Team

Poland

Record	Div.	Conf.
8/3	Div. III	All-American Conference Red Tier

Team

Howland

Record	Div.	Conf.
6/4	Div. III	All-American Conference Red Tier

Bulldogs survive late TD, onside kick to top Howland

By ERIC FORTUNE

sports@vindy.com

HOWLAND

Through the first three games, the Poland Bulldogs eased their way to a perfect record.

Following Friday’s game against Howland, they’re still perfect.

But it wasn’t easy.

“We’re happy to come here and win ugly I would say,” Poland coach Mark Brungard said after a 24-17 win. “That was an ugly win for the Poland Bulldogs. I want to give a lot of credit to Coach [Dominic] Menendez and his team for not quitting. They played to the bitter end.”

Trailing 24-10, Howland scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jake Lester to Victor Williams with 1:50 remaining to pull within a touchdown. But Poland recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

“Recovering that onside kick could have changed things with the amount of time left,” Menendez said. “Unfortunately, we dug ourselves too big of a hole and couldn’t get out of it. Hats off to Poland, they’re a great football team. They’re well coached. When you get into league play, you have to be on top of your game for four quarters.”

After forcing a punt on Howland’s first possession, the Bulldogs (4-0, 1-0) got on the scoreboard with a 32-yard field goal from Colt McFadden on a drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock.

Another punt from Howland (2-2, 0-1) set the Bulldogs at their own 40. Two plays later, Dylan Garver’s 54-yard run made it 10-0 in favor of Poland just over a minute into the second quarter.

Garver finished with 220 yards rushing on 28 carries.

“You know the game is won or lost up front,” Menendez said. “They took it to us a little bit on both sides of the ball. You can’t lose three out of the three phases on the game or you’re going to get beat. We got beat.”

The Bulldogs extended their lead to 17-0 on a 45-yard pass from Cole Kosco to Anthony Calcagni at the 1:52 mark of the second quarter.

The Tigers found the play they needed when Jake Lester found Steve Baugh down the sideline on 43-yard touchdown to make it 17-7 going into halftime.

“You have to give them credit,” Brungard said. “We knew they weren’t going to be an easy defense. We really expected them to be in heavier sets, three back and really running right at us. That is traditionally what Howland does. They had some kids that can spread you out and throw it. They were successful to some point in doing that.”

The Bulldogs failed to extend their lead on a botched snap on McFadden’s 27-yard field goal attempt on their opening drive of the third quarter.

After forcing another three-and-out, Poland got their lead back to 17 points on a 1-yard run from Nick Petrolla with over a minute left in the third quarter.

The Tigers got back within two possessions after 28-yard field goal from Jacob Lowe at the 9:21 mark of the fourth quarter.

On their next possession, the Bulldogs missed another opportunity on another fumbled snap on a field goal attempt by McFadden.

“The longer they kept dodging our bullets with botched field goals, not converting touchdowns, I just felt like we are leaving them in it,” Brungard said. “Thankfully our defense did enough and we didn’t let them come all the way back but boy too much stress for the way we controlled the line of scrimmage on offense.”