The Alliance football team had their homecoming football game on Friday 22 against a tough team, Ogallala. The Bulldogs went into this game confident and were fighting through the whole game but lost to a score of 48-22. 

     Trisin Stein, head coach of the football team said, “Yes their team was very tough and just big and strong, but so is our team. I think we were just having an off night.” I think with it being our homecoming game there was a lot of pressure on the football boys to win their game and they were getting distracted. Even everyone in the stands was hoping that we would win a homecoming game just once.” Coach Stein said, “Yes we could’ve and should’ve done better but, Ogllalla had a funky offense and I think that is what kept throwing us off. They did something we couldn’t really stop physicality-wise.” 

     Coach Stein hoped that the team was playing to their best abilities, “For the most part, they were playing their best, there were definitely some mental errors that they could’ve avoided and I think we’re going to have to work on that part of it,” said Stein. Everyone in the stand was on the edge of their seats hoping that the team would make a comeback but we slowly started to lose the game. “The biggest thing we would have to do to make a comeback would be to stop Ogallalas offense; for us, we were offensively moving the ball really well.” Coach Stein said, “We could’ve scored more points, but at the end of the day if we can’t stop their offense then we can’t really make a comeback.”

     When I asked Coach Stein about what he would change about the game he didn’t even hesitate and said, “ Change the score, If there was one thing I would change about the game it would be that we would’ve won the Alliance homecoming game.” The team went into the game with a plan and it just wasn’t working. I think the football team got a lot of things out of this game. The most important thing they learned was that sometimes we need to lose. It points out what we need to focus on more and what we know really well. 

     I asked Dalton Holst, assistant coach of the football team, how he felt about the end results. This is what he said, “ I am not happy with the end result of the game. I believe the game should have been closer and the coaches and players both knew that.” Both coaches think that there is a lot of stuff that needs building on. 

     They both said there were mistakes that they definitely needed to address, but they both were proud of their effort overall. Coach Holst stated “I wish we changed the way we started. We need to have better starts to our games in order to succeed moving forward. As long as we keep it close in the first half, we should be good.“

     Coach Holst also agreed that the team played to their best ability but needed to clean up some technique issues and personal changes. He mentioned that they learned that we have to play a full game in order to win; they cannot take a drive off or a quarter off and expect to win. 

     This loss is definitely going to fuel the boys for the next few games they have left. They learned from it and now it’s time to move on and win the rest. Coach Holst said, “ I was very glad to see no quit in the boys when the game started to end.” 

     Make sure to come and watch the Alliance High School football team this Friday, September 29 against Mitchell at 7:00!