MACKSVILLE — The Osborne High School football team’s goal was clear — run all over Macksville.
The Bulldogs accomplished that feat in a 62-28 win over the Mustangs in a second-round game of the Eight-Man Division-I state playoffs on Saturday afternoon.
Osborne only attempted four passes in the game and didn’t throw the ball until a fourth-and-5 situation halfway through the second quarter.
The Bulldogs’ rushing attack allowed them to control the ball. Osborne ran 48 plays in the first half. Macksville ran 12.
“We talked about that at halftime,” Macksville head coach Kuckelman said. “That is exactly what we’ve been scared of all year. Somebody running the ball, keeping it away from our offense and limiting our touches. We feel that if we get the ball, we can score on anybody. They did a good job doing exactly what we were concerned about.”
The game started off with the two teams trading scores.
The Bulldogs scored its first touchdown a four-minute, 44-second drive that included 11 rushing plays, capped by a 5-yard dive by quarterback Ethan Slothower.
The Mustangs responded in one play, a 57-yard bomb from Seth Filbert to Tanner Tranbarger, making it 8-6 after Macksville failed on the two-point conversion.
Slothower scored again for the Bulldogs, and Tanner Tranbarger answereed with his second touchdown for Macksville to make it 16-12 after one quarter.
That’s when Osborne took over, with Slothower scoring his third and final rushing touchdown of the game.
The back-and-forth sequences ended with the Bulldogs recovering an onside kick, resulting in a 2-yard score from running back Damon Schurr.
Schurr scored again to make it 36-12 at halftime.
“It’s just like we talked about going in,” Kuckelman said. “He’s a heck of a running back. He’s very fast. The times that he went to the outside, he scored, and the times that we didn’t make tackles up the middle, he scored.
“You can’t miss a tackle against him or he’ll score. That was really the difference in the game.”
Schurr finished with 283 rushing yards on 22 carries. He scored five touchdowns, playing a lead role as the Bulldogs totaled 508 rushing yards.
“We could have rolled over there at the half,” Kuckelman said of his team. “I was very proud of our kids, and the way they played. We come out and scored on them, and really made it interesting there for a while.”
Macksville scored twice more, moving the ball down the field with passes from Filbert to Tanner Tranbarger and Adam Oak.
Filbert completed 17 of 33 passes for 187 yards while playing with an injury. He dislocated his collarbone on Tuesday against Ness City.
“He took some hits, and that was bad for him,” Kuckelman said of Filbert. “He battled his rear end off, and I couldn’t be happier. He dislocated it Tuesday night and it went back in. It went back in place on Tuesday night, but it is still very sore.”
Jorge Baray scored on a 1-yard run, and Oak scored on a 3-yard scamper in the third quarter.
However, Schurr erased any hope of a Macksville comeback, rushing for four touchdowns in the second half to the tune of 42, 44, 74 and 30 yards.

EIGHT-MAN DIVISION-I
STATE PLAYOFFS
At Macksville
Saturday
Osborne 62, Macksville 28
Osborne           16  20   6  20 —  62
Macksville       12   0  16   0  —  28
First quarter
Osborne — Ethan Slothower 5 run (Slothower run), 7:16
Macksville — Tanner Tranbarger 57 pass from Seth Filbert (pass fail), 7:03
Osborne — Slothower 35 run (Damon Schurr run), 4:07
Macksville — Tanner Tranbarger 15 run (run failed), 3:48
Second quarter
Osborne — Slothower 1 run (run failed), 11:18
Osborne — Schurr 2 run (Schurr run), 9:06
Osborne — Schurr 15 pass from Slothower (run failed), 2:17
Third quarter
Macksville — Jorge Baray 1 run (Tanner Tranbarger pass from Filbert), 5:01
Osborne — Schurr 42 run (pass fail), 1:44
Macksville — Adam Oak 3 run (Oak run), :00
Fourth quarter
Osborne — Schurr 44 run (run failed), 10:54
Osborne — Schurr 74 run (Schurr run), 9:21
Osborne — Schurr 30 run (pass failed), 6:29