The Baltic Bulldogs hosted the Viborg-Hurley Cougars in their regular season finale on Friday, October 16th. Baltic turned a slow start into a big home win scoring 34 unanswered points across the second half to pull away from Viborg-Hurley for a 42-18 victory.The Cougars struck first in the second quarter, finding the end zone on an 11-yard touchdown pass at the 5:55 mark to take a 6-0 lead. Viborg-Hurley added to the advantage at 2:01 with a nine-yard touchdown run, pushing the margin to 12-0. With the clock winding down before halftime, the Bulldogs finally broke through. Henry Anderson hit Elias Oakley for a 14-yard touchdown pass with just 0:12 left in the second quarter, and Baltic converted the two-point try to cut the deficit to 12-8 at the break.
That late score proved to be the spark the Bulldogs needed. Baltic came out of the locker room and flipped the game early in the third quarter. Anderson ripped off a 50-yard touchdown run at 10:12, and the Bulldogs added another two-point conversion to move in front 16-12. The Bulldogs kept the pressure on the Cougars the rest of the way. Anderson connected with Oakley again at 4:47 of the third quarter for a three-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 22-12.
Baltic then poured it on in the fourth. At 11:49, Anderson found Bryce Campbell for a 16-yard touchdown pass, and another successful two-point conversion made it 30-12. Aaron Nordbye followed with a 35-yard touchdown run at 9:18 to push the lead to 36-12, and Jax Vrchota delivered the knockout blow with an 80-yard touchdown run at 3:33 to make it 42-12. Viborg-Hurley tacked on a late score with a three-yard touchdown run at 0:42, but Baltics second-half surge was far too much to overcome.
The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 4-4 record and will travel to Garretson to face the Blue Dragons in the opening round of the 9AA playoffs on Thursday, October 22nd.
