The Haxtun Bulldogs dropped to 5-3 with two losses the first weekend back from Christmas break. The Bulldogs fell on the road to Yuma on Friday night and to Prairie at the home of the Mustangs on Saturday.

“Obviously it wasn’t the start we wanted coming out of break,” said Head Coach Jayden Stieb. “We learned that we still have a ton to work on.”

The Bulldogs first outing from the holiday break pitted them in a match up with the Yuma Indians. Yuma, who is in the same Lower Platte League as the Bulldogs, is a 2A team.

The Bulldogs played a fast-paced match up with the Indians but fell 75-35.

Senior Owen Knode led his team in scoring against the Indians with 10 points. Maclin Tempel and David Avery each registered nine points.

The following day, Haxtun hit the road again, this time to take on 1A opponent Prairie. The Prairie Mustangs, with the win over the Bulldogs, hold a 4-1 overall record. The game on Saturday was much closer for the Bulldogs as it came down to the wire, Haxtun ultimately falling 45-41.

Tempel put 12 points on the board in Prairie Saturday, the team high. Knode added 10 followed by Isaac Andersen and Avery, each with eight.

“I thought we played pretty solid defense against Yuma and Prairie,” Stieb said. “We still need to rebound better and find a way to put the ball in the hold on offense. Moving forward, we need to improve our pace of play. We want to control the speed of the game. In our last two games, we let our opponent dictate the pace.”

Despite dropping two in a row, the Bulldogs remain in the top 10 in 1A Colorado rankings, according to ColoradoPreps. Haxtun currently sits in the eighth seed behind Evangelical Christian, Granada, Briggsdale, Sierra Grande, Prairie, Genoa Hugo and Denver Waldorf; listed in order of one through eight.

This week, Haxtun returns to the court for a match up with Sedgwick County on Friday night. The meeting will mark the second of the two teams thus far this season; the first Haxtun came out on top 44-32.

Game time on Friday in Haxtun is set for 4 p.m. with junior varsity matchups followed by varsity.