Sports

Rugby runs roughshod over Bottineau in shutout rout

By Matthew Semisch

09/23/2014

Bottineau High’s football team saw its 2014 record fall to 0-4 on Friday, and the Braves’ fourth loss of the season and fifth in a row going back to 2013 was particularly tough to take.

Rugby came into Friday’s game at Bottineau’s Les Christian Field ranked fifth in Class A and was looking to move to 4-0 against its nearby Region 3 rival. That’s exactly what happened for the Panthers in what ended up as a 53-0 rout over Bottineau.

To the Braves’ credit, they held together well during most of Friday’s first quarter against the highly-favored Panthers. Two touchdowns within the final 4:35 of the game’s first frame, however, allowed Rugby to take over.

That started with a 47-yard Victor Gronvold punt return for a touchdown that finally broke the deadlock in the visitors’ favor.

Rugby then doubled its lead right at the end of the opening quarter through a 26-yard touchdown pass from Bradley Heidlebaugh to John Mueller.

The Panthers continued to pile on the points in the second and third quarters. Rugby led 33-0 at halftime and another 20 points for the visitors in the third frame rendered the fourth quarter even more academic than the third.

“You never expect or want a final score like that,” Bottineau head coach Rob Bedlion said, “Even though going in I thought this might be a pretty tough game for us.

“You always hope that you can hang with that good of a team for as long as you can, but when it got into the second quarter it got lopsided really quick. ”

The Braves are on the road this Friday against Surrey.