The Hampton-Dumont-CAL football team’s defense played strong throughout and created opportunities for its offense in the fourth quarter, and the Bulldogs pulled away for a 13-0 home win over Iowa Falls-Alden in Friday’s Week 1 game that aired on 104.9 KLMJ. It was the fourth straight win in the series by the Bulldogs, and it kept the Bradford Trophy in Hampton.
The first half was dominated by punts and turnovers on downs. Late in the second quarter, the Bulldogs drove deep into Cadet territory, but were denied on a 2nd and Goal as the clock hit zero.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs got the ball after forcing a turnover on downs, and Colin Bird turned a routine dive play into the game’s first score from 52 yards out.
Bird touchdown highlight:
The extra point was missed, making it a 6-0 lead. On the ensuing possession, a Brady Harr interception led to a 10-yard touchdown by Aaden Keehn, and Carter Arends intercepted a deep Cadet pass to seal the win.
“They flew around, they were pursuing to the ball like no other,” Hampton-Dumont-CAL coach Cole Miller says. “And we preach that all the time, but to see them translate that into a ball game was really awesome. And then our offense struggled at first. We just kept stalling out. We had some really good plays, some really good drives going. And then we’d make a mistake here, or we’d let someone through a gap there, and it kind of killed us in our drive. We’re not a team that can really play behind the sticks right now. We got to get better at that.”
Iowa Falls-Alden coach Eric Walkingstick says it was a growing opportunity for his sophomore-heavy team.
“We’ve said this from the beginning, it worries me when I have so much youth because I’m afraid they’re gonna make some degree of mistake,” Walkingstick says. “But they kept their head, they kept battling. It was one of those games where at some point something was gonna bust and we had a mistake there late and that one was on me and it cost us. But hey, that’s when we were taking a chance trying to get the ball down the field a little bit and that’s football. So we gotta set there and we gotta kind of regroup, get ready to go for next week and try to keep our composure and learn from it.”
Bird had 15 carries for 103 yards, and Bulldog quarterback Ryder Strother was 5-8 passing for 47 yards. Iowa Falls-Alden quarterback Cade Olberding had 109 total yards.
At 1-0, the Bulldogs will return home next week to host Clarion-Goldfield-Dows. The 0-1 Cadets will host South Hardin next week.
Cole Miller interview:
Eric Walkingstick interview:
