Second-half slide dooms Wildcats

CROFTON — Hartington-Newcastle seemed on the cusp of winning its first football game of the 2023 campaign when it hit the road to Crofton Friday to take on the state-rated Warriors in both teams’ first meander into District action.

The Wildcats went up by 10, 16-6, at the end of the opening 12 minutes and were still clinging to a 24-22 lead at halftime.

The Warriors took the lead in the third frame with back-to-back scores before HNS could answer, but by then Crofton was up 34-24.

“We jumped out to an early lead, then got wore down by their run,” Wildcats coach Rusty Fuller said. “We played them tough for three quarters, but just couldn’t finish the game.”

The Wildcats did answer in the third quarter with a 20-yard pass from Riley Sudbeck to Cole Heimes, but the conversion attempt failed and Wildcats were still down, 34-30.

Crofton scored three straight from there, one TD in the third and two touchdowns to open the final 12 minutes, and Hartington-Newcastle ended up with the loss.

In the first quarter, Riley Sudbeck, who finished with 166 yards through the air, found Dayton Sudbeck from 30 yards out for a score, and after the conversion run was good, the Wildcats led 8-0.

The Warriors responded with a score, but still in the first, Hartington-Newcastle found the end zone again on a Riley Sudbeck blast from three yards out to make it 16-6. The Wildcats increased the lead to begin the frame to 24-6 on a Riley Sudbeck one-yard keeper.

Crofton scored twice before the intermission to get the score to 24-22 with the Wildcats still in the lead heading into the break.

Riley Sudbeck ended the night with 12 completions and 166 yards and the two scores, one to Cole Heimes and the other to Dayton Sudbeck. He also had 88 yards on 29 carries and a couple of scores.

Dayton Sudbeck had 123 yards on his six catches; Heimes had three catches for 32 yards.

Riley Sudbeck and Dayton Sudbeck also anchored the defense as each came away with 13 tackles, Ayden Rosener had 11 stops, Kale Korth and Heimes each had 10. Aiden Collier and Rosener each had a fumble recovery.

HNS (0-4) 16 8 6 8 - 38 CRO (4-0) 6 16 20 16 - 58

FIRST QUARTER

H-N: Dayton Sudbeck 30 pass from Riley Sudbeck, run good. 8-0. C: Wil Steffen 1 run, run failed. 8-6. H-N: R. Sudbeck 3 run, run good. 16-6.

SECOND QUARTER

H-N: R. Sudbeck 1 run, conversion good. 24-6. C: Jace Panning 15 run, conversion good. 24-14. C: Steffen 1 run, conversion good. 24-22 THIRD QUARTER

C: Panning 3 run, conversion failed. 24-28. C: Panning 44 pass from Steffen, conversion failed. 24-34. H-N: Cole Heimes 20 pass from R. Sudbeck, conversion failed. 30-34. C: Wyatt Tramp 7 run, conversion good. 30-42.

FOURTH QUARTER

C: Tramp 15 run, conversion good. 30-50. C: Tramp 3 run, conversion good. 30-58. H: Austin Sudbeck 3 run, conversion good. 38-58.

RUSHING HNS Riley Sudbeck 29-88 2TD; Ty Opfer 1-(-1); Austin Sudbeck 4-13 1TD; Cole Heimes 5-13; Will Feilmeier 8-30; Kale Korth 1-8; Jason Heimes 1-0.

PASSING HNS (Att/Comp/Yds): Riley Sudbeck 12-25-166 2TD; Austin Sudbeck 1-1-1.

RECEIVING: HNS Cole Heimes 3-32 1TD; Will Feilmeier 1-7; Dayton Sudbeck 6-123 1TD; Kale Korth 2-4; Jason Heimes 1-1.

TACKLES: HNS Riley Sudbeck 13; Cole Heimes 10; Will Feilmeier 2; Dayton Sudbeck 13; Kale Korth 10; Carter Kelly 1; Brayden Lammers 2; Tyler Hutchinson 1; Jason Heimes 1.