With temperatures expected to dip into the thirties Friday night, bundled-up Spur Bulldogs fans barely had time to wrap up in their blankets before the hometown team had punched three touchdowns into the end zone.
The Bulldogs jumped ahead 22–0 with only two minutes into the district contest, including a kickoff return by Spur’s Ryan Davis on the first play of the game, and a stunned Vernon Northside never seemed to recover.
For much of the season Spur’s offensive engine has been driven by the rushing game, so as the team heads into the district stretch, Coach Tate Clark said he “tried to see if we could open our passing game back up.”
It worked. With a little more than a minute into the game, Davis completed a pass to Nick Ortiz for 23 yards and a touchdown.
The defensive duo of Corey Hamilton and Le’Zhane Walker stymied the Indians play after play. For the game Hamilton had 6.5 tackles, 3 solos and 7 assists. Walker chalked up 4.5 tackles, 4 solos and 1 assist.
Even though Spur was working on opening up the passing game, the Bulldogs were still formidable with the run. Hamilton rushed for 98 yards for three touchdowns and even managed a fourth TD off of an interception runback. Walker rushed for 73 yards and picked up two touchdowns. And this was all in a game that lasted one half.
At the end of the first quarter the scoreboard had the writing on the wall: Spur 46, Northside 0, and a quarter of play was still left even under the mercy rule.
Since Spur is a town without a functioning café right now, fans started flocking to the concession stands halfway through the second quarter for take-home pizzas and stuffed potatoes as they could see how this story was going to end.
But Northside still tried to make a stand.
With 6:44 left in the first half, Matt Brooks of Northside found a sliver of daylight in a sea of Bulldogs on a reception deep in his own territory and then hauled 74 yards for a Northside touchdown.
Spur answered back with a 65-yard run by Walker for a TD, and to further insure that it would be a one-half game, in a matter of seconds Jaxen Zarate snagged an interception of Northside’s next possession and ran it in for a Bulldog touchdown.
The Bulldogs never led by less than 40 points and as the half wore down, Spur coaches began to make substitutions. According to Clark, “We enjoyed seeing our JV boys getting some reps and seeing what they’re made of. It was good for us to see someone else and be able to see our rotations and how we are filling holes and blocking.”
Northside managed two more scores and Spur one more before game ended at the half 74–18.
Fans were amply rewarded for sticking around, though, for a halftime show presented by the Spur Mini-Cheerleaders, with each group presenting brief, well rehearsed dance routines. The icing on the cake was the marching band’s im pressive rendition of “Tales of Arabia” featuring colorful drum-major costumes and solo turns on vibraphone and flute.
The gridiron victory brings Spur to 7–1 on the season, and they remain undefeated 2–0 in district. Next week they have a bye, but the week afterwards they travel to Knox City and take on the Greyhounds in another district contest.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.
