Warriors Blanked By Bulldogs On Opening Night

It didn't seem to matter what Neligh-Oakdale did, they couldn't find an answer for Creighton on offense or defense.

The Warriors managed just a slim few first downs as they struggled to find a rhythm in a 94-0 loss to the Bulldogs to open the 2017 season.

From the opening kick, the young Warrior squad struggled to contain the Creighton run game, allowing 10 rushing touchdowns to the Bulldogs. The defense was led by Hunter Charf, Andrew Herley and Kaleb Pofahl, all of whom recorded eight tackles on the night.

On the other side of the ball, sophomore quarterback Charf had to fight off the Creighton rush all night, as he often found the defense right in his face and rarely was able to step into his throws. He was held without a touchdown and threw two interceptions in his first career start. He finished with 40 yards on 8-of-21 passing. Herley added 20 yards on five carries. 

Despite the loss, coach Ron Beacom was glad to see the effort his players continued to give when they were down.

"I thought our kids continued to play hard. I saw a couple of things later in the game there, offensively. I thought Hunter (Charf) managed things pretty well. I saw a lot of freshman step up," Beacom said.

After the loss of a large senior class to graduation, the Warriors expected some growing pains, a sentiment Beacom echoed.

"Bottom line is, we're going to be a young team. If you look at our roster, it looks like a JV roster, it really does. We have two seniors and five juniors, and one of those juniors has never been out before. You're talking about 16 kids that are freshman and sophomore, so we're going to have growing pains. Its just unfortunate that we had to play probably the best team on our schedule in the first game, but that's the way it is."