OTC wraps up regular season with 8-0 record

Jonathan Fielding Dallas Bush and Lane Dilly bring down a Parkers Prairie ball carrier last week.
Joe Turchin leads the way around the corner during Wednesday’s game against the Panthers. 

Otter Tail Central will open the Section 6A playoffs in Henning on Tuesday night as the Bulldogs will host eighth seeded Walker-Hackensack-Akeley. The Bulldogs come into the game with a record of 8-0 and the top ranked team in the QRF. WHA comes into the game with a record of 1-6 overall and a QRF ranking of 1-6. The game will get underway at 6 p.m.

  The winner of the game will advance to the Section 6A semi-finals against either fourth seeded Breckenridge (4-4 overall and a QRF ranking of 27) who will host fifth seeded Underwood (3-5 overall and a QRF ranking of 30). 

  Saturday’s game will be at the highest seed at 2 p.m. If OTC hosts the game it will be in Battle Lake. 

  On the other side of the bracket, third seeded New York Mills (6-1 overall and a QRF of 15) will open the Section 6A playoffs against sixth seeded Menahga (3-5 overall and QRF ranking of 43). The winner of that game will take on either second seeded Pine River-Backus (7-1 overall and QRF ranking of 8) or seventh seeded Lake Park-Audubon (2-6 overall and QRF ranking of 46). 

  The Section 6A finals will be held on Friday, Nov. 5 at the FargoDome at 5:30 p.m.

Tanner Arndt hands the ball off to Tyler Christensen during Wednesday’s regular season finale in Henning. 

OTC wrapped up its regular season on Wednesday night with a commanding 28-0 win over Parkers Prairie at Don Seipkes Field in Henning.

The Bulldogs opened the scoring in the first quarter when Mason Hammer scored his first of two opening half touchdown runs. His first was from 1-yard out and the two-point conversion was good to leave the score at 8-0. 

In the second quarter Hammer found the end zone again, this time from 6-yards out, to make the game 14-0. Owen Buehler followed with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Arndt to leave the score at 20-0 at halftime.

The Bulldogs padded their score a bit in the third quarter when Calvin Stueve scored on a 1-yard run. The score capped a dominating drive down the field for the Bulldogs as they were able to put together an impressive drive on the ground to eat up most of the clock in the quarter. The two-point conversion was good to leave the score at 28-0. Both teams failed to score in the fourth quarter to give the Bulldogs a 28-0 win for to improve to 8-0 on the season.

Calvin Stueve lines up a Parkers Prairie ball carrier for a tackle last week during Otter Tail Central’s regular season finale. 

The Bulldogs dominated play offensively as they outgained the Panthers by a 322-151 margin. Most of the work was done on the ground with OTC accumulating 297 yards on the ground, while the Panthers gained just 77 yards on the ground. 

The defense also had a big game as they forced 4 Panther turnovers, including 3 fumble recoveries. 

Stueve led the charge on the ground for OTC as he rushed 18 times for 111 yards and 1 touchdown. Hammer rushed 21 times for 95 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Bricker Bladow rushed 4 times for 37 yards, Tyler Christensen rushed 8 times for 35 yards and Stueve rushed 3 times for 19 yards.

Arndt went 4-7 passing for 25 yards and 1 touchdown. Owen Buehler led the way receiving with 3 receptions for 21 yards and a touchdown. Jack Mekalson caught 1 pass for 4 yards.