The pesky Bulldogs have had their teeth sunk into Dickinson Trinity for five straight years.
But on Friday night, the No. 2-ranked Titans finally shook them off.
Trinity quarterback Jace Kovash threw four touchdown passes and rushed for another to help the Titans to a 47-35 Class 11B, Region 4 football victory in Bowman.
It was Trinity’s first win against Bowman County since they were placed in the same class and region in 2017. The Titans improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the region.
“These kids who are playing for us who are juniors and seniors, they’ve never seen us beat Bowman,” Trinity head coach John Odermann said. “This is something that was really special to them.”
As they have all season, the Titans leaned on Kovash and running back Ty Dassinger to help rack up points.
And they had to against a Bowman County team that never took its foot off the gas.
The duo helped Trinity set the tone early by keeping Bowman County off the field with a 9-minute drive to open the game. Kovash capped that with a 4-yard touchdown run.
“That’s the drive we’ve been looking for all year – a slow methodical one,” Odermann said. “That … really established our offense well from a running and passing standpoint.”
Trinity did work both methodically and under pressure.
Two scores in the final minute of the second quarter swung the momentum fully in Trinity’s favor going into the second half.
Leading 14-7, Dassinger took a screen from Kovash and rumbled 30 yards down the middle of the field to put Trinity ahead 20-6 with just 40 seconds left in the half.
On the ensuing kickoff, a seemingly inexplicable mental error by Bowman County’s return team allowed Trinity to get another shot at the end zone.
Trinity’s short kickoff looked to be rolling out of bounds, but before Bowman County could cover the ball, Christian Tibor fell on top of it along his own sideline at the 25-yard line to give the Titans the ball back.
With just 39 seconds to work with, Trinity got the ball to the 11-yard line. With 6 seconds left, a Kovash pass fell in and out of receiver Luke Shobe’s hands and the half looked to be over. But, the scoreboard showed two-tenths of a second remaining and officials gave Trinity one final play.
The Titans seized on the opportunity and Kovash found Shobe on a nifty route in the front of the end zone to put Trinity up 26-7 at halftime.
“That play to cap the first half was just an incredible play,” Odermann said. “A great throw by Jace and a great play by Luke Shobe to get open.”
But Bowman County, pesky as ever, wouldn’t go quietly.
The Duffield twins put the Bulldogs (3-3, 2-2 Region 4) on their backs and kept the game within reach.
Bishop Duffield rushed for 149 yards and three TDs. Bohden Duffield, the Bulldogs’ QB, rushed for 118 yards and threw for 89 yards and two TDs. He added a 1-yard TD sneak in the game’s final seconds.
“They’re good athletic kids that hurt you with their legs,” Odermann said. “They did a really good job of doing everything they could to keep Bowman in the game.”
But so did Kovash. When Bishop Duffield’s 6-yard TD run made the score 27-15 in the third quarter, he responded by hitting Luke Shobe on a 55-yard touchdown pass on Trinity’s next offensive play.
When Bishop Duffield scored again in the third quarter, Kovash and the Titans responded with another screen up the middle to Dassinger for a 27-yard TD.
“Our offense was able to stay on the field and score points when we needed them to,” Odermann said. “Our defense came up huge a number of times.”
Dassinger was all over the place for Trinity as usual. He racked up 171 total yards and three total TDs. He rushed for 111 yards on 19 carries, including a 20-yard TD run in the first half.
Defensively, he had 10 total tackles, including two for a loss.
Trinity returns home next week to face Hazen at 6 p.m. next Friday at the Biesiot Activities Center. After that, they travel to Beulah.
“We’re in the middle of our gauntlet right now,” Odermann said.
First Quarter
T–Jace Kovash 4 run (Nick Sobolik kick)
BC–Bishop Duffield 1 TD run (Kirklan Meschke kick)
Second Quarter
T–Ty Dassinger 20 run (Sobolik kick)
T–Ty Dassinger 30 pass from Kovash (kick failed)
T–Luke Shobe 11 pass from Kovash (run failed)
Third Quarter
BC—Bishop Duffield 6 TD run (Fossum pass from Bohden Duffield)
T–Luke Shobe 55 pass from Kovash (Sobolik kick)
BC— Bishop Duffield 10 run (pass failed)
T—Dassinger 27 pass from Kovash (Sobolik kick)
Fourth Quarter
T–Gage Glasser 5 run (Sobolik kick)
BC-Fossum 22 pass from Bohden Duffield (Bohden Duffield run)
BC–Bohden Duffield 1 run (pass failed)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: T, Dassinger 19-111, Glasser 14-43, Kovash 5-21, Shobe 1-(-4). BC, Bishop Duffield 21-149, Bohden Duffield – 14-118; Fossum 2-11, Samuel Andrews – 1-5, Riggs Rotenberger 1-(-1).
PASSING: T, Kovash 15-23-0 214. BC, Bohden Duffield 11-17-2 89.
RECEIVING: T, Shove 3-83, Dassinger 4-70, Glasser 6-34, Jeremiah Jilek 2-27. BC, Fossum 5-41, Meschke 3-38, Kyler Paulson 3-10, Bishop Duffield 1-3
701 Sports 