LUFKIN - The size of Kilgore's dog in this fight wound up having a lot to do with the size of the fight in Nederland's dog.

  Large enough for big-time college competition in too many line positions, the Ragin' Red kept it simple again, escorting junior tailback Jerek Sheffield to his third straight 200-yard rushing performance and a domineering dismissal of Big Ned in the 4A Division II area playoff round.

  Kilgore (11-1) did an awful lot more discussing of La Marque than of Nederland following this 40-11 ho-hummer before about 9,000 on a nice afternoon in Abe Martin Stadium.

  The winners of coach Mike Vallery quickly turned their attention to next Saturday's 2 p.m. kickoff in Conroe's Moorhead Stadium. That's where Kilgore and La Marque will collide in the regional round.

  Nederland (6-4) returned home with an awareness that it battled hard but truly offered too little resistance against Kilgore's explosions, particularly by Sheffield who rushed 35 times for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

  Kilgore dialed up an exact 400 total yards, or 297 more than Nederland, by rushing 60 times for 365. Meanwhile coach Larry Neumann's Bulldogs combined 69 rushing and 34 passing yards for a mere 103 sum.

  "I wasn't disappointed from what I saw in Kilgore," Neumann said. "They looked pretty impressive on video and I think they lived up to that in person. There's no shame in our performance. The roof caved in on us early. Then as the game progressed, more roof problems developed."

  Larry's summation almost sounded as if he had described property damage from Hurricane Rita. Of course, that's a side issue which provided an enormous distraction for the 2005 season. Yet N ederland advanced into the second playoff round anyway.

  "I'm real proud behind the Hurricane that we came together as a unit and perservered," senior NHS offensive tackle Zach Bass said. "I'm proud to be a part of this team. And Kilgore was great. You know why they're going where they're going."

  Kilgore's 11th-year boss Vallery commended his defensive coaches for devising a plan which snuffed Nederland's ground game to a measly 69 yards on 17 carries. Even that number is somewhat deceptive if you subtract Micah Mosley's 30-yard touchdown run in the final minute, and a 22-yard Mosley gain earlier in the second half.

  "Our defensive coaches put a heckuva game plan together," Vallery said. "They like to run and we were able to force them into mistakes."

  Nederland fans saw some encouraging moments, though. NHS trailed only 13-3 at half and received a brilliant 50-yard left-footed punt from Ryan Butler, who ended a tremendous high school football career for the Dogs.

  The Nederlanders undoubtedly clashed at times with the Dallas-based officiating crew which administered a few odd calls and non-calls. Like once in the final minute of the half, the officials ignored an apparent interference call against intended receiver Mosley right after Danny Nguyen's interception at Kilgore's 22.

  Yet the officials had nothing to do with Sheffield's big game or Kilgore's bigger line. The running star admitted he was tired after this game. He already collected 138 yards on 21 carries by halftime. And many of them were hard yards up the middle.

  "The offensive line made a lot of good holes," Sheffield said. "Our line was getting off the ball well and it was having an effect (on Nederland's defense). It was causing them to slow down. But those guys (Nederland) have a good team and they made us earn it."

  By maintaining possession fo r 33:48 of the 48-minute game, Kilgore did earn it, too, especially when it covered 98 yards in 10 plays early in the second quarter for a two-touchdown advantage. Sheffield carried on the first nine snaps to the 1 before quarterback Chase Fisher leap-frogged behind his mammoth center Lon Roberts for the final yard.

  When Sheffield and his over-sized blockers did not run the proceedings, Kilgore's book-end defensive ends batted down passes and grabbed ball carriers about the same time that Nederland's backs completed their handoffs.

  "We didn't do it to ourselves today," said Neumann in accounting for Kilgore's dominance. "I don't think there's any magic thing we could have done any differently. And I was very pleased with how we executed our defensive plan."

  The point that kept being hammered in over and over was that Nederland's defense could not put up any stop signs and keep them erect for very long. While NHS was 1  of 9 on third-down conversions, Kilgore was a fairly impressive 7 of 12.

  The winners converted two of those third downs during an 80-yard, 10-play series to open the second half and bulge Kilgore's cushion to 20-3. That figure would double to 40-3 before Nederland would have an answer.

  "We played hard," senior safety Chris Laird said. "We never gave up. It got very frustrating, especially when we couldn't stop them."

  ... an all-too-frequent occurrence at the end of the craziest Nederland football season in modern history.