Air war: Bulldogs win battle of passers

By: 
Kristi Nixon

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BAXTER – No. 6 Hampton-Dumont won the battle of passing attacks.

Heading into the Class 2A second-round game hosted by Collins-Maxwell-Baxter, everyone anticipated two good passing teams.

And there was plenty of that as Cole Miller threw 6-of-15 for 122 yards and two touchdowns, one to Charlie Flickinger and the other to Kyle O’Brien as the Bulldogs advanced to the quarterfinal round this Friday against Dyersville Beckman at home with a 24-14 win over the Raiders on Monday, Nov. 2.

“When you win 10 games you are a tough football team,” H-D coach Jerry Shafrath said of CMB. “They have a great offense and we worked hard just trying to contain them and I think we did a nice job. We were physical and we had a big rush up front from ‘Big K’ (Josh Knipfel) and Mario (Peña) and all of them guys.

“And we were able to move the football in the second half as far as the running game.”

Raider starting quarterback Hunter McWhirter threw for 138 yards, but he was picked off twice by Evan Koenen, both when CMB was poised to score in the first half.

“We knew they passed a lot,” Koenen said. “So we stuck with our reads and it worked out. He was looking where he was going with it and I could follow it.”

And when McWhirter became less effective in the second half, the Raiders went with Nate Bishop, who started throwing bombs down the field, one for a score. But it proved to be his downfall as Parker Claypool broke through and stripped him of the ball and Isaiah Noelck fell on it with 1 minute, 27 seconds left.

“I tried speed rushing that big tackle, he was big and strong,” Parker Claypool said. “I saw the quarterback hadn’t thrown the ball yet and I put my hand up there hoping he’d put the ball back and he did and lucked out. He didn’t see me coming.”

For a more complete story on this game, see the Nov. 12 issue of the Hampton Chronicle.

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