North Platte St. Pat’s controlled the ball in their season opener against Bridgeport on Friday with long, sustained drives as they defeated the Bulldogs, 21-8, at Knights of Columbus Field.

“We did a really nice job on the line of scrimmage,” St. Pat’s Head Coach Kevin Dodson said. “We were able to take a lot of time off the clock and manage the game that way. There were some question marks coming in and I think we answered one of them with our play up front. I think you saw a group of young men grow as football players tonight.”

St. Pat’s received the ball to start the game and set the tone by powering the ball down the field. Carries were evenly distributed between tailbacks Jaxon Knisley and Mason Giebler, fullback Xavier Pieper and quarterback Sutton Tickle.

The Irish took a 7-0 lead five minutes into the game on a three-yard touchdown run by Knisley.

Bridgeport moved the ball into St. Pat’s territory on their first drive of the game. But on fourth down, quarterback Nik Weibert was stopped at the Irish 28.

St. Pat’s went back to work on offense. Their running game got them into the red zone again and a pass that allowed them to cash in. Tickle rolled out to his right and found Logan Dodson open for a 14-yard touchdown, just three and a half minutes into the second quarter.

“We were able to control the line of scrimmage, drive down the field, put a couple in and get some defensive stops,” Dodson said. “All three phases of our game were working well tonight.”

Bridgeport retaliated with a touchdown pass from Weibert to Logan Levick, but the play was called back due to penalty. That allowed the Irish to turn the Bulldogs back again.

On offense, Tickle was intercepted by Levick, but Tickle got the ball back on a fumble recovery a handful of plays later. St. Pat’s was forced to punt in the last minute of the first half and the score remained 14-0 at halftime.

The Bulldogs got the ball to start the second half but were stopped quickly. St. Pat’s proceeded to drive the ball down the field before Tickle connected with Dodson for another touchdown pass, from 12 yards out that made it 21-0 with slightly less than two minutes left in the third quarter.

“That was big,” Dodson said. “We thought that was going to be really important in the third quarter — to come out get a stop and get a nice drive to complement our defense. They did exactly what we asked them to.”

It took a little more than a minute for Bridgeport to get on the board. Levick scored on a 29-yard run. The Bulldogs got the two-point conversion on a pass from Weibert to Ryker Norman to make the contest interesting.

But Bridgeport couldn’t stop the Irish in timely fashion. They held them to a missed 32-yard field goal, which Tickle tried with three minutes left in the game. But Gage Nein, who came in at quarterback after Weibert was injured, was intercepted by Pieper with a minute left.

“This is a good football team we beat tonight,” Dodson said. “The defense really responded and played well. We’re proud of them.”

Next, St. Pat’s will play at Sutherland (0-1) on Sept. 6.

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