     First-year Chadron High football coach Mike Sandstrom is 2-0 after the Cardinals earned a hard-fought 22-16 victory Friday night at Gering.
Junior Quinn Bailey led the way with 259 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns while a 4th score, a 71-yd run, was called back by a penalty. The lead changed hands 5 times before Chadron was able to take a knee and run out the clock.
Gering got on the scoreboard first with with a 22-yard field goal late in the 1st quarter, but Chadron answered with a long drive capped by Bailey’s 1-yd run.
The Bulldogs answered 4 plays later on a 61-yard touchdown pass, but the PAT failed and left the score 9-7. It didn’t stay that way long as Bailey broke free for a 59-yd score on the 3rd play of Chadron’s next drive and it remained 14-9 at the half.
Gering struck fast again in the second half as Tanner Gartner took the kickoff all the way for an 80-yard touchdown to put the Bulldogs back on top 16-14.
Chadron dominated the ball the rest of the way, but it took the Cardinals 3 possessions to regain the lead. Bailey, who had a 71-yd run called back on the 2nd drive, came back with a 46-yd scamper to score with a 2-pt conversion making it 22-16.
That proved to be the final score, but the Chadron offense keep the ball on Gering’s side of the field most of the rest of the way.
Bailey earned the Service Barber Shop Player of the Game nod while the Dunbar’s U Design It Play of the Game honors went to Tyler Spotted Elk, whose interception of a Gering pass in the Red Zone proved pivotal.