LINGLE – The Lingle-Fort Laramie High school moto in 2022 is: “We need to take care of the things in front of us,” according to coach Brandon Gifford.
It was a message which he preached leading into Friday’s game, but it was something in the first half the Doggers struggled with at times in Friday’s 55-6 victory over the Wolves on Friday evening at Kirk Field.
On the visitors first drive of the game, the Doggers had held Moorcroft to two fourth-down situations, before running into the kicker and pass interference penalties kept the drive alive.
“We shot ourselves in the foot. We didn’t look as focused as I was hoping,” Gifford said. “We have big aspirations and dreams, but you can’t accomplish that if you don’t take care of what’s in front of you first.”
Midway through the first quarter, the Wolves had driven down to the Dogger 14-yard line, and finally on a 4th-and-2, Lingle got a stop defensively, forcing a turnover on downs.
A minute later, senior quarterback Brian McCoid hit sophomore receiver Louden Bremer in stride for an 80-yard for a touchdown.
The Doggers countered with another three-and-out, and on their second drive, Lingle faced its own fourth-down situation. On the 4th-and-12 play, McCoid found junior receiver Nolan Spears on a 43-yard score.
“Our offense is great. Our kids buy into the schemes we are trying to run,” Gifford said. “It’s nice we have weapons that we can put in different places. It’s hard for teams to match up with us. We spread the ball around a lot which is nice because you can’t key on one guy.”
The LFL offensive output continued into the second quarter.
McCoid scored on the ground with a 3-yard keeper, and Spears had a 40-yard pick six just before halftime.
“Credit Nolan Spears. He had a great game on the backend. We played well. We played as a team. That’s what I wanted to see us get back to. We still need to be more physical at the point of the attack. We got better as the game went on.”
With a 27-0 lead going into halftime, it didn’t take long for the Doggers to find the end zone again.
Senior running back Slade Hopkins rushed for two scores, including runs of 9 yards and 21 yards, and sophomore Kaiden Riggs hauled in a third touchdown pass from McCoid.
McCoid capped off the game with a 14-yard pass to Spears, pushing the Dogger lead to 55-0 heading into the fourth quarter.
A running clock made for a quick fourth quarter, but with four minutes left in the game, a Lingle fumble was scooped up and returned for a touchdown by Moorcroft for the Wolves only score of the game.
The Doggers (5-0 overall and 4-0 in the 1A 9-Man East) travel to face the Southeast Cyclones (4-1 and 4-0) at 7 p.m. at Teeters Memorial Field in Yoder.
“It’s always a big game. It’s a fun game. It’s fun for these kids to be involved in a game like that. It’s fun for the coaches to be involved in a game like that,” Gifford said. “Southeast is very talented and very well coached. They are disciplined and are very physical at the line of scrimmage. They play everyone tough. They keep games close, and no matter, they will find wrinkles that they can throw in that you’re not expecting. We are going to have to come ready to go.”
