LINGLE – The Niobrara County High School football team completed their gauntlet of the first six weeks, having faced all five of the Wyopreps coaches and media top ranked teams. Friday night at Kirk Field the Tigers gave up an early score, but responded q u i c k l y.
Hudson Leimser became Lusk’s third different starting quarterback and moved the Tigers downfield. Long completions to Raynce Brott, Cody Himes and Isaac Assman set NCHS up inside the ten before connecting with Himes on an eight yard touchdown. Leimser then hit Brott for the two point con- version and the Tigers led 8-7 after one.
The hosts lined up for a 40 yard field goal attempt just seconds into the second quarter, but in a rare situation, the Doggers An- thony Arnusch had a kick attempt blocked. Raynce Brott slipped through and got a hand on the pigskin to send it off target. Lusk took over and Nathan Miller returned to the QB position, but the Tigers were unable to mount a scoring drive. The hosts took advantage and upped the lead to 14-8 moments later. On the next series, LFL picked off an errant pass and raced down to the Lusk 17 yard line. Arnusch booted the 31 yard FG through and with halftime approaching, increased the score to 17-8. Another short series from NCHS gave the hosts one more chance and at the midpoint it was 24-8.
Neither team would budge over the first eight minutes of the third period, but the Doggers capitalized on the only score of the period. With the final stanza set to begin, Lusk was in serious trouble- trailing 31-8.
Unlucky bounces, untimely errors and inexperience have played a part in the Tiger struggles this season and this night was no exception. LFL scored twice in the first four minutes, yet NCHS was not ready to quit. Miller and Himes got together for a 36 yard reply, and Miller tossed the conversion to Ass- man. The hosts added another late TD on a broken play for the 52-16 final score. While the Tigers fall to 1-5 overall and 1-2 in conference, their opponents com- bined record stands at a whopping 25-11. With two games remaining in the regu-
lar season, all hope is not lost for a play- off spot. The road doesn’t get any easier as the Tigers travel to Saratoga for the fourth time in five years. Kickoff will be Thursday evening at 6 p.m.
“Maybe we brought Nathan back too soon, and Hudson struggled a bit back there-it’s just his third game,” coach Chris Skeen said. “It’s a short week and Saratoga is a solid team, we’ve got some things to figure out.”
SCORE BY QUARTERS NCHS 8-0-0-8--16 LFLHS 7-17-7-21--52 TEAM STATS
NCHS: Passing 10/32, 133 yds, 2TD, 2INT. Rushing- 21/59. 7 first downs. 7 penalties/46 yds. 1 fumble/1 lost. LFLHS: Passing 8/12, 105 yds, 2TD, INT. Rushing 41/188, 5TD. 10 first downs. 9 penalties/65 yds. 3 fumbles/2 lost.
NCHS PLAYER STATS: Passing-Leimser 5 comp/13 atts, 82 yds, TD, INT; Miller 5/19, 51 yds, TD, INT. Rush- ing- Ashurst 12 atts/43 yds; Miller 6/29; Leimser 2/ -8; Himes 1/ -5. Receiving- Himes 3 catches/73 yds, 2TD; Assman 2/30; R. Brott 2/21; Ashurst 3/9. Defen- sive points- R. Brott 22; Himes 19; Leims- er 19; Ashurst 15; D. Brott 12; D. Swisher 7; Assman 5; Heth 5; KM 5; Bouissey 4; Hostetler 3; Goodwin 2; Miller 1; Kimes 1; Daniels 1.
