The Romeo Bulldogs came into round two of the playoffs short some of their best players.  Joe Bacci, Joe Gardner and Evan Richardson were all out of the game for various reasons, meaning the Bulldogs were limping into this game, or so we thought.  As it turns out the sophomores and juniors that moved into their respective spots did a great job. 
Romeo received the ball to start the game and through the first quarter and half way into the second quarter Romeo and Ike went back and forth either 3 and out or maybe 1 first down.  The one time Ike was in good field position the Romeo defense caused a fumble and recovered it to keep Ike out of the end zone.  The defense played very well even without Gardner and Bacci.  Everybody in the stands was questioning weather the defense would hold up and a number of Bulldogs filled the gaps.  Sam Brunner, Brian Sorensen, Austin Doan, Ellis Weeks, Blake Williams, Austin Bernard, Enrico Raciti, Austin Bernard, Jon Rauen and Troy Zibkowski all stepped up and filled the holes to minimize the Eisenhower gains. 

Please come back to see the pictures

Photo's taken by: Amiee Distelrath

In the second half Romeo made a game of it.  The defense did its part and held Eisenhower to no points and the offense put together a couple of good drives.  One drive in particular they got all the way to the Eisenhower 2 yard line and had 2 plays to get the ball into the end zone but were not able.  On third down Charlie Roth rolled out to the left and passed to Sam Brunner in the back corner of the end zone, Brunner caught the but the officials said Brunner landed out of bounds.  There was an earlier play in this drive that kept it alive worth noting as well.  On a 4th and 4 from the Eisenhower 33 Charlie Roth was back to pass and the pocket collapsed on him but he was able to avoid the sack and roll to the right where he found Tom Strandquist down field wide open and made the pass complete to the Eisenhower 8 yard line where Strandquist was hit hard right as the ball arrived.  Strandquist did a great job hanging onto the ball to keep the drive alive.
Romeo threatened a score a few times but in the end they lost 13-0. 
Final thoughts on this game and the season.  While Romeo didn’t score in this game, they were never out of the game.  Both the Romeo fans and more importantly, the Ike team and fans, were not clear who was going to win this game until there was about 2 minutes left in the game.  Romeo has come to be known as a team that knows how to come back late in the game to save the win.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen this time.  This team did a great job getting into the playoff.  All year long the Bulldogs have fought hard and had a few comeback wins, a few decisive wins and some very close wins too.  They have been exciting to watch and have no reason to hang their heads.  It was a great season and speaking for all parents, we are proud of our Romeo Bulldogs.  We will be losing a number of seniors but based on the performance of our juniors and sophomores I see a good season next year too.