South Haven News

By Claire Minor

On Oct. 17, 2025, Caldwell hosted the home high school football game where the South Sumner Outlaws took on the Sterling Black Bears. The Black Bears have been described as a tough and challenging team to beat. With that being said, the score of Friday Night’s game was 54-21 during halftime and 75-33 as the final score, Outlaws unfortunately taking the loss.

One of the four captains on the team, Dalton Kelly (#54), is a junior at South Haven Schools. Kelly is a middle linebacker and a guard for the Outlaws. Kelly thought that the team went into the game keeping the fact that Sterling has the best football team in state in their minds. Despite some discouragement shown before the game even began, Kelly thought that the energy was there and they were ready to play, more so after halftime compared to the start.

Kelly said that the Outlaws were trying to shut down Sterling’s run more than they actually did. However, they did make the Black Bears throw the ball, making the Outlaws, according to my interviewee, the second team this season to make them do that. Kelly said that if he could change something about the game, he would change the outcome and how they went into the game. Saying “playing how winners play and coming out winners”. 

Kelly thought that he played well for how he dealt with his opponents who were much bigger than him. Even with some confusion on my end, Kelly requested to add in that his Quincy play was good, saying “they’ll know what I mean.” In spite of that, Kelly could tell that some of his teammates knew that they were going to lose from the beginning because they played like they already gave up, but the starters were ready to compete their best. Kelly thought that the Outlaws were prepared to compete but not fully prepared other than that. 

Even though the Outlaws were stuck with the loss, playing such a team as Sterling was a great way to show how the Outlaws are as athletes. Kelly expressed that by halftime everyone knew they were going to lose but the Outlaws stayed strong and played to their best abilities to get just one step closer to that win. Kelly said “Even if we were ten points closer to them, we would’ve been happy.” which says a lot about their commitment to the game. 

Keeping all of the good and the bad about this game in mind, this was a great opportunity for the Outlaws to show everyone what they’re made of.