THE BULL
Football...it’s a game that can be challenging in many ways, both on and off the field. Just like any sport, whether it’s on a field, a court, a mat, a track, runway or ring, even on a golf course...the focus has to be week to week, even day to day!
After watching the Sandy Creek football team dismantle the Mavericks of Sandhills Valley 76-12 this past Friday night, in the second round of the Class D-1 state playoffs, coming off of a 63-14 win over Niobrara-Verdigre, in the first round of the playoffs, I’d say the Cougars have their heads, bodies, and emotions connected in the right way... the focused destination is: one of the most popular addresses in the State of Nebraska: “600 Stadium Drive,” which of course is Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
Of course, there are two remaining monumental battles yet to get there, but as a writer, I can look forward and ahead. The Cougars need to remain spot on and to the day-to-day, week-to-week focus, and play the next two weeks as if they are 0-0 on the year.
This week’s game on “The Hill” at Sandy Creek High School brings in the only team during the 2024 campaign that has even come close to testing Sandy Creek...that being the Huskies of Shelby-Rising City High School.
Back on Sept. 6, the Huskies were like that pesky gnat that was buzzing around and wouldn’t go away. The Cougars put up 22 second-quarter points to record an eventual 28-6 win en route to their current record of 100, going up again this week against the 9-1 Huskies...yep, Shelby-Rising City’s lone loss was the 22-point setback at the hands of the Cougars.
Let’s take a look back at how Sandy Creek got to the point in which they are today.
Back in 2022, the Cougar program made the change to 8-man football and won five of eight games in the regular season, and went 1-1 in the playoffs, beating the Sandhills Valley squad, in Stapleton, 24-18, to advance to the second round against the then, top-seeded North Platte St. Patrick’s Irish. This resulted in a 50-14 stinging loss, to which I clearly remember head coach Andrew Kuta saying, and I paraphrase, because this is MY interpretation of what Kuta said to his players after that loss...“This hurts, but this is a step, a step in the right direction, no matter how much this loss hurts tonight,” and his words that night, in North Platte, sunk in... it sunk in deeply.
This year’s seniors were sophomores on that 6-4 football team, and it is this group of then-sophomores, and now seniors, who took Kuta’s words and lesson to heart. After that tough 36-point loss to the Irish, the Cougars, of his have won 21 of their last 22 games, and their only blemish was a 48-36 loss to last year’s Class D-1 state champions, Stanton, who beat the Cougars in the semifinals of the post-season and went on to defeat Exeter-Milligan/ Friend 42-36 in the title game, the same EMF team that Sandy Creek defeated in triple overtime during the regular season, 64-62.
So, the Cougars’ last three seasons have been remarkable, an amazing ride to be on with Cougar Nation.
A combined 27-5 as they enter this week’s game with the Huskies, with their big focus being pulling up on that famous Nebraska address: “600 Stadium Drive, Lincoln, NE,” better known as Memorial Stadium on Monday, Nov. 25, around late morning, or early afternoon on the 25th.
But first: Shelby-Rising City, a tough task that I know this group of Cougars isn’t looking past, and with a win over the Huskies, a must-win over either Plainview or Lourdes Central Catholic of Nebraska City.
A Lourdes win brings the Nebraska City squad to “The Hill.” A Plainview win will take the Cougars and Cougar Nation close to 150 miles (one way) north to Plainview High School for a battle with the Pirates.
So as I, Tory Duncan...aka the “author” of the Bull, can take a peek ahead, I know darn good and well, however, that the boys and coaches, are focusing on the fact that they are 0-0 on the year. This week’s focus is on a very good Shelby-Rising City squad, and with a win over the Huskies Friday night on “The Hill,” the focus will then change to being 0-0 going up against the winner of the Lourdes Central Catholic/Plainview game, before any talk begins about their arrival at “600 Stadium Drive, Lincoln, Nebraska!”
Good Luck Cougars...your “focal destination” is in your own hands.
