing and 25 yards passing. Ryker Copeland had 48 yards receving. As a team they had 82 yards rushing and 55 yards passing. They had five turnovers in the game too.
Unofficial stats for DCS, Ethan Latta was electric. 96 yards rushing, 77 yards receiving, and three total touchdowns. August Shaw had three catches for 43 yards and a touchdown. Dante Horner had 131 yards passing and four touchdowns. He had an interception returned for a score as previously mentioned. Latta had an interception too.
We caught up with Lane Bybee of the Tigers after the win. Postgame interviews this fall for football are brought to you by Acme Printing Company.
The Sailors are now 0-3 and will play at Morrill next Friday. Dundy County Stratton is now 3-0 and will face Hi-Line at home next Friday.
Check out the highlights from the game brought to you by Prairie Girl Candle Company.
