By Con Marshall
Chadron and Alliance will meet for the 75th time on the football field Friday night, when the Cardinals visit the Bulldogs for the second year in a row. Kickoff is set for 7 o’clock.
Despite the fact the Chadron has won six of the last seven games in the series, Alliance still leads it by a 41-30 margin. There have been three ties in the rivalry.
Next week’s game at Gering will be the 76th in that matchup, meaning that through the years, the Cardinals have played those Bulldogs one more time than they’ve met the Box Butte Bulldogs on the gridiron. Chadron leads the rivalry with Gering 40-32-3.
First things first. While the Cardinals are 6-0 after downing the Chase County Longhorns 32-6 last Friday night, Alliance has struggled this fall. The Bulldogs won their season-opener over Gordon-Rushville 28-15, but have lost to the remaining five opponents, all by at least two touchdowns.
The two TD margin occurred last Friday, when Lexington prevailed 34-18. Chase County blanked the Bulldogs 49-0 in the previous game, played at Imperial on Sept. 27.
So far this century, the Cardinals have won 13 of the games with Alliance and the Bulldogs have won nine. The last time Alliance beat the Cardinals was 2018 by a 17-6 score. Chadron also won in 2017 as well as the last five.
Last year’s game that Chadron won 41-26 was the highest scoring tilt in the rivalry since Alliance prevailed 39-31 in 2002.
The Cardinals’ Quinn Bailey rushed 25 times for 346 yards a year ago at Alliance for both his and Chadron High’s all-time highest rushing total. It included a 93-yard romp to tie Chadron’s record for longest run from the line of scrimmage. It was one of his four rushing TDs vs. the Bulldogs. He also returned a kickoff 80 yards to the end zone while accumulating 528 all-purpose yards.
Another big play saw Talon Jelinek take a pass he’d picked off 70 yards for a touchdown. It was the longest interception return on record for the Cardinals.
The Bulldogs also had some offensive clout last year, most of it while passing. They threw for three touchdowns, one of them an 87-yarder, while jumping out to a 20-7 first quarter lead versus the Cards last October 13. Senior quarterback Landon Crowe completed 32 of 65 passes for 375 yards for Alliance, but he didn’t connect for any more TDs after the first quarter.
This year, Alliance’s top offensive weapon has been sophomore running back Trini Trejo, who has carried the ball 839 yards, 10th highest in this state, according to MaxPreps. He’s scored six touchdowns. The primary pass receiver is junior Espen Lanik with 26 catches for 282 yards.
After carrying the ball 43 times for 286 yards and four touchdowns against Chase County, Bailey has rushed for 1,706 yards this season to maintain his lead in Nebraska. He’s now surpassed the 5,000-yard mark rushing for his career.
Bailey also returned an interception 20 yards against the Chase County, helping him accumulate 1,952 all-purpose yards this fall.