Jimmy Johnson once said to his Dallas Cowboy locker room. “If you ever go after a big gorilla, you don’t ever hit him lightly, you hit him with everything you’ve got!” He would have been proud of the effort of the Spur Bulldogs Friday night despite falling to White Deer 64–40.
White Deer opened the scoring after returning the opening kickoff down to the Spur 15-yard line. Two plays later they were in the end zone. Spur would go three-and-out, and after the punt White Deer would quickly drive down to the Spur 4-yard line, looking poised to blow the game wide open early.
But Spur proved they were up for the fight. They caused a fumble near the goal line and began matching White Deer yard for yard and hit for hit. It was 10–8 by the end of the first, tied 24–24 with 5:41 left in the second , and it looked like it would be a close game at the half.
But with seven seconds left in the half, Mason Mooney made a great adjustment on a badly underthrown ball and was able to elude defenders for a 67-yard touchdown as the half expired. It put White Deer up 40–24 at the half and though the Bulldogs continued to fight, they were never able to pull even again.
White Deer fields a talented group of seniors that are one of the biggest six-man teams you’re likely to ever watch.
Their big three players are quite a formidable threat. Quarterback Grayson Freeman passed for 252 yards and four touchdowns; running back Hunter Warminski rushed for 124 yards and three touchdowns; and receiver Mooney caught four passes for 142 yards and three touchdowns.
It takes a determined football team to stand up to a roster like that, but that’s exactly what the Bulldogs did. After the game Coach Tate Clark noted, “We improved from last week; that’s a good team over there, they really are, they’ve competed with some big teams already. I was proud of the way our boys fought all four quarters. We had some mental errors that kind of got us down in the game, but I was impressed in the way we came out today.”
Friday night’s player to watch was sophomore Cory Hamilton, who carried the ball 15 times for 149 hardfought yards and three touchdowns. With Gunnir Bateman missing the second half due to injury, most of the offense ran from a tight formation and the physical running style of Hamilton was exactly what was needed. At one point in the game a fan turned around to me and said, “You’re not going to arm tackle him, that’s for sure.” Hamilton also showed up on defense leading the Bulldogs with nine tackles.
The Bulldogs look to get in the win column next Friday night as the O’Donnell Eagles come to town for Spur’s Homecoming.
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