Year Of The Dawg

From  CJ Online

According to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, the Year of the Dog won’t occur again until 2018.

Locally, however, the argument could be made that 2014 was the Year of the Dawg.

Rossville began the calendar year with senior Tagen Lambotte becoming just the 31st wrestler in Kansas high school history to become a four-time state champion. The Mid-East League school finished the year as undefeated Class 3A state football champions, the first state title in program history.

“It’s really just the best feeling I could ever imagine,” Rossville senior linebacker Lake Schultz-Pruner said after the Bulldawgs knocked off Scott City, 21-14, in the 3A football state championship game. “I just know I’m going to remember this forever.”

Rossville's history-making feats combined with a couple other “Top Dogs” rank No. 9 in The Capital-Journal's 2014 year-end review.

Indeed, the 2014 Rossville football squad will be one the community will hold in high regards for quite some time.

Over the years, the program has fielded some good teams, some really good times. Since the inception of the playoff system in 1969, Rossville has had eight one-loss seasons and another 10 teams that lost just two games.

And the Bulldawgs have had some great teams, namely the 1979 and 1992 teams that each saw their seasons end with 3-0 losses. The ’92 squad fell 3-0 to Hesston in the 3A state championship game, while the ’79 squad lost 3-0 to Smith Center in the semifinals — the only points that Bulldawg team allowed in a record-setting defensive performance.

But none of those past Rossville squads could deliver a state title. Until this year.

The Bulldawgs finally solved archrival Silver Lake in the state semifinals and then rallied from seven down with two touchdowns in the final 7:15 with Tucker Horak’s touchdown run with 28 seconds left the game-winner.

“To finish it off just feels amazing,” said Horak, the junior quarterback who ran for 212 yards and two touchdowns in the championship game, capping an All-State season. “I’ve had some of the guys who were on both of those teams (1979, 1992) come up and talk to me today and it’s just an outstanding feeling knowing we finished something that they started long ago.”

Horak posted his second straight monster season under center, rushing for 2,089 yards and throwing for 1,651 yards, amassing 50 total touchdowns. Bulldawg kicker Paul Steinke, a foreign-exchange student from Germany, set a state record by making 101 of 101 PAT kicks.

History had already been made by Lambotte earlier in the year. Already a three-time state champion in Class 3-2-1A, it seemed all but a forgone conclusion Lambotte would add his name to the history books with his fourth.

His 152-pound title match against Centralia’s Andrew Beck, however, held plenty of nervous moments but Lambotte pulled out a 4-3 victory to finish the season.

I’m not happy at all,” Lambotte said after the match, which gave him titles in three different weight classes (one at 135 and two at 145). “I just didn’t execute.”

Later, however, he acknowledged his accomplishment, keeping an eye on his future wrestling at Division I powerhouse Iowa.

“It’s a check mark on the bucket list,” he said. “Now I have to start working for the next one.”

Lambotte was joined as a state champion by freshman Bryce Gfeller, who won at 106, and the Bulldawgs finished second as a team — the highest finish in program history.