Dukes fall to Huskies in football, 36-0

The Dukes had three goals going into Friday’s football game against visiting and state-ranked Aurora. First was to cut out the penalties. Second on the list was avoid turnovers. Third? That was to eat the clock.

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A disappointed Coach Scott Kohmetscher said his blue and gold clad squad missed two out of three goals. That added up to a 36-0 win for Aurora.

The Dukes won the toss but deferred to the second half and kicked off to start the contest. The Huskies’ first drive ended on a flying swat of a fourth-down pass by Duke defender Trenton McGraw that gave York the ball at Aurora’s 49. Tommy Brown notched a first-down rumble to the Aurora 38, then quarterback Eric Brouillette found Matt Hansen for 6 yards. The Dukes looked good at 6:37 of the first with a first-and-10 at the Husky 28, but Brouillette was sacked on fourth-and-four and the chance was lost.

The Huskies acted quickly with a lob pass behind the York defense to the Duke 3. From there it was one run to paydirt and a 7-0 lead at 2:51 of the first.

The second quarter started shakily for the Dukes when Aurora’s first snap turned into a 49-yard TD pass over the middle. At 11:51 it was a 14-0 affair.

A clip against York set the Dukes back to their own 10 on the ensuing Aurora kickoff. Brouillette hit Garett Sikes for a first down, took the ball himself on a tough run for good yards, then tossed another first-down pass to Hansen. A big pass to Sikes put the Dukes at the Aurora 31 with 6:45 left until halftime.

York pushed the ball closer with a 6-yard pass to Scott Finke on fourth down to the Husky 9.

Finke ran to the Aurora 6, but York’s deep threat ended when Brouillette was intercepted at the Aurora 3.

On Aurora’s next possession, McGraw ran down Aurora’s quarterback on what looked for all the world like a 90-yard TD scamper. Thanks to McGraw it was held to a 54-yard gain.

With time running out in the first half, Aurora got two quick passes that put them at York’s 1 with 20 ticks on the clock. The Huskies covered that distance with 16 seconds to go and went in at halftime leading 21-0.
The Huskies pounced on a Duke fumble and took over at their own 38 at 7:48 of the third period, then turned the extra possession into an 8-yard TD run and a 29-0 lead at 4:32. Aurora tacked on a 5-yard scoring run at 11:10 of the fourth to make the final 36-0.

Offensive stats were not available, however on the defensive side the Dukes were led in stops by Noah Dorcey with nine. McGraw added six with Ty Branz at five.

Asked for his thoughts after an extended post-game huddle with his kids, Kohmetscher said, “Penalties! We didn’t do our job.”

He said the only goal his Dukes accomplished was chewing up plenty of clock. Turnovers and penalties, however, did not go into the ‘goals reached’ column.

“The word I used with the team is ‘unacceptable,’” Kohmetscher said. “It’s unacceptable. If your job is to tackle the quarterback and you tackle the fullback, he’s (quarterback) going to go 80 yards on you. Every week.”

The Dukes will stand 1-1 next Friday when they visit perennial powerhouse Beatrice at 7:30 p.m. The Orangemen, ranked No. 2 in Class B by the Omaha World-Herald, crushed Seward 57-14 Thursday night.

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Contact — stephen.moseley@yorknewstimes.com