Bison rule every minute vs. 'Men as playoffs now arrive

McCook junior Tristan Campbell makes a 17-yard touchdown catch in the end-zone corner to go with his two rushing TDs Friday evening.

Maryann Kassner/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — Taking Tristan Campbell’s towel could do nothing to wipe out how McCook was dominating its regular-season finale at Weiland Field Friday.

Campbell retrieved his towel from the Lexington sideline to go with his three touchdowns scored in barely more than one quarter.

Sophomore Lee Davidson was averaging more yards per rush than most high schools should have birthdays before graduation (19).

McCook sophomore Lee Davidson (left) averaged 19 yards per carry while blasting through and past Lexington Minutemen for his career-best 152 on eight carries. Davidson dashed 84 yards on the first play following halftime for his first varsity touchdown.

Maryann Kassner/McCook Gazette

Yet what really showed how the Bison ruled Lex in their annual football contest?

McCook’s top five rushers each gained more yards than Lexington totaled — running or passing — as a team.

In other words, the 52-0 home win was a fine follow-up to last week’s 20-14 loss at Scottsbluff which coach Joe Vetrovsky called perhaps his team’s “best game all season.”

The McCook High Starz dance team with several seniors performed at their regular-season grand home finale Friday night, a 52-0 beatdown of Lexington.

Maryann Kassner/McCook Gazette

“Our guys just played extremely well. We played a real game against Scottsbluff and I felt we definitely had some momentum,” Vetrovsky said again after McCook finished a 4-1 regular season at Weiland Field (6-3 overall). “I felt we were hitting on all cylinders. We just really wanted to finish the regular season the right way and I felt we did in all facets of the game.”

McCook outgained Lexington, 517-43, and did not allow the 1-8 Minutemen to complete a single pass.

No passing certainly made any comeback difficult after Lex failed to even field the game’s opening kickoff.

Instead, Bison junior “ball hawk” Tripp Raile tumbled on to this loose pigskin. The recovery set up a Campbell one-yard opening touchdown.

Sophomore kicker Gunner Kaps also began his flawless evening of seven-for-seven PATs and a season-long 32-yard field goal drawing loud cheers from McCook’s sideline.

The Bison led 31-0 entering halftime at that point, and sophomore Lee Davidson’s 84-yard ignited McCook’s second half.

Davidson’s speedy straight-forward running talent has become a huge ingredient in the Bison recipe for success entering Class B playoffs.

“Lee brings both speed and power. We worked in him slowly but about mid-season, we decided it was time to get him more involved,” Vetrovsky explained.

Campbell had already tallied 27 and one-yard TDs while quarterback Trenton Raile added another first-half score.

Raile mixed in 108 passing yards with healthy junior Miles Pollmann catching three for a season-best 92.

Every Bison defensive player seemed to contribute during McCook’s second shutout this season. The Bison also blanked Crete, 34-0, for Homecoming on Sept. 20. Now they’ll get ready to meet the Hastings Tigers again in a Class B first-round game Friday.