With five players on the Bulldogsí side being seniors (Dustin Looman, Tyler Wuertz, Josh Jones, Karl Sanborn, and Kendall Mohr), this was their last chance to play on home soil. Paynesville faced a state-ranked team and the Bulldogs were ready to fight.
In the first quarter, Paynesville and Morris switched off playing cat and mouse, punting back and forth to each other. Paynesvilleís defense was fired up and they were tough to beat. Both of the offenses seemed to be shut down by either teamís defense.
In the second quarter, Paynesvilleís defense kept holding Morrisí offense until Morris found one flaw in the defense, the reverse. They gained 41 yards in one play to bring it down to the 30-yard line in which the next play was a 30-yard pass to one of Morrisí receivers. Morris took a 6-0 lead. Paynesvilleís defense, shaken, knew what they had to stop after that. With Morris getting 20 yards of penalties on the kickoff, plus Josh Jonesí 50-yard return, Paynesville looked as if they were going to score. Paynesville marched the ball down the field until the one-yard line where Morris successfully stopped the Bulldogs right at the end of the half.
In the third quarter, Paynesville and Morris continued to punt to each other as if it were the first quarter again. The Paynesville defense managed to stop the reverse that dented their defense before, but Morris seemed to find a new approach to Paynesvilleís defense, the air attack. Morris managed to pass for some good yardage before they brought the ball back down to score with a shortÝrun by one of their running backs. Paynesville, being even more run down by Morrisí second touchdown, did not manage to score in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was the Bulldogsí last chance to redeem themselves. The Bulldogs seemed to once again hold the Morris offense until one of Paynesvilleís punts. On the punt, Morris ran it back through many blocks and mistackles for 78 yards to score their final touchdown. With a little under seven minutes to play, Paynesville had a lot of work cut out for them.
Paynesville managed to score one touchdown, after a long pass from Ben Bork to Josh Jones for 38 yards. Paynesville continued to march it in with Jeff Voss scoring on a six-yard run, and Josh Jones catching the two-point conversion. Paynesville then attempted to onside kick with Dustin Looman, but Morris managed to come up with the ball. Morris kept the ball for the remainder of the quarter to close the game 21-8, in favor of Morris.
Leading the defense in the game with an outstanding eight solo tackles and six joint tackles was middle linebacker, Dustin Looman.
ìWith a rough game like this, we can definitely say we hit harder,î said coach Kyle Nehowig. ìPaynesvilleís defense did play a good game in terms of hitting.î
Paynesvilleís leading rusher of the game was Jeff Voss with a total of 91 yards in 25 carries.
Paynesville: 0 0 0 8ñ 8
Morris: 0 6 8 7ñ 21