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PLAINVIEW — In reality, the Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats football team has been in the 2023 state football playoffs for the past month.
Had the Wildcats lost any of their last four regular-season games, the actual postseason would have never happened for head coach Rusty Fuller’s club.
In order to make it into the postseason, all four of their final regular-season games were considered playoff games. With that in mind,the Wildcats rolled through the final half of the season to earn a spot in the Nebraska School Activities Association Class D1 State Football Playoffs last Thursday.
After all of that hard work, Hartington-Newcastle was in the bracket and was sent to Plainview to take on the undefeated Pirates in a rematch of a game Plainview won back on Sept. 1 by a score of 42-6.
But these weren’t the Wildcats of September. Fuller and Co. steadily and vastly improved from the team who was dominated back in the second week of the regular season.
The Wildcats showed that improvement and then some in the opening-round game with the Pirates, but fell 49-40 in a contest that went right down to the wire.
“We were close, really close,” Fuller said. “We were right with them the entire second half, but a couple of mistakes down the stretch let themget away with the win.”
After a wild ride in the first half, both defenses settled down in the second half. “They took away our screen game,” Fuller said. “So we had to find other ways to move the ball through the air.”
The result was trick plays. Seven of them, according to the coach. “We had been practicing a group of trick plays all season and never used them,” Fuller said. “We decided it was time to use them and they made some nice gains for us.” The Wildcats struck first in the opening quarter as both offenses were hitting on all cylinders.
Dayton Sudbeck grabbed a pass from Riley Sudbeck for a 40-yard score in the first 12 minutes and after the 2-point conversion, the score was 8-0.
After a Plainview score, Riley Sudbeck was at it again, this time to Cole Heimes on a 34-yard pass and catch to pay dirt to make it 14-7.
Plainview scored on a long run late in the quarter and the teams went into the second tied 14-14.
The Pirates scored on a pass to open the second frame then added another long run to go up 28-14.
Heimes hauled in a 5-yard pass from Riley Sudbeck and Hartington-Newcastle added the 2-point conversion to make it 28-22 with Plainview in front.
The Pirates cashed in on a 6-yard score but the Wildcats answered before the intermission with another hook up between Heimes and Sudbeck, this one from six yards away.
The teams headed into the break with the Pirates still in the lead 35-28 Hartington-Newcastle had a chance to retake the lead in the third quarter when Riley Sudbeck capped off a drive with a 1-yard plunge, but the conversion try failed and Plainview was clinging to a 35-34 lead.
Back-to-back touchdowns to end the third quarter and open the fourth put Plainview up 49-34, but the Wildcats still weren’t finished.
Riley Sudbeck weaved around the Pirate defense for a 15-yard touchdown, but that was the end of the scoring.
Sudbeck ended the game going 12-of-32 in the passing department for 223 yards and a couple of touchdowns. He also rushed for 51 yards on 25 carries and found the end zone twice.
Heimes finished the night with 111 yards on his 10 catches with two scores, Dayton Sudbeck hauled in eight passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Riley Subeck had 18 tackles, Ayden Rosener and Kale Korth each had 14 and Heimes and Brayden Lammers had a dozen apiece.
Rosener had a tackle behind the line of scrimmage and an interception.
“I was proud of the way we just kept after it, worked hard and kept getting better,” Fuller said. “We were 27 points better than the first time we played them.”
The Wildcats were sidelined with a 4-5 record after opening the season 0-4.
HNS 14 14 6 6 - 40 Plainview 14 21 7 7 - 49
FIRST QUARTER
H-N: Dayton Sudbeck 40 pass from Riley Sudbeck, 2-pt. conversion good. 8-0 P: 1-yard run, kick good. 8-7 H-N: Cole Heimes 34 pass from R. Sudbeck, conversion failed. 14-7. P: 44-yard run, kick good. 14-14.
SECOND QUARTER
P: 29-yard pass, kick good. 14-21. P: 56-yard run, kick good. 14-28. H-N: Heimes 5 pass from R. Sudbeck, 2-pt. conversion good. 22-28. P: 6-yard run, kick good. 22-35. H-N: Heimes 6 pass from R. Sudbeck, conversion failed, 28-35.
THIRD QUARTER
H-N: R. Sudbeck 1 run, conversion failed, 34-35. P: 20-yard run, kick good. 34-42.
FOURTH QUARTER
P: 13-yard pass, kick good. 34-49. H-N: R. Sudbeck 15 run, conversion failed. 40-49.
Hartington-Newcastle Plainview First DownS 20 22 Passing 24-35-254 3-7-21 Rushing 34-152 59-364 RUSHING
HNS (Carr/Yds): Riley Sudbeck 25-51 2TD’s; Cole Heimes 2-55; Dayton Sudbeck 1-10; Kale Korth 6-36. Hartington-Newcastle PASSING
HNS (Comp/Att/Yds): Riley Sudbeck 21-32-223 4TD’s; Cole Heimes 1-2-6; Dayton Sudbeck 1-1-25.
RECEIVING
HNS (Catch/Yds): Riley Sudbeck 2-31; Cole Heimes 10-111 2TD’s; Dayton Sudbeck 8-106 2TD’s; Kale Korth 3-6.
TACKLES
HNS - Riley Sudbeck 18 .5TFL; Ty Opfer 1; Cole Heimes 12; Dayton Sudbeck 4 .5 TFL; Kale Korth 15; Carter Kelly 2; Brayden Lammers 12; Ayden Rosener 14 1TFL 1INT; Colton Cavanaugh 3; Lincoln
