The victory was symbolic of these seniors and this team. They had to fight through a schedule of eight ranked teams in the class A top ten at some point during the season. This schedule coming after a major tragedy and set-back to the East High football program. This tragedy left the program with only 17 seniors to start the season and some fear facing the season. Every game, except for the Grand Island game, the Spartans were close or leading at half-time. A penalty here, a turnover there, a bad tackle and some bad breaks crushed the Spartans time after time. A very good practice team felt the blows of adversity. But, in the end, they held in there, and Coach Todd Rice of the Bulldogs felt the blows the Spartans were capable of belting. The tradegy is behind us and the future is bright.

On this evening, you felt the confidence of the Spartans as they struck early to take a 7-0 lead on a Jim Ebke 1 yard run. The defense threw some three and outs at the Bulldogs but did bend along the way. After a Mike Goettle fumble the Bulldogs went up 14-7 on the Spartans. At that point you could still feel the confidence. Nothing was going to stop the Spartans on this evening and Josh Ward broke free and blocked a North Platte punt that lead to another Ebke touchdown to tie the game up. They then held the Bulldogs before Goettle caught a 35 yard pass from Ebke to set up a 21-14 halftime lead. Every North Platte touchdown was followed up by a ground buring desire by the Spartans to answer their score. Jared Schwede took away any Bulldog come back with a tackle on the 1 to force a punt. The defensive line played their usual tough middle but Josh Ward, who interecepted the final pass by the Bulldogs was a key factor in shutting down the outside running game. The Spartan line that included Sean Meliuis, Jared Schwede, Mike Yardley, Cole Weihe, and Zac Rodriguez blew huge holes for Goettle, Garek Petry and Ebke. Goettle rushed for 62 yards and Petry 57 yards. What can you say about one of the best quarterbacks in the state of Nebraska. Ebke rushed for 270 yards and six touchdowns.

"We've been running the same scheme all year and been close, but tonight we had a lot of kids make it happen time after time," said Gingery.

This victory is the building blocks of the future. You don't have to look down the street too far to find a Southwest 9-0 team to show the formula for a great season. Hugh senior class, leading, working, training, lifting and caring. Next years Spartans have the seniors, the leadership and the ability. Only training, lifting.,unselfishness and working hard keeps them from a Southwest season. Ask coach Rice, from North Platte, if he would like to play the Spartans again next year knowing the returning team.