Going into last Friday night’s game with South Harrison, Gallatin Coach Jeff White thought that if his team was to find an edge, it would be in special teams play. He was right, but it wasn’t enough as South Harrison held on to defeat Gallatin, 20-14.
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Derrick Teel electrified the home crowd with an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the game, one of three long returns for Gallatin.
A 6-0 GHS lead (missed conversion) didn’t hold up for long as South Harrison answered with a Danan Knott TD pass reception and successful PAT.
Gallatin took a 14-13 lead into halftime, thanks to a two-yard Kyle Croy run, made possible by a defensive turnover and short field. The Bulldogs found very little else to be happy with, offensively, and by game’s end were mulling over several missed scoring opportunities.
“Offensively, we were horrible,” said Coach White. “We couldn’t get anything going, either with our passing game or our running game,” he added. “We had only five first downs all night and turned the ball over four times.”
Gallatin scored an apparent touchdown in the third quarter when Teel caught a pass over the middle and ran 23 yards to the end zone, but a blocking-in-the-back penalty negated the score and killed the drive. The red and black Bulldogs powered into the red zone again but were turned away when a third down pass was intercepted in the end zone.
Coach White pointed to another instance when a South Harrison defender was not called for face-guarding on a pass play in the back of the end zone.
Late in the contest, Gallatin again moved into the red zone, facing fourth and one in order to sustain the drive, but a fumble ended all hopes of a game-tying touchdown and game-winning extra point try.
Coach White was pleased with the play of his defense, which held its ground several times after being put in tough positions. Inside linebackers Quentin Trimm and Alex Critten drew his praise, as did special teams players.
“Our special teams performed really well,” White said. “Brackett (Tyler) did a great job punting and twice downed the ball inside the twenty, once at the one-yard line,” he added.
Gallatin faces the tough task of traveling to Dearborn to take on a North Platte team that destroyed state-ranked Maysville, 43-6, last week. The Bulldogs own four straight victories over the Panthers dating back to 2000, when the series began. A one-point district loss to West Platte kept North Platte out of the playoffs last season.
“There is no break for us this week,” said Coach White. “They are going to be tough. Offensively, they run exactly the same offense we run, though Coach (Jim) Brockhoff has put his own stamp on it,” he added.
“Defensively, we’ll see a 4-3 with some coverages pretty close to what we saw from South Harrison.”
Panther quarterback Wes Johnson has completed over 75% of his passes so far (28 of 37) for 445 yards and nine touchdowns, including four last week against Maysville.