After a remarkable surge in the second half of the season to make the playoffs, the Hampton-Dumont-CAL football team had its season close with Friday’s 27-7 loss at #4 (2A) Osage in the second round of the Class 2A playoffs, as aired on 99 The Wave.
The Green Devils set the tone on the game’s first play when Quinn Street found Griffin Uhlenhopp for a 74-yard score. The Bulldogs were held to several punts in the first half, the teams traded interceptions, and Osage put the pressure on with two more scores before the break. To begin the third quarter, Hampton-Dumont-CAL shaved off six minutes and connected on their only score when Blaek Burmester hit Ryder Strother for a four-yard pass. After recovering an onside kick, Osage drove down and went back up by three scores, though missed a two-point conversion. When the Bulldogs had a chance to cut the deficit down, a critical turnover on downs put the game out of reach. Head Coach Cole Miller says they were a few plays away from a different game in the first half, and was proud of the consistent effort.
“They’re a well-coached team, definitely had some plays, schemed up, hit that first one, kind of a kind of a post corner-ish move and then were able to connect on it,” Miller says. “So it got us in a hole early and took us a little bit to find our groove on offense. And then when we did, we got down to the red zone twice and had one turnover and then a turnover on downs. So we weren’t able to capitalize on that, which, if we can put one or two of those in the end zone, it’s a little different ball game heading into half. But we were able to bounce back in that second half and get a score. A couple stops that were big for us, but yeah, our kids fought to the end. That’s another thing I’m proud of that they did. Even when the game was obviously out of hand, our kids were still fighting, trying their best to get stops and get the ball back.”
The season has ended at 5-5.
