KILLDEER — Although the score didn’t show it, the Killdeer Cowboys needed a strong third-quarter defense to preserve their 27-6 home victory over Stanley on Friday, Aug. 23, after scoring 20 first-half points in a game that could have been closer than it looked. While the Blue Jays held the ball for most of the third quarter, the Cowboys kept the visitors out of the end zone and forced a turnover on downs with 1:23 left in the third quarter before scoring another lightning-quick touchdown through the air just past the halfway point of the final quarter to take the Class A victory.

“We had to keep them in check because if we hadn’t kept them in check, it would have been a tough football game for us,” said Andrew Cook, head coach of the Killdeer football team.

Gaylon Wm. Parker / The Dickinson Press

Killdeer seemed in control from the start, driving the ball methodically and purposefully downfield to score a 1-yard touchdown run by senior signal-caller Kale Hansen with 8:46 left in the first quarter after the run nearly stalled at the 5-yard line. Ayrain O’Hotto’s conversion kick – one of his three key points of the night – gave the hosts a 7-0 lead and most of the momentum in the early going. But while a shifty field position duel ensued from there and throughout most of the second quarter, the Cowboys broke free with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Hansen to versatile star wideout Jaxson Reese to take a 13-0 lead with 6:42 left in the second quarter.

“We had a pretty good line and that helped a lot, and I just trusted them,” Hansen said. “And I trust all of my wide receivers, too.”

But the Blue Jays didn’t let that get them down and used a 12-play, 70-yard run to cut the deficit to 13-6 with a 9-yard touchdown run by tough Stanley fullback Trey Bohmbach with just over a minute left until halftime.

The Cowboys used their time wisely on a six-play drive that lasted just under 30 seconds. It included a series of quick passes from Hansen to junior wide receiver Michael Dukart and Reese that set up a busted play that Hansen broke free of, scampered to his right and found Reese wide open on the field for a 47-yard touchdown with :41.7 left in the first half. The 20-6 halftime lead seemed unbeatable, but after the Blue Jays launched a 23-play drive – which came to nothing thanks to KHS’s steadfastness – the visitors seemed to lose the wind for the rest of the game.

The final nail in the coffin, which led to the 27-6 score, was preceded by a series of powerful runs by junior running back Tucker Bohmbach, with which the Cowboys ran down the clock on their way to victory.

“We felt good about it because we had put them in ‘and-long’ situations on several of those down-and-distances there … and we felt like we could make a difference,” Cook said.

For more information about prep football in North Dakota, visit the website at

https://ndhsaanow.com/tournaments/football

or just read on The Dickinson Press.

Gaylon is a sportswriter from Jensen Beach, Florida, but has lived all over the world. His athletic childhood gave him a love of sports that has led to a career as a journalist since 1998 in places like Enid, Oklahoma, Alamogordo, NM, Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Viera, Florida. His greatest passion is small-town sports, especially baseball and football.