The Bulldogs had a tough night with the Dakota Cougars losing their first conference game 15-13.  Dakota was ahead most of the game and clearly in control the first half but the second half belonged to Romeo but they just ran out of time. 
Romeo senior Ellis Weeks received the opening kickoff at the 5 yard line and ran the ball out to the 25 to start the game.  From there seniors Zack Williams, Joe Bacci and Brian Roth took over on the ground and senior Sam Bruner had 2 receptions including one for a first down during the first drive.  Brunner had a great read during what was a broken pass play and, as all good receivers do, he came back to help out his quarter back for another reception.  Unfortunately the drive ended with a sack followed by a punt that left the Cougars inside their own 25 yard line. 
It looked like the defense was going to handle the Dakota offense after the first play from the line of scrimmage.  It was a gang tackle including Joe Bacci, Dalton Binkowski and sophomore Blake Williams among others to hold them to less than a yard.  From there Dakota had a pass play that seemed to open up the defense and establish their running and passing game.  Gang tackles seemed to be the theme for the day but during this drive it just wasn’t enough and on their ninth play of the drive after being held for two plays inside the 2 the Cougars scored their first and only touchdown of the night, leaving the score at 7-0 their favor.  Romeo started their next drive on their 16 and after 2 flags found themselves on their own 2 yard line.  On the next play the Romeo quarterback Evan Richardson was being chased in the end zone so he got rid of the ball and the officials called an intentional grounding penalty which resulted in a safety and a score of 9-0, which is where the 1st quarter ended. 

Photo's taken by: Amiee Distelrath

The second half started differently.  Romeo and Dakota traded a few short possessions until Dakota attempted to go for it on 4th and 6 on the Romeo 30 and were not successful.  Romeo took over on downs and started a 70 yard drive to their first touchdown.  Number 24 Zack Williams was in at quarterback and he orchestrated a beautiful series.  It started with a slant play to Brian Roth, followed by a pass to Sam Brunner.  The offensive line was opening some huge holes that allowed Williams to do 3 quarterback keepers in a row with the 3rd taking him from the 50 yard line to the Dakota 5.  Two plays later Brian Roth ran the ball in on a hard fought 7 yard slant play.  We missed the extra point and the score was now 15-6.  This score rejuvenated the crowd on the Romeo sideline. 
Dakota mounted one more drive but came up empty.  It was a very hard fought drive where Joe Bacci, Troy Zbinkowski, Blake Williams, Dalton Binkowski, Brian Sorensen, Joe Gardner, Austin Doan, Mike Archutowski, Sam Brunner and Rory Kramer all got their shots in at one time or another.  The Romeo conditioning started to pay off in the second half once again.  Dakota didn’t help themselves either, they were at the Romeo 6 inch line and were going to go for it on 4th down and had an off sides penalty which backed the ball up to the Romeo 6 yard line.  Dakota went for and made a 24 yard field goal, which was called back because of a holding penalty and a personal foul after the play which took them back to a 4th and 36 so they had to punt.