With the conclusion of both the high school baseball and girls soccer seasons last week, another year of high school sports is now behind us in the history books.

Needless to say, the recently completed 2021-22 school year was very kind to Owensville’s Dutchmen and Dutchgirls.

Beginning in the fall, Nathan Cabot’s Owensville Dutchmen football team came in with a loaded roster and high goals of claiming district and Four Rivers Conference (FRC) titles.

Opening their season in late August against Potosi’s Trojans, the orange and black needed a last-minute touchdown to hold off their Washington County foes by a final score of 38-34 in the season and home opener for the gridiron Dutchmen.

For the foreseeable future, that game turned out to be the last regular-season contest between the Dutchmen and Trojans as OHS dropped Potosi for the upcoming 2022 season and picked up a familiar foe in Warrenton’s Warriors.

Fans would have to look all the way back to the Kevin Baldwin era of Dutchmen Football and the 2001 season to find the last time OHS and Warrenton battled on the gridiron.

Hitting the road for the first of four games in a row away from Dutchmen Field, Owensville ventured into Miller County to take on Eldon’s Mustangs.

In another back-and-forth affair that went down to the wire, Cabot’s Dutchmen needed yet another fourth-quarter comeback to post a 41-34 victory at Eldon’s Victor Field to move to 2-0 on the young season.

Continuing their month-long road trip in September, OHS made the short trek south along Highway 19 into Crawford County to face Cuba’s Wildcats.

Leaving Cuba with a 53-8 victory and a 3-0 start to their season, Cabot’s Dutchmen then opened Four Rivers Conference (FRC) play along Interstate 44 in St. James against the Tigers.

Falling behind 3-0 early, Owensville’s offense quickly woke up putting 60 points on the board before going on to a 60-11 victory.

In the final contest of their four-week stretch of road games, Cabot’s Dutchmen went north on Highway 19 to take on Hermann’s Bearcats in the annual Gasconade County Bowl.

Locked up in a tight affair throughout the entire game, a late two-point conversion by Hermann enabled the Bearcats to hand Owensville their first loss of the season by a final score of 36-35 as it was also homecoming in northern Gasconade County.

Opening the month of October, former Dutchmen head football coach Paul Day and his Pacific Indians visited Dutchmen Field for another homecoming showdown.

This game also marked Day’s first visit to Owensville since he was head coach of the orange and black back in 1997.

Unable to stop Indian running back Makai Parton, Owensville still managed to score a 57-42 homecoming victory over Pacific.

See next week’s ‘Willful Thinking’ for a continued look back at the 2021-22 school year.