The United South Central Rebels battled the Lester Prairie Bulldogs in the Section 1A Championship game on Nov. 1. Above, the USC offense lines up for a play during first-half action.

The United South Central Rebel football team came very close to punching their ticket to the State Football Tournament.

The Rebels were playing the Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity Bulldogs in the Class 1A Section finals – with the winner heading to State.

The game ended with a heartbreaking loss for the Rebels in the final seconds of the game.

Both teams were scoreless in the first quarter, and both teams scored six points in the second quarter for a 6-6 tie at the half.

Neither team scored in the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter the Bulldogs scored a touchdown and two-point conversion and took home the 14-6 win.

The game was played on Friday night, Nov. 1, at the neutral site of New Prague, a school with an artificial turf field.

The Rebels ended up punting on every single one of their possessions during the game, except their last one where they ran just two plays as the seconds on the clock went down to zero and the game was over.

With the offense not able to score, the defense provided the Rebels with their only TD.

The Bulldogs had been marching down the field and had gotten down to the Rebels’ eight yard line.

On a fourth and six yards to go, the Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity quarterback threw a pass that was intercepted by USC’s Isaiah Gonzalez who ran it back the entire length of the field and scored the TD with 4:09 left in the first half.

The try for the two-point conversion failed, on a rushing attempt. However, that tied up the score 6-6.

The Bulldogs had scored on a long play of their own. It had come on a 48-yard run when there was 10:35 left in the first half. LP/HT’s first try for two extra points appeared to be good, but there was a holding call on one of the Bulldog players and the try for extra point had to be replayed.

The second try failed with an incomplete pass attempt. The score remained tied 6-6 for the rest of the first half and all of the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter.

Then in the fourth quarter both teams continued to try and move the ball but ended up trading punts.

Then disaster struck for the Rebels. They had to punt to the Bulldogs with 5:46 left in the game.

LP/HT started a march down the field that ended being a 14-play, 65-yard drive for a touchdown. The score came on a pass play with just seven seconds left in the game.

The Bulldogs’ try for a two-point conversion was made and the final was a 14-6 loss for USC, and no trip to the State Tournament.

The game was very close despite the fact that the stats favored the Bulldogs in nearly every category.

LP/HT had 317 yards of offense to USC’s 118. The Rebels had 87 rushing yards and 31 passing, while the Bulldogs had 257 rushing and 60 through the air.

LP/HT ran 52 plays, USC 34, and 14 first downs to the Rebels’ six.

Kolt Bullerman was 5 of 8 passing for 31 yards. Gonzalez caught one for 20 yards, Nathan Mutschler one for six yards, Dylan Bonsack one for four yards, Noah Barnett one for three yards and Byron Getchell one for a loss of a yard.

Getchell was the leading ball carrier with 81 yards on 16 attempts. Gavin Bird had six yards on two rushes and Bonsack had three yards on four tries. Bullerman lost three yards on three attempts.

The Rebels ended up with a 6-4 season record. USC had a record of five wins and three losses in the Mid Southeast (West) District standings.