Kimball falls to more experienced Bulldogs

Kimball High closed out the 2015 football season Friday night on the road at Bridgeport losing 68-14 to the talented and bigger Bulldog squad. While the Longhorns ended up 1 and 8 on the year, The Bulldogs improved to 6 and 3 and were looking at a state playoff game where they will meet up once again with Gibbon, it appeared, a team that defeated the Dogs soundly in earlier season play.

Bridgeport scored first, often, and last in their win over the Horns. After one quarter of play they led 37-0, were up 56-7 at half time, led 62-14 after three quarters and tallied one more TD in the final period.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it was once again a case of simply being out-manned by a bigger, stronger, and more experienced team and once again the Horns gave a good effort but simply could not match up. Bridgeport piled up 441 yards of offense on 39 plays and attempted only 1 pass, which fell incomplete. In comparison, the winners had possession of the football 22:14 while Kimball had possession 25:46, ran 48 plays, had 173 yards of total offense picking up 73 yards on the ground on 27 rushing attempts and were 8 of 21 passing for 100 yards for their 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Tyler Magninie was 7 of 17 for 83 yards and was responsible for both TDs and also the interception. Freshman Izaac Reuter was 1 for 3 and 17 yards and Trent Rutledge was 0 for 1.

Jerrof Fedorchik carried 14 times for Bridgeport amassing 160 yards and 2 touchdowns. Wyatt Pankowski carried 8 times for 138 yards averaging 17.3 per carry and scoring 3 touchdowns. Kyle Kildow had 1 carry for a 74 yard TD, Austin Hartman 2 carries for 23 yards and 1 TD, Anthony Barrett and Will Frerichs both ran in touchdowns for the winners.

Coach Kuxhausen got 40 yards from Logan Stahla on 10 rushing attempts and went with Trent Rutledge in this game trying to find a healthy body who could get some yards and the tall and talented senior picked up 41 yards on 7 rushes. Rutledge also had 4 catches for 42 yards and 1 touchdown on a 3 yard pass play. Ethan Land, the other tall and talented senior end for the Horns, had a 20 yard touchdown reception, Angel Flores had 2 catches for 21 yards and Ryan Soper 1 for 17 yards. Tyler Magninie made both PAT kicks.

In the turnover department, Kimball had 3, losing 2 of 3 fumbles along with the 1 interception. The Bulldogs had no turnovers. Kimball had 5 penalties for 30 yards and Bridgeport 4 for 35.

Creg Barker led the Kimball tackle charts and has been right up at the top all season. He led with 10 tackles in his final game. Ethan Land charted 3.5, Cody Kirby 3 with 1 for loss of yards, James Merryfield and Dakota Flores had 2 each, and Grant Hickman had a tackle for loss yardage.

Score by quarter

Kimball 0 7 7 0 - 14

Bridgeport 37 19 6 6 - 68