—Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Taevon Feeley celebrates with his Fort Dodge teammates after one of his two interceptions inside Dodger Stadium on Friday night. For more photos, please visit CU.messengernews.net

There is a beauty in the simplicity of Fort Dodge’s relentless defensive pursuit.

It may seem boring to some. The scoreboard isn’t always going to look flashy. Style points are few and far between.

Football purists know it, though, and so does their head coach. This grinding, wearing attack may not be attractive to outsiders, but Friday’s 9-3 Homecoming victory over Le Mars in front of 3,500 fans couldn’t have been more pretty to the players in an electric Dodger locker room afterward.

No. 9 (Class 4A) FDSH held its fourth opponent in eight games to six points or less, shadowing and swarming the high-powered Bulldog air attack all night long. Trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Dodgers (7-1 overall, 3-1 in Class 4A, District 1) ramped up the defensive intensity and did just enough on offense to clinch runner-up honors in the league and a second consecutive playoff berth heading into the final week of the regular season.

If a single-possession win could be resounding, this certainly qualified. Le Mars (4-4, 2-2) managed only 53 yards from scrimmage in the second half, three first downs and negative-two yards rushing after efficiently running for 111 in the opening two quarters. The Bulldogs turned the ball over three times, standout quarterback Jami Sitzmann was tackled in the end zone for a safety, and they didn’t get past their own 35-yard line in a trifecta of dead-end fourth-period drives that wound up being a Dodger clinic in field position.

“We found a way, which is what good teams have to do sometimes,” said Nik Moser, himself a former defensive standout at both FDSH and Iowa State University. “I thought we played a great, complete second half. I couldn’t be more proud of them. We didn’t give an inch. We held our ground, made tough first downs to keep the chains moving enough on offense, and our defense and Bo Marsh did the rest.”

Marsh didn’t post numbers that would jump out on a sheet of statistics, punting six times for a 31.5-yard average. The junior pinned Le Mars inside the 10-yard line three different times, though — including twice in the second half, and twice inside the 3.

“Those are the things that help you win games,” Moser said. “We had a lot of different guys step up and make a difference. We maybe didn’t set the world on fire (offensively), but we did what we needed to do and the defense finished it off.”

Taevon Feeley intercepted Sitzmann — who came in having thrown for 1,177 yards and a 4A-best 18 touchdowns — twice. Junior nose guard Alex Beekman dragged Sitzmann down for a safety late — one of four more sacks for the FDSH defensive unit.

“It all came together for us,” said Feeley, one of 11 players honored during Senior Night. “A lot of us were on the field last year (when Le Mars scored 44 points and had 539 yards of offense against the Dodgers, including 344 on the ground), and it was something we remembered. We didn’t tackle well at all (in that game), so it was a big point of emphasis to fix that and just be a lot better (on that side of the ball) this time around.

“This feels great. It took all of us. We just want to keep going and getting better.”

Senior Dreshaun Ross got a season-high 24 carries on offense. The Bulldogs contained him for the most part — allowing only 110 yards by consistently going low to try and take the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Ross down — but Ross eventually wore Le Mars down, with 73 yards coming on his final 11 totes.

On defense, the state’s leader in sacks and tackles for loss added more to his ledger in both. Ross, Beekman, junior Jayce Skow and senior Caiden Fraher recorded sacks, with Ross leading the way at 3.5 TFLs.

“With it being both Homecoming and Senior Night, there’s just so much more going on (beyond) just the football game,” Ross admitted. “It kind of throws you off your rhythm and changes your routine. For the most part, we did a good job of keeping the main thing the main thing and doing what we needed to do when it mattered most (in the second half).

“We have a lot of trust built up with each other. We know that if we all take care of our (assignments), it will work out. And I do think that we’re the type of defense that starts to wear (the opponent) out as the game goes. We get stronger and build confidence until you kind of start to physically and mentally take over.”

Senior defensive back Drew Mason had a big pass break-up in the end zone two snaps before Feeley recorded his second interception on the only productive Bulldog drive in the second half. Trailing 7-3 after a short Tru McBride touchdown run finally broke the scoring ice for FDSH, Le Mars marched to the Dodger 25-yard line before the possession stalled out on the Feeley pick.

Senior all-stater Noah Daniel, who returned from injury but was far from fully healthy, stripped Bulldog standout Andrew Grant on a jarring hit that junior Sam Moser recovered as a fumble midway through the fourth period.

Junior Cal Pederson had a career-high 58 receiving yards on four catches for FDSH.

The Dodgers reached the Le Mars 38-, 44-, 30- and 26-yard line in the first half, but failed to score a single point. They were also in Bulldog territory four other times after intermission without putting up anything else offensively.

“It seems like we were on the plus side of the field all night,” Moser said. “We’ve been preaching this for a while, but yeah, we absolutely have to be better at finishing drives. We stalled out for a lot of different reasons (Friday). But (Le Mars) deserves some credit for that, too. That’s a tough football team.”

All four Bulldog losses have been to ranked opponents who now have a combined record of 28-4 so far this season.

Fort Dodge closes out the district portion of its campaign at Sioux City West (1-7, 0-4) this Friday. The Dodgers are looking to become just the fourth FDSH football squad since 1950 to go 8-1 in the regular season.

FD L

First Downs 15 11

Rushes-Yards 52-169 30-109

Passing 5-12-0 9-18-2

Passing Yards 74 84

Total Offense 243 193

Punts-Avg. 6-31.5 5-37.0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1

Penalties-Yards 4-40 5-29

Fort Dodge 0 0 7 2 – 9

Le Mars 0 3 0 0 – 3

Scoring Summary

Le Mars – Jordan Luna (22-yard field goal), 0:00 left second quarter.

Fort Dodge – Tru McBride (1-yard run), 7:39 left third. Bo Marsh kick.

Fort Dodge — Safety (Alex Beekman sacks Jami Sitzmann in the end zone), 4:45 left fourth.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Fort Dodge: Dreshaun Ross 24-110, Will McElroy 18-55, Tru McBride 7-16, Team 3-(minus-12). Le Mars: Andrew Grant 10-82, Joaquin Hernandez 10-23, Cristofer Sanchez 1-4, Jami Sitzmann 9-0.

Passing – Fort Dodge: Tru McBride 5-12-0-74. Le Mars: Jami Sitzmann 9-18-2-84.

Receiving – Fort Dodge: Cal Pederson 4-58, Tytrell Mosley 1-16. Le Mars: Isaiah Tolzin 2-34, Tegan Bogh 2-19, Andrew Grant 3-17, Tycen Augustine 1-13, Ephrahim Kabongo 1-1.