When Nederland examines its immediate future, the Bulldogs’ final regular-season game amounts to a playoff of sorts before the playoffs.

Make no mistake about it, though. Nederland has not clinched any playoff bid of any kind as of yet. The Bulldogs host Lumberton Friday night in Bulldog Stadium with a 11th straight trip to the 4A playoffs in their future if they are able to win.

It won’t exactly be a win-or-go-home situation because Nederland already will be at home. But a loss to Lumberton might even feel more painful than Friday’s 35-7 loss at the hands of deserving District 22-4A champion Dayton.

While the Broncos thoroughly dominated the airways and improved to 7-2 and 6-0 before 5,000 at Bronco Stadium, the Bulldogs returned to Mid-County at 4-5 and 3-3 with one consolation.

By falling into a three-way tie for third place with Port Neches-Groves and Little Cypress-Mauriceville, the Nederlanders owned the inside track for 22-4A’s Division I playoff berth because they have defeated both PN-G and LC-M.

“That’s the playoffs, right there,” said Nederland inside linebacker Travis Dabel, as his thoughts turned to must-win aspect of the Lumberton game.

Perhaps that reality may cause Dogs’ head coach Larry Neumann to feel in a jubilant mood next weekend, but certainly not this weekend. Dayton coach Jerry Stewart didn’t have to worry about any barking dogs on this chilly night. And Neumann didn’t have to worry about talking playoffs.

Five turnovers had ruined Larry’s disposition, if Dayton’s 285 passing yards didn’t do it, too. Broncos sophomore quarterback Cody Green flipped five touchdown passes, effectively playing pitch-and-catch with fellow soph A.J. Dugat for three of them.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit with turnovers, but we got beat by a better football team,” Neumann said. “The matchups tonight weren’t conducive to us being able to stop them.

“The athleticism of their quarterback and receiver was difficult for us. We were getting better in covering them at times and they still caught it.”

The fleet-footed little brother, Dugat escaped Nederland’s secondary for 19- and 27-yard first-quarter scoring passes. Then he hauled in another early in the second half after Nederland trimmed its halftime deficit to 21-7.

“This was real sweet,” Dugat said, remembering a 42-0 loss to Nederland two years ago in the 4A bidistrict playoffs at Rice Stadium. “We’ve been improving and coming together. I knew it was coming. I had plenty of room.”