Bulldogs’ season ends with a bang

HAMPTON — Squeezing every last moment out of the 2019 season until they scored, the Bulldog football team used three untimed downs to end a 21-6 loss to New Hampton on Friday, Oct. 25.

A touchdown pass from Cal Heeren to Malyk Schunk with no time left on the clock following three straight penalties allowed coach Andy Bruemmer’s team to avoid a third straight shutout.

It was something the coach stated was a no-quit attitude from his team.

“It’s amazing these seniors and these kids,” Bruemmer said. “The leadership of the seniors and the underclassmen, they bought in and they won’t quit. The ending there, three untimed downs, I’ve never in 30-plus years of coaching that I had a team score a touchdown with zeros on the clock.

“These kids are going to be a success no matter what because they are like the Energizer Bunny, they keep going and going and going; it doesn’t matter what the score is, they just keep going.”

It was by far the longest scoring drive at home this season, answering the Chickasaws, who picked off Heeren and returned the ball 67 yards for a touchdown when the Bulldogs had been driving. They went 10 total plays for 73 yards culminating in the 13-yard touchdown catch by Schunk.

Two of New Hampton’s three scores were directly from turnovers: a fumble recovery in the end zone and the interception return.

Despite the 1-8 season, winless in district play, the Bulldogs were a young team and have many pieces returning.

“We’ve got a junior running back who started six games with Max O’Dell, and we have two sophomores who played tackle for us, we lose only two seniors on the offensive line, which is, when I came in I didn’t realize we had zero offensive starts on the line,” Bruemmer said. “We have some things we can build on. Carter Eastman, Alex Koch and Kale Folkerts, Zach DeVries, who are going to be seniors, they can step up and get one of the starting spots. The players who played this year don’t have a guaranteed starting spot next year.

“We are going to have competition, and we’re going to go 8-9 players deep offensive line-wise, what I’m hoping. We’ve got to take a look at how we’re teaching things and do a better job of teaching and watch a lot of film this Winter and this Spring, this Summer get back into teaching and getting us going in the right direction.”

Bruemmer will also now have two quarterbacks returning who have a year of experience behind them with Heeren and Bryan Flores, who missed all but one game this season with concussion symptoms.

“We’re going to have a quarterback competition, and the way you get better is competing in practice,” Bruemmer said. “That’s why I love practice, my father was a football coach for 40 years and he preached competition in practice makes you better.”

And that last drive will leave less of a sour taste in the mouths of the Bulldogs. Heeren connected on five of his eight pass completions in the game to four different receivers. He ended the night 8-of-24 for 106 yards, the touchdown and two interceptions.

“That drive we had at the end of the game was fantastic, I think it was 80 yards,” Bruemmer said. “That’s awesome, and we only had a minute, 26 (seconds) to go, that’s where this offense can get to when we have everyone understanding those pieces.

“This group, they just worked their butts off.”

Bruemmer knows that improvements must be made in the off-season and during the other sports the athletes compete in, including track and field, among others.

“And coach (Dan) Aalbers has done a fabulous job with our speed and agility parts, myself and Dan Stevens and some of the other coaches are doing a good job with the strength side of it,” Bruemmer said. “We’re going to tweak those things a little bit and put a little more work and load on the bar and get stronger as well.”

Bruemmer says goodbye to several seniors, who he said he’d wished he could have spent more time with.

“Seniors, I’m sad to see them leave; I’m sad I only had one year with them,” Bruemmer said. “They were such a fantastic group and it’s just a shame that I only got one year with them. They’ll be in my mind the rest of my life.”

New Hampton 21, Bulldogs 6

NH               0       6       8       7        -     21

H-D              0       0       0       6        -       6

SECOND QUARTER

NH – Mason Lane 35 pass from Brayden Anderson (kick blocked) 0:38

THIRD QUARTER

NH – Jacob Durnana fumble recovery in end zone (Preston Pickar run) 5:58

FOURTH QUARTER

NH – Nathan O’Donnell 68 INT return (Austin Hemann kick) 1:51

H-D– Malyk Schunk 13 pass from Cal Heeren. 0:00

TEAM STATISTICS

                                             NH            H-D

First downs                            14                9

Rushes-yards                 37-134         23-35

Passing                               160            117

Comp-att-int                  12-27-1        9-25-2

Punts-avg.                       5-48.2           7-40

Fumbles-lost                         1-1             3-1

Penalties-yards                   9-99           5-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – NH, Ryan Pickar 12-98-0, Evan Rosonke 12-37-0, Preston Pickar 10-13-0, Brayden Anderson 1-(2)-0, Mason Lane 2-(12)-0. H-D, Jaycob Martzahn 7-36-0, Matt Waddingham 7-24-0, Malyk Schunk 2-(1)-0, Max O’Dell 2-(4)-0, Cal Heeren 5-(20)-0. PASSING – NH, Lane 12-27-1-160-1. H-D, Heeren 8-24-2-106-2, Will Sackville 1-1-0-11-0. RECEIVING – NH, Anderson 3-75-1, Drake Wemark 7-72-0, Nathan O’Donnell 1-7-0, P. Pickar 1-6-0. H-D, Wyatt Sutter 4-42-0, Jordan Severs 1-36-0, Martzahn 2-22-0, Malyk Schunk 1-13-0, O’Dell 1-4-0. TACKLES – NH, Bryce Maloy 3-7-6.5, Avery Throndson 3-5-5.5, Rosonke 2-4-4, O’Donnell 2-2-3. H-D, Mario De La Cruz 3-17-11.5, Logan Walker 3-8-7, Logan Pfeffer 2-9-6.5, Kale Folkerts 2-6-5, Severs 3-2-4, Connor Donaldson 0-7-3.5, Carson Miller 2-3-3.5, Schunk 3-1-3.5, Sutter 2-3-3.5. TFL – NH, Maloy 3.5, Rosonke 1.5, Anderson, Landon Moorman, Throndson, R. Pickar 0.5. H-D,  De La Cruz, Donaldson, Folkerts, Carter Hobson, Pfeffer, Sutter, Walker. SACKS – NH, Maloy 2.5, Throndson 0.5. H-D, Pfeffer, Folkerts. Pfeffer. FUMBLE RECOVERIES – NH, Dumana. H-D, Folkerts. INTERCEPTIONS – NH, O’Donnell (TD). H-D, Martzahn.