Win puts Wildcats into State playoffs

HARTINGTON — What seemed like a pipe dream just four weeks agobecame a reality last Friday night at the Hartington Community Complexas Hartington-Newcastle won its fourth consecutive football game to qualify for the postseason.

The Wildcats used a 50-point first half to turn away Homer in less-than-ideal conditions on their way to a 56-7 win and a No.13-seed in the eastern half of the 2023 Class D1 State Football Playoffs.

The seeding will send 4-4 Hartington-Newcastle to Plainview totake on the 8-0 Pirates, a team who beat the Wildcats 42-6 back on Sept. 1 in the second week of the regular season.

“We’re a completely different team from week two of the season,” Wildcats coach Rusty Fuller said. “We looked at film from the first time we played them and it was probably our worst game of the season.

“We were still trying to find our identity on offense and getting personnel in the right spots. We welcome the challenge Plainview brings us.”

Cole Heimes heated things up right away against the Knights,plowing in from the one-yard line in the first quarter, the first of his four touchdowns on the night. After a two-point conversion run, Hartington-Newcastle led 8-0.

Riley Sudbeck rambled in from 16 yards out to make the score 14-0 and then Kale Korth scored on a 27-yard dash to the end zone to make it22-0 after a successful two-point conversion, still in the first 12 minutes.

Heimes scored his second touchdown to open the second quarter and another two-point conversion made it 30-0 early in the frame.

Dayton Sudbeck hauled in a Riley Sudbeck aerial from 32 yards out for a touchdown to make it 38-0.

Heimes found the end zone two more times, one from the one-yard line and one from the three-yard line, before the intermission, sending the teams to the locker room with the Wildcats up by the 50-0 advantage.

The second half flew by as the continuous clock rule was in effect, but Hartington-Newcastle found time for a touchdown early in the second half on a Tyler Hutchinson two-yard blast across the goal line to get the Wildcats to their final score.

Homer scored a cosmetic touchdown late in the third frame and neither team scored as the fourth quarter sped by and the final score was set.

Riley Sudbeck and Korth led the Wildcat defense with eight tackles each, Heimes had seven and Brayden Lammers added five.

Heimes, Carter Kelly, Ayden Rosener and Lincoln Grutsch all had a fumble recovery. Rosener and Grutsch each sacked the Homer quarterback.

“We continue to improve and that is great to see,” Fuller said. “These guys have really put in the work and bought into what we were saying and where we could end up. It’s been a lot of fun.”

After the first round of the playoffs, which were split geographically by east and west and seeded 1 through 16 for the first round, the remaining teams will be seeded again, 1 through 16, strictly by power points, regardless of the location of each team.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Thursday for the Wildcats’ opening-round game with the Pirates in Plainview.

Homer (2-6) 0 HNS (4-4) 22

0 7 0-7

28 6 0-56 FIRST QUARTER

HNS: Cole Heimes 1 run, 2-pt. conversion good. 8-0. HNS: Riley Sudbeck 16 run, conversion failed. 14-0. HNS: Kale Korth 27 run, conversion good. 22-0.

SECOND QUARTER

HNS: Heimes 2 run, conversion good. 30-0. HNS: Dayton Sudbeck 32 pass from R, Sudbeck, conversion good. 38-0. HNS: Heimes 1 run, kick failed. 44-0. HNS: Heimes 3 run, kick failed. 50-0.

THIRD QUARTER

HNS: Tyler Hutchinson 2 run, conversion failed. 56-0. HOM: 19 run, kick good. 56-7.

First Downs Rushing Passing Total Yards HNS Homer 14 7 36-225 35-141 4-10-62 1-5-2 287 143 RUSHING HNS - Riley Sudbeck 10-86 1TD; Austin Sudbeck 8-17: Cole Heimes 8-33 4TD's; Will Feilmeier 3-15; Kale Korth 4-69 1TD; Tyler Hutchinson 2-6 1TD; Jason Heimes 1-(-1).

PASSING HNS - Riley Sudbeck 4-8-62 1TD; Austin Sudbeck 0-2-0.

RECEIVING

HNS - Cole Heimes 1-24; Dayton Sudbeck 2-35 1TD; Tyler Hutchinson 1-3.

TACKLES

HNS - Riley Sudbeck 8 1TFL; Ty Opfer 2; Austin Sudbeck 1; Cole Heimes 7 1FR; Will Feilmeier 3; Dayton Sudbeck 3; Kale Korth 8; Carter Kelly 3 2TFL 1 FR; Brayden Lammers 5; Tyler Hutchinson 1; Jason Heimes 2; Ayden Rosener 3 1SACK 1FR; Colton Cavanaugh 1; Lincoln Grutsch 4 1 SACK 1 FR; Mason Krause 1.