Dawgs Overcome Adversity To Win Title

From CJOnline:

No matter how easy Rossville had made things look on its way to Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game in Hutchinson, Bulldawgs coach Derick Hammes knew his team’s road had been anything but a completely smooth one.

Rossville began the season without starting senior fullback-linebacker Nick Reesor, who missed two games with torn meniscus in his knee. Then senior receiver-corner Corbin Horak dislocated his elbow in the opener and missed two games. Then senior back Jack Steckel was lost for five games with a Lisfranc foot sprain that initially was feared to be season-ending, though he returned in the playoff quarterfinals.

“We just had to learn from that adversity,” Hammes said. “Last year, we never really had that challenge. We needed to be challenged in that way and overcome it.”

Rossville answered the challenge to take a 13-0 mark into the championship showdown with fellow unbeaten and No. 2 Scott City. The top-ranked Bulldawgs answered an even bigger one in Saturday’s title game to capture the program’s first state title with a 21-14 victory over the Beavers.

Just three plays into the game, the electricity surging through the Bulldawgs players and fans was almost completely zapped. Junior defensive lineman Isaac Luellen was down on the field for an extended time, eventually taken off on a cart and to the hospital with a dislocated elbow.

Not long after, Rossville suffered an even bigger blow though the injury was far less obvious to the crowd. Senior standout Thatcher Horak suffered a hip bruise that knocked him out of the game for several series.

Just like that, the Bulldawgs were without their second-leading rusher, second-leading receiver, top return man and best combo cornerback. Horak, who had 1,874 all-purpose yards and four interceptions, never returned defensively and was limited to just three touches for 22 yards on offense.

Needless to say, their absences were noticeable as Scott City rallied from a 7-0 halftime deficit to take a 14-7 lead early in the fourth quarter on a pair of long pass plays.

“They were big losses and it took some of our options away from us,” Hammes said. “I thought the guys filling in did a good job, but you don’t just replace a guy like Thatcher. He’s been so big for us this year.”

The confidence Hammes had in his team’s depth was mirrored by his players.

“I was a little worried, but I knew we had guys that were going to step up and do good things for us,” said senior linebacker Lake Schultz-Pruner, who had a first-half fumble recovery and game-clinching interception in the final seconds to go with 15 tackles. “We just had to do our jobs we’re supposed to do every play and things worked themselves out when we worked together as a team.”

There was still the matter of overcoming the first fourth-quarter deficit Rossville had faced all season, and doing it without Horak at full strength. Another new challenge for the Bulldawgs and another one they met head on.

Rossville scored twice in the final 7:14 with Tucker Horak delivering the win on a 5-yard touchdown run with 28 seconds left in the game. The junior quarterback finished the game with 212 yards rushing and two touchdowns, putting the final touches on a monster season that saw him rush for 2,089 yards and 28 touchdowns and throw for 1,651 yards and 22 touchdowns.

“We got to show what we were all about, show that we were made of something,” Horak said of overcoming the injuries. “We’ve had people stepping in all year and I was impressed by that — underclassmen, upperclassmen, anyone we needed to did it.”

Rossville’s 14-0 season ended a number of near-misses for the program.

The 1992 Bulldawg squad reached the state championship game before falling 3-0 to Hesston. The 1979 squad gave up just three points all season — a state record — yet didn’t make it to the championship game, falling 3-0 to Smith Center in the playoffs.

And in eight of the previous 12 seasons, Rossville’s season had ended in the state semifinals at the hands of archrival Silver Lake.

Saturday’s title was for all those teams, Tucker Horak said.

“To finish off just feels amazing,” he said. “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.”