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North Platte St. Pat's dominated every minute of its game against Bridgeport on Friday for a 44-0 win at Knights of Columbus Field. Other than a few penalties, Irish coach Kevin Dodson said his team was pretty solid in its second outing of the season. "We came out and made some mistakes that we've got to clean up but overall I am pleased," said Dodson. On its first drive of the game, St. Pat's (2-0) faced fourth down and two yards to go at its own 48-yard line and Brandon Niesen got the first down for the Irish with a five-yard run on a pitch to the right side. After converting on fourth down, quarterback Sean Keenan threw a pass to tight end Mark Mayfield, who gave St. Pat's first and goal at the five. Niesen then scored on the following play with a run up the middle to give the Irish the lead. "I thought the first drive was key in setting the tone," Dodson said. "After that fourth down, I thought the boys responded well." Bridgeport (1-1) was stopped after its first three plays on offense and St. Pat's got the ball back at Bridgeport's 43 after Leighton Freeze's punt. Before the ball was snapped on the first play of the Irish's second drive, false start was called and it was first and 15 at the 48. But it didn't matter as Colin Pieper received the pitch from Keenan on a misdirection and the junior ran down the left side of the field for another St. Pat's touchdown and it was 14-0 with a little less than five minutes gone by. The Irish had the football again shortly thereafter and ran out the rest of the time remaining in the first quarter before Niesen scored on a three-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter that made it 20-0. St. Pat's scored one more touchdown in the half when Matthew Buhrman punched one in on fourth and goal at the one with seven and a half minutes left in the first half. Then in the last couple of minutes, the Irish drove again before Bridgeport finally stopped them. Niesen made a 31-yard field goal with just under a minute left to make it 30-0. The score remained 30-0 until there was four seconds left in the third quarter, when Pieper scored from one yard out following a 71-yard run by Chase Kimberling. "I thought all our running backs-Brandon Niesen, Matthew Buhrman, Colin Pieper and Chase Kimberling ran well," said Dodson. "They did a nice job of hitting the hole hard." In the fourth quarter, St. Pat's scored another touchdown with its second team offense with Matthew Ferguson taking it in on an 18-yard run. The Irish defense then finished out the final minutes and picked up its second straight shutout. "The defense executed well," Dodson said. "We had a lot of guys swarm to the ball. It was fun to watch." Bridgeport 0 0 0 0 - 0 St. Pat's 14 16 7 7 - 44 First Quarter SP-Brandon Niesen 5 run (Niesen kick), 9:25 SP-Colin Pieper 48 run (Niesen kick), 7:16 Second Quarter SP-Niesen 3 run (kick failed), 11:56 SP-Matthew Buhrman 1 run (Niesen kick), 7:33 SP-Niesen 31 field goal, :59 Third Quarter SP-Pieper 1 run (Niesen kick), :4 Fourth Quarter SP-Matthew Ferguson 18 run (Niesen kick), 4:54
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