The Baltic Bulldogs were down two touchdowns late in the game against the Flandreau Fliers on Friday, August 28th. A quick score and a fumble recovery put them in position to tie the game, but Flandreau stopped a fourth down play with just over a minute left in the game to spoil the Bulldog home opener, 20-12.
First Half
After the first two offensive drives for both teams produce negative yards, the Fliers were able to get going in the positive direction a scored late in the opening quarter. Xavier Bien connected with Alexavier Poitra on a 10-yard touchdown pass with 1:53 in the opening quarter. The extra point was no good, and Flandreau led 7-0.
The Bulldog defense kept Baltic in the game throughout the second quarter. The defense made back-to-back fourth-down stops to create turnover-on-downs late in the quarter. The second stop gave some momentum to the offense. Ben Erickson made a great grab on a tipped pass off a Flandreau defender that helped set up a four-yard touchdown. Erickson received the touchdown pass from Gavin Skotvold with 1:11 left in the first half. The two-point conversion failed, but Baltic cut the lead to 7-6 going into halftime.
Second Half
Both teams had a long drive in the third quarter possessing the ball just one time. Baltic received the second half kickoff and drove into Flandreau territory, but turned the ball over on downs with about 7:00 remaining in the quarter. Flandreau held the ball the remainder of the quarter on their first drive of the second half. The drive continued into the fourth quarter, and Poitra scored on a seven-yard run with 11:24 to go in the game. Bien made the extra point to put Flandreau ahead 14-7.
Flandreau looked as if they delivered the knock-out punch with a two-yard touchdown run by Bien with 6:19 to play in the game. The extra point was no good, but the Fliers extended their lead to 20-6. Skotvold brought the Bulldogs back to life after he connected with Dylan Runestad on a 70-yard touchdown pass with 5:12 remaining. The two-point conversion failed keeping the score 20-12.
The Bulldog defense forced a stop of the Fliers in their own territory on their next drive. On fourth down a high snap over the head of Bien was recovered by Trevor Cuperus on the Flandreau 20-yard line with just over three minutes to go in the game. On a third and 19 play, Baltic got 16 yards back. Unfortunately the Bulldogs could not get the first down which gave the ball back to Flandreau with 1:20 to go in the game. Flandreau was able to run out the clock for the win.
Game Stats
Baltic finished with 155 yards of total offense, 197 passing yards, but -42 rushing yards. Flandreau had 247 yards of total offense, 138 rushing yards and 109 passing yards. The Bulldogs had just nine first downs compared to 16 for Flandreau.
Runestad finished with three carries for nine yards and had four catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. Erickson finished with six receptions for 70 yards and a touchdown. Jack Wiseman had a catch for 26 yards. Skotvold finished 15-19 passing for 197 yards and two touchdowns. Cale Roach led the defense with nine tackles. Jackson Goehring had six tackles. Wiseman and Bradyn Hanson each had four tackles.
