Ogallala defeats McCook 34-14 for the first time in a long time in Ogallala (or maybe ever)

(Images in Media from Wix.com, Search for "American Football" to find this image)

By: Evan Troxel

The Ogallala Indians defeated the McCook Bison 34-14 in High School Varsity American Football on Friday night, September 29th, 2023, in Ogallala.

Last year Ogallala lost at McCook 6-37 on Friday, September 30th.

Harry Caskey led the way for Ogallala with three touchdowns while Caden Rezac of Ogallala had two touchdowns of his own on Friday night.

Caden Rezac got Ogallala several first downs on Friday night when they really needed it.

For McCook, Brett Fraker and I believe Jackson Dellevoet each scored one touchdown for the Bison.

I wrote a possession-by-possession summary for this game at the end of this story.

Ogallala is now 4-2 in the regular season and 2-0 in Class C1 District 7 play while McCook is now 2-4 in the regular season and 0-2 in Class C1 District 7 play.

Next Friday, Ogallala travels to Chadron to take on the Cardinals while McCook hosts the Alliance Bulldogs.

The Chadron Cardinals are 4-2 overall and are 0-1 in Class C-1 District 7. Alliance is 2-4 overall and is 0-1 in Class C-1 District 7.

If Ogallala wins at Chadron next week, it will likely feature a regular season Class C1 District 7 championship game between the Sidney Red Raiders and the Ogallala Indians in Ogallala on October 13th.

Sidney is 6-0 overall and 2-0 in Class C-1 District 7 play.

McCook on the other hand probably needs to win their final three remaining regular season games to qualify for the playoffs for a 24th straight year. Otherwise, it could be the end of a long-run of success for McCook.

McCook has the longest qualifying streak to make the playoffs currently in Nebraska for a team who started the current streak in the year 2000 or later at the start of the 21st century.

This was the first time Ogallala has defeated McCook since Friday, October 23, 2009. However, that game was in McCook.

Ogallala's Derek Blessing scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime as Ogallala won that game in 2009, 13-7.

McCook then defeated Ogallala the very next week on a Halloween Saturday afternoon in what I refer to it as the "Mud Bowl" in Ogallala in 2009, 13-2, as a giant snowstorm postponed what was supposed to be a Friday night game until Saturday.

Keegan Hoppens scored the only two points for Ogallala in that game on a safety when he tackled a McCook football player in the east end zone and Keegan Hoppens was one of the coaches for Ogallala on Friday night.

McCook and Ogallala had not played each other at all at the Varsity High School American Football level after the two October 2009 games until last year's game.

I wrote a lot about the McCook-Ogallala Varsity High School American Football previous history and matchups (and my statistics/scoring breakdowns) before last year's game. If you want to, you can read all about that right here on my website.

Friday night's game took place in Ogallala.

I'm not even aware Ogallala has ever won a home Varsity American Football game against McCook before.

So if Ogallala has ever won a home game against McCook before Friday night, it has been a long time.

On Maxpreps.com, the matchups between McCook and Ogallala only go back to the 2004 season.

So that is at least or almost 20 years at a minimum when McCook last lost to Ogallala in Ogallala.

Ogallala did defeat McCook 27-19 in the first ever playoff victory for Ogallala in 1998 according to the NSAAhome.org website as long as the NSAA has been keeping somewhat detailed records: https://nsaa-static.s3.amazonaws.com/textfile/fbl/fball.htm

The only thing I don't know is whether that game was in Ogallala or in McCook.

I guess I will have to figure out how I can find that out!

I wouldn't be surprised if the NSAA has the information for that game somewhere (or they are hiding it on their website where I cannot find it right now somewhere).

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So here's a summary of the game from Friday, September 29th, 2023:

McCook kicked off and Ogallala got the ball first.

Ogallala couldn't get a first down so McCook got the ball at the Ogallala 30-yard line.

A few plays into their first offense possession McCook fumbled and Ogallala recovered.

Ogallala started from their own 21 and had to punt after gaining one first down.

McCook got the football at their own 25 and marched down the field and Brett Fraker scored a touchdown from five yards out with 19 seconds left in the first quarter. Patrick Gross tacked on the point after touchdown with a kick through the uprights to make the score McCook 7, Ogallala 0.

On that drive, McCook's Trenton Raile was 4/4 for 46 yards passing.

Ogallala then got the football on their own 24 and McCook led 7-0 after one quarter of American Football.

Harry Caskey had a big run of 39 yards from the Ogallala 34 to the McCook 27-yard line. Caskey then capped off the drive by scoring a touchdown from six yards out! Sawyer Smith caught a pass from Edan Cain and Ogallala led 8-7.

McCook then started at their own 26. A timeout was taken by one of the teams with 7:24 left in the second quarter. McCook's Brett Fraker had a big 47-yard rushing play going from the McCook 28 to the Ogallala 25. Jackson Dellevoet capped off the drive with a four-yard touchdown. Patrick Gross again added the extra point through the uprights. McCook led at that point 14-8.

McCook kicked the ball off and it was a touchback, so Ogallala started from their own 20 yard-line.

Ogallala started with two running plays, one of which was by Caden Rezac to the Ogallala 27. After a block in the back penalty on Ogallala which put Ogallala on their own 19, and an incomplete pass by Edan Cain to I believe Drue Barbee, Ogallala called timeout with 3:36 left in the second quarter. Then, on what I believe was a fourth-down play, Ogallala's Sawyer Smith hauled in a 34-yard pass from Edan Cain to put the ball at the McCook 47-yard line.

