The Bulldogs season has finally come to an end as they lost to Girard 28-27 in a classic NE8 match up in the second round of the playoffs. 

The Bulldog’s final record was 9-3 as they came up just short of the NE8 title as well. The Bulldog’s losses were Canfield and twice to Girard.

This game was entertaining for all of the Poland fans and families.

Girard was up 28-21 with five minutes left, and after a rush of many plays held back due to penalties,  David Xipolitas broke a 43-yard rushing touchdown to be down by one.

Unfortunately, the game was ultimately decided on a two-point conversion as the Bulldogs were trailing 28-27 with three minutes remaining. The Bulldogs decided to go for two to have the lead, but it ended with David Xipolitas getting hit and not being able to get the ball out, as it was an incomplete pass.

The Dogs then had three minutes and one timeout to get the stop and get the ball back, but Girard quarterback A.J. Pearson would run for the first down, ultimately sealing the deal, and the Bulldogs lost in a thriller.

On the bright side, the 2026 class has made history as they rank 2nd in all-time wins in program history; that was one of the goals of this class coming into the year. 

Poland Captain, Pano Xipolitas was asked before the game why he thought the outcome would be different. He said, “The penalties were ultimately hurting us a lot, and we needed to cut those out to win the game.” 

Ultimately, the Bulldogs had a bunch of unnecessary penalties costing them a lot of drives on offense. Defensively,  it got out of hand, not allowing the Bulldogs to make a great comeback.