Unable to overcome 41 unanswered points Friday night in their regular-season finale against St. Clair’s Bulldogs at Dutchmen Field, Dustin Howard’s Owensville Dutchmen suffered a 55-15 setback to enter Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) Class 3, District 3 Tournament play at 0-9 overall.

Tomorrow (Thursday) night, Owensville will get a second shot at the Bulldogs in first-round gridiron action at St. Clair High School with a 7 p.m., kickoff.

“We were able to answer their opening score and then St. Clair just out played us the rest of the game,” Howard said. “Our guys kept playing hard throughout the night, you just have to tip your hat to St. Clair as they were the better team.”

St. Clair scored first on a Nate Short 24-yard touchdown run giving them a 7-0 lead after Xavier Tiepelman’s extra point.

Owensville answered with a scoring drive of their own capped by a Chase Crosby to Steven Buddemeyer 8-yard TD pass at the 4:44 mark of the first quarter.

Gianluca Brucculeri’s extra point tied the game at 7-7.

From that point, St. Clair got rushing touchdowns from Ashton Feuerborn, Logan Bartz and Short leaving the Dutchmen trailing 35-7 at halftime.

Owensville nearly saw a fast third quarter after Bartz scored his third rushing touchdown of the game at the 9:32 mark of the third quarter.

Buddemeyer blocked the ensuing extra-point attempt keeping St. Clair’s lead under 35 points at 41-7.

MSHSAA’s mercy rule kicks in anytime one team is ahead of another by 35 points or more in the second half.

After St. Clair added another touchdown before the end of the third quarter, Owensville opened the fourth quarter with their second touchdown of the game.

Crosby used his legs on a 6-yard TD run with 11:44 remaining before finding Buddemeyer on a two-point conversion pass cutting St. Clair’s lead to 48-15 once again stopping the running clock.

Bartz restarted it seconds later on a 35-yard TD run giving St. Clair their final margin of victory.

While the clock was running in the fourth quarter, Dutchmen freshman quarterback Peyton Pohlmann completed his first varsity pass to Bo Buddemeyer for a gain of four yards.

Crosby went 3-10 passing for 76 yards and a touchdown while also leading the Dutchmen on the ground with 55 yards rushing on seven carries and another score.

Connor Wellman (five carries) and Henry Loeb (three carries) each rushed for 16 yards while Liam Rasmussen also added 13 yards rushing on 10 carries.

Loeb led Dutchmen receivers with one catch for 39 yards while Steven Buddemeyer caught two passes for 37 yards.

Brady Watson and Ricky Marquez led the orange and black defense with seven tackles apiece followed by six from Steven Buddemeyer.

Cael Walker and Loeb followed with five Dutchmen tackles in addition to three apiece from the trio of Aiden Carpenter, Wyatt Shaw and Rasmussen.

Will Coppedge and Brendan Kramme both recorded two tackles while the quintet of Jack Tesson, Rylee Schuchardt, Brendan Kramme, Wellman and Brucculeri each added one tackle.

Bartz led St. Clair with 215 yards rushing and four touchdowns while Short also had 132 yards rushing and two more scores.