Sidney's Wintholz uses Homecoming to honor relative

Even before the 2015 football season started, Tyler Wintholz was looking to do something "special."

Most would expect that statement to simply mean catch a lot of passes and score touchdowns in bunches in his final season.

Instead, his intentions were to honor the man who introduced him to football.

Wintholz traded in his usual No. 24 jersey for the No. 17 on Friday night for Sidney's game against Alliance.

That number was adorned on his great-grandfather Maynard Smith's uniform back in the days when he played at Aurora Central (Colo.) High School.

Smith died Oct. 16, 2014 – a year ago to the day of the Red Raiders' Homecoming game on Friday evening.

"At the beginning of the season, I wanted to do something special this season to honor him," Wintholz said after Sidney's disappointing 13-12 loss to the Bulldogs.

"He got me interested in football and showed me a lot of things when I was younger," he said. "I saw that this game fell on the day he died last year, so this was pretty special."

Wintholz just wishes the outcome turned out differently.

The Red Raiders blew a 12-0 halftime lead, allowing the Bulldogs to score a touchdown in each of the third and fourth quarters. Alliance's game-winner came with just under four minutes to play.

The loss dropped Sidney to 4-4 overall and put a damper on its hopes of qualifying for the Class B state tournament as a wild card.

"This was a very frustrating game," said Sidney head coach Chris Koozer. "This one was definitely winnable for us. We just didn't have the breaks go our way in the second half."

The Red Raiders will wrap up their regular season at home this Friday against Gering at 7 p.m.

Gering is coached by former Sidney head coach Todd Ekart. The Bulldogs are 0-8 this season and have lost 21 straight games dating back to 2013.

"I'm sure he'll have them lathered up when they come down here," Koozer said. "These kids all know Coach Ekart from the past years when he was here.

"I don't think I'm going to have to say much to get them motivated for that game," he added.

In Friday's loss, Sidney was dominant on offense, yet allowed a couple of scoring opportunities to slip away.

Hunter Secrest got the Red Raiders on the scoreboard with a 6-yard touchdown run with 3:34 left in the first quarter. Arik Doty's PAT kick failed, leaving Sidney ahead 6-0.

Just two minutes later, Derek Robb broke free and scored on a 56-yard run for a touchdown. Doty's PAT kick was blocked, leaving Sidney up 12-0.

But, it was the drives that sputtered that left Sidney and its fans second-guessing themselves after the final buzzer had sounded.

Sidney quarterback Brady Radcliffe threw two, first-half interceptions in the end zone that halted chances for points.

"Turnovers certainly hurt us at times tonight," Koozer said. "The time and placement of some of our passes were off just a little bit, and that's just one of those things. Alliance certainly capitalized on our mistakes and we kept them around in the game."

A pair of fumbles in the second half by the Raiders also proved costly.

Secrest had the ball stripped away from him on Sidney's first drive of the fourth quarter.

Then, following Alliance's go-ahead touchdown, the Raiders put a potential game-winning drive that ended in another turnover.

Sidney moved from its own 17 and into Alliance territory as the clock ticked down. Radcliffe connected with Robb on a 33-yard pass play on 4th and 7 that kept the drive alive.

Two plays later, Secrest took a hard hit from an Alliance defender at the 14-yard line and the ball came loose.

Alliance ran the final 1:39 off the clock to pick up the win and improve to 4-4 this season.