Wheatland yields four turnovers in loss to Upton/Sundance

Mark DeLap
Posted 10/10/22

WHS Bulldog football team loses in Upton/Sundance

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Wheatland yields four turnovers in loss to Upton/Sundance

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UPTON – The Wheatland Bulldogs went on another long road trip in the past two weeks with the same outcome for both.

Upton/Sundance came into the game without a victory and the Bulldogs who needed the win to keep pace in hopes of a playoff scenario could not get it done as they were defeated 24-7.

The Bulldogs stopped an early Patriot drive with an interception by JP Anderson and ended up with the only score in the first quarter. The extra point was successful by Tyler Bohnen and it appeared that the Bulldogs were going to cruise to a victory.

As the weather began to turn cold in Upton, so did the Bulldog offense which seemed out of sync all night. The Bulldogs gave up four interceptions and by halftime, the Patriots took a commanding 24-7 lead.

The second half of the game was scoreless for both teams and for the Bulldogs, they are going to need to grab a few upsets in the coming weeks and they are also going to need some help from other teams for them to reach the playoffs.

Upton/Sundance ended up with 196 yards on the ground to the Bulldogs 156. They also outgained the Dogs through the air, 86 yards to 30 yards.

“They hadn’t won a game all season,” said head football coach Cody Bohlander. “It was very apparent that was what was on our mind, we were just going to come in and win the game because we’re Wheatland and that’s how it’s going to be and Upton wasn’t agreeing with that message. It stinks, but when you get outplayed, they were more physical than us, and we couldn’t get things done because we were just in awe that Upton was playing better than we were. It was hard getting the kids out of the funk that they were losing to a team that they shouldn’t be losing to.”

The Patriots were off the line of scrimmage quickly, rushing the Bulldog quarterbacks hard on nearly every play and Wheatland just did not have an answer for it.

“Neither quarterback could do much of anything,” Bohlander said. “They (Upton) didn’t do anything special, they brought five guys and tonight we couldn’t go five on five and get them blocked. It was very apparent that they were well prepared and just wanted it more than we did. Our kids knew we were in a situation that we needed to get this win to help us have a shot at the playoffs. Now we’re on the ‘uh-oh.’

“Upton/Sundance put together a good game, and we struggled to do the little things correctly on the night. We really struggled to move the ball in the second half and didn’t get stops defensively when we needed to, that would have kept Upton out of the endzone. It’s a game we got to put behind us and focus on our last 2 games of the season.”

The Bulldogs will be in Wheatland for their final home game this Friday against Burns at 7 p.m. Burns comes in with a 3-3 record while the Bulldog record dropped to 2-5.