AUBURN, NE - The Auburn Bulldogs survived a hard fought battle with the O'Neill Eagles on Friday, starting the playoffs with a narrow 9-7 win.

The two teams were scoreless heading into the fourth quarter, playing "bend, don't break" defense at times. Through the first three frames, the teams combined for five drives of double-digit plays, but none of them resulted in points! Auburn was stymied at the one-yard line on its opening drive, and the Bulldogs ended a couple of long Eagle drives with takeaways.

The scoring began on a four-yard TD run from Brant Gulizia with 11:18 to go in the fourth. Wyatt Tanner missed the extra point, however, making it 6-0 Auburn. O'Neill responded with a 40-yard TD run and good PAT to take a 7-6 advantage with 7:56 to play. The Bulldogs drove into the red zone on their next drive. When the drive stalled, the team put its faith back in Tanner, who connected on a 23-yard fieldgoal to give his squad a 9-7 lead with just 5:05 to go. O'Neill went five plays on its next drive before turning it over on downs, and Auburn was able to run seven plays to run out the clock and secure the win.

Auburn's Nixon Ligouri ran it 19 times for 162 yards, while going 6/8 passing for just 34 yards in the air. Brant Gulizia finished with 15 runs for 67 yards and the lone Auburn TD. He also tacked on two catches for ten yards, and he forced a fumble on defense. Burke Moody recovered a fumble and had an interception. Camden Taylor secured a pick for the Bulldogs' "D" as well.

O'Neill running back Brady Eichelberger churned out 180 yards on the ground on 21 carries and scored the Eagles' only TD.

Auburn moves on to the quarterfinal round of the Class C1 playoffs this Friday. The Bulldogs will visit two-seed Ashland-Greenwood and kick things off at 7pm on B103.