Scottie Football Drops Home Opener

One game a season does not make. The Scotties may have dropped their home opener against Shepherd on Aug. 28, but the season is a long way from over. "Our heads are held high," said head coach Patrick Barnett.

The Scotties head coach took full responsibility for the 28-14 non-conference loss. "I didn't prepare the guys as well as I should have," he ruminated. "As a coach I failed the team so that loss is on me." While Barnett critiqued himself, he was generous with praise for his team.

"We had a lot of strong points," he said after reviewing the game tape. One of the highlights for the Scotties was the outside run game. In fact, it was the outside run game that put Glasgow on the scoreboard first. Senior running back Kyler Hallock ran the pigskin 25 yards on the Scotties' second possession to score the Scotties' first touchdown of the season. Quarterback Mason Donaldson connected with Mo Fast for the two point conversion to put Glasgow up 8-0 with 5:58 remaining in the first quarter.

Glasgow's inexperienced and younger team overcame some of their timidity as the clock continued to run and as they maintained control of the field. The Scotties frustrated the Mustangs for most of the first half, putting the visitors in a position where they hoped just to make it to halftime without another Scottie touchdown.

Unfortunately for the boys in red, the tide turned late in the half when Shepherd's quarterback Kolby Kring connected with Aidan Lammers for a 40-yard touchdown reception. Glasgow held the 8-6 lead when the Mustangs' two-point attempt failed.

The two Mustangs connected again with 5:04 remaining in the third quarter for a 78-yard touchdown reception, followed by a run by Hayes Nydegger for the extra two points and a 14-8 lead for the visitors. "Defensively we had the best run stop game I could think of against a Wing-T," Barnett said. "We just struggled with the secondary with those few pass plays."

With 8:35 remaining in the game, Connor Hash intercepted a Donaldson pass and ran the ball 50 yards for another Shepherd touchdown. Kring connected with Colter Zink for the extra two and the 22-8 lead. "I made the wrong play call on that interception," admitted Barnett.

Shepherd added another six points to their side of the scoreboard with 3:59 to play when Hash made a five-yard run into the end zone. Their two-point attempt was foiled by the Scotties defense.

Despite their 28-8 deficit, the Scotties did not give up. A late play from Donaldson to Tatum Hansen saw the sophomore running back burn up 60 yards of turf for a second Scottie touchdown on an outside run. Back in possession of the ball, Shepherd ran out the remaining 1:26 on the clock.

In a game of inches, it was indeed the little things that cost the Scotties acknowledged Barnett. "We shouldn't have dropped this game," he said, "but we just have little things. Little things is what killed us." The Scotties will look to correct those mistakes this week in practice to turn the tide early on their season.

Barnett also found lots to praise in his young team. "As far as the pass, we haven't passed the ball very much and we did a pretty good job passing it," he said. "The quarterback [Donaldson] did an awesome job. He was under a lot of pressure from the linebackers and the D-line and he did a good job there."

On the receiving end of the pass, Barnett said his guys did a good job catching the ball. He noted in past seasons, the team had seen quite a few more dropped passes. "We didn't have so many this time," he added. Ashton Potter, Toryn Richards and Fast all snagged beautiful catches in the game.

On the defensive side, Wyatt Babb, Trey Johnson, Jack Cornwell, and Gage Siefert nailed some solid stops for the Scotties as they helped lead a wall of red stopping the Mustangs. Siefert said, "I feel like we had a good game, definitely a game to build off of though. I think we'll be working on our hustle and finishing our assignments on the field."

Glasgow led in both rushing and passing yards in the game, with 134 rushing and 121 passing for 255 total yards. Shepherd had 117 rushing and 100 passing for 217 total yards. Kring had 100 passing yards for the visitors while Lammers had 41 rushing and 118 receiving yards.

Donaldson amassed 121 passing yards for the home team. Hansen, with his 60-yard TD run, racked up 77 rushing yards and Ashton Potter had 81 receiving yards for Glasgow. Donaldson said, "Even though we didn't win I feel like we played pretty well for the most part."

Barnett, who lost 12 players from last season – nine of them starters – is looking to get his young team some experience as they move through the season. "We're just inexperienced and that's fine," he said. "But we've got one varsity game under our belt and we're going to down to Roundup next Saturday. Everything will be okay. We're still excited. Our heads are held high."

Hallock told the Courier, "I feel like we could have executed better. Team strengths are that we can work and we will."

"It felt good to get out on Scottie field at home with our fans," Donaldson said. "I'm excited to be a part of this varsity squad."

The Scotties travel to Roundup for a game against the Panthers on Saturday, Sept. 4 with kickoff at 6 p.m. NFHS will broadcast the game live. The matchup will mark the second time in school history the two teams have met. The only other game between the two was a 1944 Class A State Semifinals game which Glasgow won 20-0.