news-engine

GRAND ISLAND – Pass? Who needs to pass? Certainly not North Platte against Grand Island Senior High Friday night. After rushing for 65 yards in a 24-7 loss to Kearney last week, the Bulldogs ran the ball from the option formation 57 times for 393 yards and scored five touchdowns in taking a 35-10 win over the Islanders at Memorial Stadium. “That’s just North Platte football right there,” Bulldog coach Kirt Altig said of the offense that threw only one pass against the Islanders. “We call it blunt forced trauma. We’re going to come out and run option football at you and kind of smash it right at you. We’re going to run the clock and their offense can watch us do it while they are watching on the sideline.” In a game that got moved its kickoff to 8 p.m. because of the heat, the Bulldogs had 11 different players get a carry against Grand Island, but it was Owen Shea, who had 21 carries for 167 yards and scored four times, which included a 34-yard run where he broke about four tackles on North Platte’s first possession. People are also reading… “He played really well for us offensively,” Altig said. “He was like a battering ram. He’s one of our senior leaders and when you have that, you’re in a good spot.” Grand Island coach Jeff McQuinn said while the Bulldogs rushing attack was impressive, the defense just didn’t make the stops when it needed to. “They ran it as well as we didn’t play it,” McQuinn said. “We just weren’t very good on defense and there are really no excuses.” The Islanders missed a golden opportunity on its opening possession when Major Bowen had a wide open receiver breaking loose that would have a big gain, but the receiver couldn’t come up with the catch. But Ryan Boehle had six carries for 25 yards on the possession and drove Grand Island to the 34-yard line, but Xelim Vincente missed a 51-yard field goal. McQuinn said getting a score on the opening possession might given the Islanders some early momentum. “That would have given us some fire and definitely maybe change the tone a little bit,” McQuinn said. “But we gotta make those catches but we got to coach a little better too.” It didn’t get much better for the Grand Island offense as it was turned away on fourth down twice and Bowen threw an interception. North Platte scored on all its possessions in the first half, all by Shea, to take a 28-0 lead. Grand Island did show some life at the end of the first half. Bowen threw two straight passes to Nelson Minkten for 29 yards, then North Platte got a penalty which took the ball to the 33-yard line. And Vincente made a 52-yard field goal to put the Islanders on the board. “He’s one of those guys that doesn’t get too phased,” McQuinn said. “He’s going to have some good ones and have some distance but he never really shows any defeat so he’s a kid we can count on when we need a big kick.” Grand Island regrouped a little bit in the third quarter. The defense recovered two fumbles and the offense helped the Islanders get on the board as Bowen threw a 26-yard strike to Aden Stephens. For the game, Bowen, a transfer from Northwest, was 12-of-21 for 193 yards with the strike to Stephens. In his first varsity start, McQuinn said he was actually pleased with what he saw from Bowen. “For his first start coming from JV in Class B to starting Class A football, that’s a gigantic jump but I thought he did OK and he got some respect from the players,” McQuinn said. “He had a great pass on a nice touch over the top of the defender, and we were able to score.” Grand Island had 249 yards of offense. Stephens led the receiving core with three catches for 52 yards, while Mintken had 50 yards receiving and Jarid Fischer caught four passes for 48 yards. The Islanders return to action against Papillion-LaVista at 7 p.m. Friday night. North Platte 35, Grand Island 10 North Platte 7 21 0 7–35 Grand Island 0 3 7 0–10 First Quarter NP – Shea 34 run (Mata kick), 0:24. Second quarter NP – Shea 1 run (Mata kick), 7:38 NP – Shea 11 run (Mata kick), 6:43. NP – Shea 11 run (Mata kick), 0:26. GI – Vincente 52 field goal, 0:00 Third Quarter GI – Stephens 26 pass from Bowen (Vincente kick), 5:31 Fourth Quarter NP – Korkow 11 run (Mata kick), 5:36. NP GI First downs Rushes-Yards 57-393 20-56 Passing Yards 0 193 Att-Comp-Int 0-1-0 12-21-1 Total Offense 393 249 Fumbles-Lost 3-2 1-0 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing— NP: Shea 21-167, Still 9-74, Simants 7-45, Stiffler 4-44, Korkow 4-19, Weaver 4-12, Patterson 3-9, Jorgensen 2-11, Mata 1-7, Rathburn 1-4, McCuskey 1-1. GI: Boehle 13-50, Bowen 3-0, Douglas 1-4, Stephens 2-3, Berglund 1-minus 1. Passing—NP Still 0-1-0 0. GI: Bowen 12-21-1 193, Berglund 0-3-0 0. Receiving—NP: No receiving stats. GI: Stephens 3-52, Minken 3-50, Fischer 4-48, Dunning 1-43.