LOVELL – The Pinedale football team saw its hopes of making the Class 2A state playoffs get dashed last Friday, Oct. 13, at Lovell. A win would have clinched a playoff spot for Pinedale, but Lovell beat Pinedale 35-21 to eliminate the Wranglers from playoff contention heading into the final week of the regular season.
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LOVELL – The Pinedale football team saw its hopes of making the Class 2A state playoffs get dashed last Friday, Oct. 13, at Lovell. A win would have clinched a playoff spot for Pinedale, but Lovell beat Pinedale 35-21 to eliminate the Wranglers from playoff contention heading into the final week of the regular season.
"Its tough," Pinedale Head Coach Mitch Espeland said. "We had goals this year, one of which was to make the playoffs. That is not in the cards now. Now we have to focus on ending the season on a positive note and get a win on Friday."
There are a couple scenarios in which Pinedale (2-4 2A West, 2-5) could end up tied with Lyman (2-3, 3-4) and Lovell (2-3, 3-4) for the West's fourth and final spot, but Lovell holds the tie-breaker: a win against the team holding the West's third spot, Greybull.
Against Lovell, the Bulldogs took a 14-0 lead, but then the teams started trading touchdowns.
"I thought we did fine offensively," Espeland said. "We made some mistakes early that gave Lovell an upper hand. However, the boys rallied throughout the game, cutting it to a one score game right out of the half."
Wyatt Phelps tossed a touchdown pass to Mathias Berghammer to cut Lovell's lead to 14-7 in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs responded with a Porter Nichols touchdown run.
To start the second half, however, Phelps tossed another touchdown pass, this one to Senddey Gutierrez, to cut Lovell's lead to 20-14.
"We had our best game throwing," Espeland said.
Lovell, however, distanced itself from Pinedale by scoring the next two touchdowns.
"Unfortunately, Lovell's offense did a nice job of controlling the ball and running it consistently," Espeland said. "They controlled the pace and that helped them win."
Lovell ran the ball 58 times for 361 yards in the game. The Bulldogs only attempted three passes, and all three fell incomplete.
With seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Tyler VanEtten ran into the end zone on a draw. The Wranglers, however, couldn't complete the comeback.
Pinedale will play its final game of the season tonight against Worland (3-3 3A West, 2-4). The home game will kick off here in Pinedale at 6 p.m.
"Our main goal is to get a W this Friday," Espeland said. "We want to put our kids in a position to be successful and to give us a jumping off pad for next year!"