Later in the drive, Ogallala then called another timeout with 2:22 left in the second quarter. Ogallala was put into a 3rd and long situation in which they had to get a first down. The ball was spotted at the McCook 46 and Ogallala I believe had to get to the McCook 37. Harry Caskey rolled to his right and threw a pass for 27 yards to the McCook 19-yard line with Caden Rezac getting the one foot barely in-bounds near the right sideline.

Harry Caskey then scored a touchdown from two-yards out on a rushing play. McCook then jumped offsides on the two-point conversion attempt and Caden Rezac ran the shorter two-point conversion easily to the right for two more Ogallala points.

Ogallala led at this point 16-14.

With not much time left in the first half, McCook had a huge kickoff return by I believe Brett Fraker to the Ogallala 22. However, McCook committed a penalty on the kickoff, McCook did a few rushing plays and then Halftime happened.

So Ogallala led at the half 16-14.

Each team had four first half possessions with McCook not really having a real opportunity to do much on their fourth first half possession.

McCook's Trenton Raile went 4/4 for 46 yards throwing the football in the first half.

Ogallala's Edan Cain went 3/6 for 36 yards passing in the first half. Ogallala's Harry Caskey was 1/1 for 27 yards passing in the first half.

McCook started with the ball after the Ogallala kickoff from their own 45-yard line. McCook ran the ball for two plays, threw an incomplete pass and had to punt. Ogallala got the ball on their own 21-yard line.

Caden Rezac had a couple of good runs from the Ogallala 26 to the McCook 48 for 22 yards and an 18-yard run from the 50-yard line to the 32 of McCook. McCook then had a chance to stop Ogallala on fourth and inches from the McCook 22, but Harry Caskey ran to the right and ran to the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown rush.

Caden Rezac failed to scored the two-point conversion as he ran left and got stopped at like the two-yard line.

So Ogallala led 22-14 with 4:49 left in the third quarter.

Ogallala's Harry Caskey kicked the ball into the end zone for a touchback and McCook started at their own 20-yard line.

On this drive, McCook ran and threw the football. Trenton Raile was 4/7 for 47 on this drive alone. The drive got stalled with incomplete passes on 2nd and 3rd downs. Patrick Gross attempted a 42-yard field goal to the east end zone but it was a little too far to the left. The kick definitely looked like it had the distance though.

So there were 3.5 seconds left to play in the third quarter. The referees blew the whistles ready for play and Ogallala decided they didn't want to take any more snaps in the third quarter and the third quarter clock expired.

Ogallala started with the ball on their own 20-yard line (yes, after the missed field goal attempt by McCook), and on the second play of the drive Caden Rezac ran down the middle of the field and then ran down the left sideline and Rezac scored a 77-yard touchdown.

Edan Cain threw an incomplete pass on the two-point conversion and Ogallala led 28-14 at that point with 11:05 left in the fourth quarter.

After the Ogallala kickoff, McCook got the ball on their own 32-yard line. On the second play of the drive, Ogallala's Caden Rezac intercepted the ball near the Ogallala bench (on the north side) at the Ogallala 49-yard line.

I believe the referees spotted the ball at the McCook 46 yard line after the interception (but I may be mistaken, I am doing this from memory). Ogallala ran the ball on eight straight plays, picked up a couple of first downs heading to the east end zone and then Ogallala called timeout before a third down play on the McCook 21 with 4:15 left in the fourth quarter. Ogallala had a fourth down play at the McCook 23-yard line. Harry Caskey threw an incompletion on 4th down.

McCook got possession of the ball as a result of the turnover on downs at their own 23-yard line with 4:04 left in the fourth quarter. McCook ran the ball twice, threw an incompletion with 2:54 left in the fourth quarter, and had a seven-yard completion and then Trenton Raile threw another interception, this time to Jorge Carrizalez at about the McCook 40-yard line.

Carrizalez took the ball to the McCook 28-yard line.

Ogallala had a running play go to the McCook 20-yard line. McCook called timeout with 2:08 left in the 4th quarter. Caden Rezac then ran left again, weaved in and out of traffic going both left and forward and scored a 20-yard touchdown into the east end zone.

Ogallala then called timeout after the touchdown with approximately 1:58 to go in the fourth quarter.

Edan Cain then threw another incomplete pass on a two-point conversion, this time to Jacob Fanning.

Ogallala led 34-14 over McCook at this point with 1:58 left in the fourth quarter.

McCook started with the ball at their own 34 after the Ogallala kickoff with 1:56 left to go in the fourth quarter. Trenton Raile threw an incompletion and then he threw an interception on the third straight offensive possession for McCook to Ogallala's Sawyer Smith, at the McCook 37-yard line where Smith immediately went to the ground shortly after intercepting the football.

There was 1:42 left in the fourth quarter at that point.

Ogallala quarterback Edan Cain took three kneel downs of -1 yard each in victory formation to end the game.

I don't know if the McCook head coach knew this, but McCook still had one timeout left when the game officially ended and the Ogallala Indians won 34-14 over the McCook Bison.

McCook scored zero points in the second half on five possessions. Ogallala had three interceptions in the second half.

Ogallala scored 18 points and three touchdowns in the second half on five possessions. The last possession of the game were the three plays of kneel downs.

McCook's Trenton Raile was 5/14 in the second half for 54 yards and three of those 14 passes were interceptions. Raile was 9/18 passing for exactly 100 yards in the game and three of those 18 passes were interceptions.

Ogallala's Edan Cain was 0 for 2 passing in the second half. Cain was 3/8 for 36 yards in the entire game.

Ogallala's Harry Caskey was 1 for 2 for 27 yards passing in the game and he was 0 for 1 in the second half.