The Kimball High Longhorns stubbed their toes on their final warmup on the road to a state playoff, losing 34-8 to a Chadron Cardinal team in football action Friday night. For the first time this season, the Horns and their fans had to put up with some uncomfortable weather as it was a wet, rainy and windy  night in Chadron when the contest got underway, but got better as the game went along. Whether it was the trip, the weather, or whatever, the Horns did not play near to their capabilities, and it cost them! It may have cost them a home site for the first round of the Class C-l playoffs. It cost them an opportunity to secure a win over Chadron, and it has been a long time coming.

“We were certainly not focused Friday night,” said coach.

Chauncey Pedersen. “We really didn’t make the plays we needed to make. We had too many turnovers” he said. Coach Pedersen would not go into any commentary about some calls that went against his club, but it is fact that the Horns didn’t get any breaks when it came to calls that could have helped them.

Kimball kicked off to start the game and on the second snap from scrimmage for the Cardinals, freshman Jake Reader recovered a Chadron fumble at the Chadron 42 yard line and it looked like the Horns might be in business. Two snap’s later, Kimball fumbled it right back, at the same location, and the Cards went 58 yards in 9 plays to score their first TD with Brady Roes throwing complete to Slade Hunn for a 25 yard touchdown. Riley Stack, an impressive kicker, made the PAT to go up 7-0 with 6:45 left in the opening first period.

Chadron would take that margin into the second quarter and Kimball had shown signs of moving the ball on offense as play moved into the second period. After picking up a couple of first downs, including a sparkling 38 yard run by Kendall Ferguson when he was forced to scramble, the drive bogged down after a major penalty call on the Horns. On a fourth and long situation at the Chadron 38, Kimball gambled on fourth down but missed on an incomplete pass. Chadron went 62 yards in 9 plays with a key play, a l2 yard run for a first down on a fourth and 9 fake punt with Stack running for the yardage. Roes got the second score of the contest on a 2 yard quarterback keeper and Stack kicked the PAT to go up 14-0 with 6:29 left in the second quarter.

After the ensuing kickoff, Kimball went three and out forcing a Longhorn punt and Chadron promptly went 73 yards for another score with Roes throwing to Braxtyn Hespe for a 44 yard touchdown. The clock showed 2:40 left in the half when Stack kicked his third PAT to go up 21-0. Stack would kick a 33 yard field goal with :04 seconds left in the half to run the tally to 24-0 at intermission.

Kimball’s lone score came with 5:19 left in the third period set up by a 53 yard pass play from Ferguson to Brady Land for a first down at the Chadron 25 yard line. Ferguson was sacked for a 2 yard loss, but then went to Land again on the next play who in turn lateraled to Jake Daum to complete the flea flicker pass play that covered the 25 yards for the TD. Ferguson went to Land one more time for the double conversion points to make it a 24-8 margin.

In the fourth quarter Chadron scored again after recovering a Kimball fumble to give them a short field with Roes going in from 1 yard out on a dive. Stack kicked the PAT and ended the scoring later with a 35 yard field goal.

Chadron gained 292 yards total and Kimball 225. The winners rushed 42 times for 173 yards and were 6 of 15 passing for 119 yards. Kimball rushed 27 times for 70 yards and were 13 of 22 passing for 155 yards. Chadron had 14 first downs and Kimball 9. Chadron had 7 penalties for 60 yards and Kimball 5 for 45 yards. Both teams punted twice for 34 yard averages. The big difference was Chadron had only one turnover, a fumble recovered by Jake Reader, while Kimball lost 3 fumbles and threw one interception.

Jake Daum was Kimball’s leading rusher with 45 yards on 10 carries. Kendall Ferguson ended up with 13 net yards on 8 attempts but was sacked for loss or no gain on five plays.

Ferguson was 13 of 22 passing for 155 yards with 1 interception and 1 touchdown plus a PAT completion. Brady Land had 4 catches for 88 yards, Jake Daum 4 for 26 yards, Trevan Hinton 2 for 18 yards, Dalton Lockwood 2 for 13 yards, and Jorge DeLeon 1 for 10 yards.

The tackle chart showed Daum with 15 tackles including 9 solo stops. Lockwood had 9 total with 7 solo tackles, Kendall Ferguson was 5-4, Reader 4-1, James Ferguson 2-2, Alan Muneio 2-2,

Bernie Bridge 2-1, Andrew Barrett 1-2, Ryan Shields 1-1, Trevan Hinton 1-1, Brady Land 4-0, Jeff Greenwood l-0, and Zach Marosi 0-1.

The Longhorns ended the regular season with a winning record of 5-3 and have earned a berth in the state Class C-l playoffs. They will travel to Ord on Thursday (Today) for a 4 p.m. kickoff Kimball time. The Horns are a #10 seed and Ord is #7. Ord will bring a 6-2 record into the flrst round playoff contest. The lone  common foe for the two teams is Gothenburg, a team Kimball lost to 35-14 and Ord lost to 14-6. Ord has also lost to Broken Bow 36-6, and have won over Ravenna 13-8, Boone Central 7-3, St Paul 3-12, O’Neil 42-7, Central City 60-l5, and Madison 26-3.

Coach Pedersen said .... “l like our match-up. Ord is big and have some quality players, but I think our kids are anxious to play another game and we woula like to give our fans and oursevles another win. We would like to win over Ord and then host a second round game”.

Pedersen said the Horns will leave Kimball at 8 a.m.

Thursday morning  make a stop in Oga11ala to stretch, have lunch

in Broken Bow, and hope to arrive in Ord at around 3 p.m. Kimball time. School is not being dismissed, but any students or teachers wishing to follow the team will be allowed excused absences.

Kimball   0   0   8   0---8

Chadron   7   17  0   10--34