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HARTINGTON — Riley and Dayton Sudbeck had their way with the Tri County Northeast defense here at the Hartington Community Athletic Complex Sept. 29 as they paced the Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats to a second consecutive win of the season, 48-8.
Riley accounted for 420 yards offensively to set a new school record for total yards.
Dayton caught five of Riley’s 10 completions and averaged half the 80-yard field with each touch, amassing 205 yards on the evening.
“I believe we actually broke three or four school records on the night,” Wildcat coach, Rusty Fuller said. “They both had huge nights.”
It was a tough night, said Wolfpack coach Evan Colfack.
“Our defense was exposed by the Wildcats explosive play-making abilities - it was a long night,” he said.
Fuller said when his team was sitting 0-4, they would need to win out to make the playoffs and they are halfway there with a huge date with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge on the horizon, Oct. 6 at Haskell Field in Laurel, which will bring a 3-3 record into the contest.
The game appears to be for all the playoff marbles with the winner likely to get in and the loser likely to be sitting on the sidelines for the postseason, but time will tell.
The Wildcats scored all the points they needed in the first 12 minutes, finishing the quarter 24-8.
A dozen points in the second pushed the lead to 36-8 at the break and 12 more in the third stanza started the continuous clock and neither team scored from there.
“We had many stops inside the red zone that really built momentum for our team,” Fuller said. “it was huge for us to keep them from scoring, then we just kept scoring back.”
Riley Sudbeck had a very busy and successful showing on the night, completing 10-of-15 passes for 284 yards and five touchdowns, four of the scores went to Dayton and one to Cole Heimes.
Riley also ran the ball 12 times for another 119 yards and one score and recorded 10 tackles on the other side of the ball, four solo stops and one tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
Dayton had the 200-yard receiving game with the four touchdowns but also had nine tackles on defense and recovered a Wolfpack fumble.
Cole Heimes paced the ’Cats defense with 12 total tackles, including seven unassisted and also had a tackle for loss.
Kale Korth ended up with 10 tackles while Ayden Rosener had a couple of tackles behind the line.
Although the Wildcats are sitting at 2-4 and 2-1 in the district, a closer look at their results this season give plenty of reason for optimism for the playoffs.
Hartington-Newcastle lost its first four games to teams that have lost exactly one game the rest of the season.
Wynot, Plainview and Crofton are all three 6-0 and Elkhorn Valley sits at 5-1 heading into this week’s action.
The Wildcats take on the Bears this week and finish the regular season at home against Homer. The Knights are 1-5 heading into a game with 0-6, Wakefield Friday night.
“We’re gaining confidence and are really seeing some things come together,” Fuller said. “I am proud of the way these kids have kept moving forward and kept working hard.”
