Football Recap: A.J. Pospichal's Menacing Defense Leads West Holt over Pleasanton

In Friday's Canine Competition, West Holt came out on top. They managed a 50-44 victory over the Pleasanton Bulldogs on Friday. This was payback for the Huskies, who suffered a 49-30 defeat the last time these two teams met.

West Holt can attribute much of their success to Gabriel Monasterio, who rushed for 51 yards and three touchdowns.

They were just one part of a punishing run game: West Holt was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 393 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.

A.J. Pospichal

Total Tackles

08/29/25 vs Elkhorn Valley	2
09/19/25 vs Arcadia/Loup City	2
09/12/25 @ Ainsworth	3
09/05/25 @ Central Valley	4
10/03/25 @ Sandhills Valley	4

On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to West Holt's defensive line and their five sacks. In that department, A.J. Pospichal was the leader with two. He also set a new season-high mark in total tackles with 13. West Holt got some further help from Beau Duhachek: he picked up a sack and made seven total tackles (2.0 for loss).

Despite the loss, Pleasanton still got an impressive performance from Brennan Lindner, who rushed for 170 yards and a pair of scores, and also threw for 242 yards and five TDs while completing 78.3% of his passes. Another player making a difference was Sam Smith, who gained 131 total yards and three touchdowns.

The win made it two in a row for West Holt and bumps their season record up to 3-4. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to yards per carry: they averaged an imposing 6.6 yards per carry in those games compared to only 3.08 in the others. As for Pleasanton, their loss was their fourth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 1-6.

We've got plenty of inter-district action coming up soon. West Holt will challenge rival Ravenna at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 805 yards in their previous games. Meanwhile, Pleasanton is set to face off against their familiar foe Sandhills Valley at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.