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LAUREL — Hartington-Newcastle completed an improbable comeback this season to wind up on the verge of making the Class D1 State football playoffs with one game to go.
Improbable for outsiders, but not to the Wildcats and head coach Rusty Fuller.
Hartington-Newcastle turned away Laurel-Concord-Coleridge at Haskell Field 40-20 for its third consecutive win with only 2-5 Homer left on the schedule.
“We got out on Laurel-Concord-Coleridge early,” Fuller said. “We tried to slow things down and milk the game; that’s not our style.”
The Wildcats went up 34-8 by the half. “We slowed things down then got stopped around the 10 once and around the 20 once in the second half,” Fuller said. “Give them credit; they kept coming at us and we missed our opportunities when we needed to capitalize on them.”
Riley Sudbeck, who had another monster game, scored first on a 1-yard run and then hit Cole Heimes for a 58-yard aerial to make it 14-0 still in the first 12 minutes.
LCC answered with a score of its own on a Dylan Taylor run, but the Wildcats weren’t done before the end of the quarter.
In a touch of trickeration for the Halloween season, Heimes found Dayton Sudbeck from 55 yards away to finish the frame with Hartington-Newcastle in front, 20-8.
The Wildcats took control of the second quarter and scored on back-to-back on Riley Sudbeck 3-yard runs to head to the intermission in the lead, 34-8.
“We felt good heading into the half. We were moving the ball and going at our pace — we should have kept doing it,” Fuller said.
The slowdown and the trouble capitalizing on some third-quarter drives gave the Bears a chance to get back in the game.
LCC scored the only points of the third frame and the first points in the fourth quarter to make it a two-touchdown game early in the final 12 minutes.
Hartington-Newcastle scored the final points of the night on a Kale Korth 5-yard blast and the final total was set.
“We got things going some later,” Fuller said. “We kept playing hard, but we needed to get back up to our tempo and our style.”
That tempo produced another huge night for the Wildcat offense and another monster game from Riley Sudbeck.
He completed 11-of-16 passes for 179 yards and the touchdown to Heimes.
Heimes went 2-for-2 in the air and accumulated 57 yards, including a pass back to Riley Sudbeck.
Riley Sudbeck also carried the ball for 137 yards on his 25 totes, Heimes ended with 54 yards on his six carries and Korth ran for 33.
Dayton Sudbeck got six passes for 151 yards and one score while Heimes hauled in three aerials for 77 yards.
Riley Sudbeck also paced the defense with 15 total tackles, Heimes and Korth each had 13, and Dayotn Sudbeck added nine.
The Wildcats are heading back home Oct. 13 to take on Homer to improve their seeding in the upcoming playoffs.
“With a win, we could end up as a 13-seed or even better,” Fuller said. “If we lose, we could drop down to a 16-seed.”
H-N (3-4) 20 14 0 6 - 40 LCC (3-4) 8 0 6 6 - 20 FIRST QUARTER
HNS: Riley Sudbeck 1 run, R. Sudbeck run. 8-0 HNS: Cole Heimes 58 pass from R. Sudbeck, PAT failed. 14-0 LCC: Dylan Taylor 25 run, Gibson Roberts pass from Taylor. 14-8. HNS: Dayton Sudbeck 55 pass from Heimes, PAT failed. 20-8.
SECOND QUARTER
HNS: R. Sudbeck 3 run, PAT failed. 26-8. HNS: R. Sudbeck 3 run, run good. 34-8.
THIRD QUARTER
LCC: Connor Korth 1 run, PAT failed, 34-14.
FOURTH QUARTER
LCC: Carter Kvols 19 pass from Taylor, PAT failed. 34-20 HNS: Kale Korth 5 run, PAT failed. 40-20.
Hartington-Newcastle LCC First Downs 22 19 Rushing 34-229 34-197 Passing 44-224 12-103 Ttl yds 453 300 PASSING HNS - Riley Sudbeck 11-16-179 1TD; Cole Heimes 2-2-57 1TD.
RUSHING - Riley Sudbeck 25-137 3TD’s; Cole Heimes 9-54; Kale Korth 10-33 1 TD.
RECEIVING - Riley Sudbeck 1-2; Cole Heimes 3-77 1TD; Dayton Sudbeck 6-151 1TD; Kale Korth 2-6; Tyler Hutchinson 1-0.
TACKLES HNS - Riley Sudbeck 15; Cole Heimes 13; Dayton Sudbeck 9; Kale Korth 13 1TFL; Brayden Lammers 4 1TFL; Tyler Hutchinson 3; Jason Heimes 3; Logan Opfer 7 Ayden Rosener 6 2 TFL; Lincoln Grutsch 4 1TFL.
