The Hampton-Dumont-CAL football team did just enough on offense and banded together defensively to hold on for a 16-13 non-district win at West Marshall on Friday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
Following a H-D-CAL fumble on their opening drive, West Marshall missed a field goal inside the Bulldogs 30 yard line. The Trojans broke the scoreless tie on their next possession on a 21 yard touchdown run, the PAT was no good, to move ahead 6-0 in the 1st qtr. The Bulldogs on their opening drive of the 2nd qtr, tied the game at 6-6 on a 43 yard sprint to the end zone by Colin Bird, the PAT was no good. Following a Trojans fumble, the Bulldogs took their first lead at 9-6 on a 37 yard field goal by Hunter Rieken with 21.5 seconds to go before the half. West Marshall took the lead back at 13-9, seconds into the 3rd qtr on a 90 yard kickoff return. The Bulldogs answered on the ensuing kickoff with a 85 yard kickoff return to the house by Brody Strother, to take a 16-13 lead for good.
The Bulldogs defense stepped up to halt the Trojans offense to three turnovers and a missed field goal in the second half.
Bulldog Head Coach Cole Miller on offensive adjustments and the body of work by the defense.
“Knowing that we can adapt the way we did,” says Miller. “We ran a no huddle at the end there so we could get into formations that we liked. They were flipping some guys and we knew we were better kicking out one guy or trying to hook another. We were able to flip our formations and then run at the people that we wanted to by seeing how they aligned in a no huddle. That might be something that we look to go to more as we continue on in the season because it worked so well for us down the stretch there. Then building on this momentum of our defense, their dogs and they’re playing great. Our offense we’re starting to gel. We figured something out. We just got to keep building on their success.”
The Bulldogs were led by Colin Bird with 20 carries for 134 yards and a touchdown. Brody Strother had a touchdown and led the defense with seven tackles. Carter Arends added two interceptions for H-D-CAL.
H-D-CAL improves to 3-0 for the second year in a row and will be at Nevada to close out non-district action on Friday on 104.9 KLMJ.
