Despite a loss at Wright last Friday night, the NCHS football team still has a chance to get into the 1A playoffs. It will take a much better complete game effort this week at archrival Southeast in a winner-take-all trip to Cokeville for the quarterfinals.

On the Panther’s Senior Night, both teams had a hard time taking care of the pigskin early. James Stone and Teagan Tschacher each grabbed interceptions but the Tigers turned the ball over twice on three first period offensive series. After one quarter the game was tied at zero.

 Wright had only four plays over 15 yards during the entire game, but all four came on big strikes through the air. Dax Yeradi found James Moore for a 55 yard score and Damion Goff kicked the PAT for a 7-0 lead. NCHS answered with a score in the most unusual way. Drake Lamp broke through the line and rambled 20 yards before coughing up the ball. Ryan Gilkey happened to scoop it up and race 38 yards to the endzone and while the conversion was denied, NCHS was in the game at halftime.

The Tigers held Wright out of the endzone after a 42 yard pass had the Panthers deep while the third quarter ticked on. The home team connected on their next possession as Yeradi found Goff for a 26 yard touchdown. The kick was wide right-yet Wright led 13-6. Lusk ended the period inside the Panthers ten yard line, but could not make it to paydirt.

As the home team felt a victory coming, they elected to take a safety as Yeradi stepped out of the endzone on a punt attempt. NCHS could not muster anything offensively as things began to unravel. The Panthers sealed their first conference win as Yeradi and Ian Knudsen hooked up for a 48 yard touchdown play. The PAT was good and Lusk fell to 3-4 with the 20-8 loss.

Lamp continued his impressive freshman season with 203 rushing yards on 42 carries. The 203 yards puts him in rare company and is good for the 20th best single game in school history. Career rushing leaders Casey Fosher and Jerit DeGering both appear on that list four times each.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

NCHS 0 6 0 2 8

WRIGHT0 7 6 7 20

TEAM STATS

NCHS: Passing- 2/2, 12 yds. Rushing- 58 atts/260 yds. Receiving- 2 catches/12 yds. 8 first downs. 4 fumbles/2 lost. 5 penalties/50 yds.

WRIGHT: Passing- 5/19, 175 yds. Rushing- 28 atts/27 yds. Receiving 5/175. 3 first downs. 2 fumbles/2 lost. 5 penalties/35 yds.

NCHS PLAYER STATS: Passing- Stauffer 2 comp/2 atts, 12 yds. Rushing- Lamp 42 atts/203 yds; Gilkey 4/30; Molzahn 8/28; Stone 3/5. Receiving- Ryan Bruegger 1 catch/ 9 yds; Lamp 1/3. Defensive points- Cole Mellott 17; Molzahn 15; Stone 12; Gilkey 8; Jake Heil 6; Jasper Caldera 5; Teagan Tschacher 5; Lamp 4; Garrett Wurdeman 4; R. Bruegger 2; Jacob Miller 2; Traylin Bruegger 2; Alec Penfield 2; Stephen Daniels 1.

The Tigers wrap up the regular season with a 7 p.m. kickoff in Yoder Friday night. “It’s still a big rivalry game, another senior night, it’s all on the line this week,” said Head Coach Ryan Nelson. “It’s a winnable game and when we kickoff, the guys have to decide if they want to win.”