The West Holt Huskies saw their 2023 season come to an end on Friday, Oct. 20 with a 14-7 loss to the Ponca Indians at home.
Heading into the matchup, neither team had a real chance at making the playoffs, which made both teams hungry to end their season on a win.
Most people who were familiar with the two teams figured the contest would be a defensive battle, and that it was. Neither the Huskies nor the Indians could find any sort of groove offensively, with only three touchdowns being scored between the two teams.
In the first quarter, Huskies linebacker Kruz Jelinek was able to jump a pass for an interception, returning it to the Indians side of the field to get the Huskies in good position to take the lead. Unfortunately, after a few successful plays on the ground, Lincoln Konrad took a big hit, which forced the ball loose and gave possession back to Ponca. After the fumble, neither team could get anything going offensively, and the quarter ended with the score still knotted up at zero.
In the second quarter, Ponca was finally able to break the ice with a touchdown on the ground and an extra-point conversion to make the score 7-0 heading into halftime. It was immediately evident that the contest would be a low-scoring ballgame, and one more touchdown could win it for the Indians.
In the third quarter, the Indians got that second touchdown, with another run on the ground, followed by a successful extra-point conversion to make the game 14-0.
At the end of the third quarter, the Huskies put together a solid drive, which continued in the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth, the Huskies were finally able to punch one in with a two-yard touchdown run by Mason Crumrine.
With the touchdown, the Huskies had life. After the kickoff, the Indians took the ball over with around 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Running out the clock with 10 minutes remaining isn’t an easy thing to do, but the Indians showed brute force and determination, and were able to drain the clock all the way down to zero to earn the victory. The Indians used small chunks of yards and good clock management to edge out the Huskies by a final score of 14-7.
While the Huskies finished the year with just two wins and seven losses, the team showed impressive growth. In the 2022 season, the Huskies finished 0-9, with many critics wondering if this season would repeat the same fate. The Huskies proved a lot of critiques wrong. Earning two hard-fought victories in the 2023 season, including a victory in their season-opener against the Valentine Badgers by a shutout score of 18-0 and a win against Fremont-Bergan by a score of 32-20. The Huskies lost both of those matchups last season by a combined score of 82-12.
The Huskies also had a pair of one-score losses this season, including a 14-6 loss to O’Neill, whom the Huskies lost to by 29 points just last season. Another notable feat from the season was the Huskies performance against the number one team in class C-2, the Norfolk Catholic Knights. In their game, the Huskies put up 18 points against the Knights, the Huskies put up 18 points, the third-most pints allowed by the Knights during their undefeated season.
Although the Huskies did not qualify for the class C-2 state football playoffs, the team earned two more victories than their previous season, and has plenty of talent returning for the 2024 season.