Begin post season here Friday night Bulldogs claw out 31-30 win over Skyline

El Dorado Springs hosted Skyline for the final regular season game of the 2017 season, and the Bulldogs were victorious in a hard fought 31-30 game on Senior Night.

El Dorado Springs opened the game with a 30-yard kickoff return by Colton Collins who nearly broke free for a touchdown on the play. Despite the nice return, the Bulldogs struggled to move the ball on offense and turned the ball over on downs to the Tigers.

On offense, Skyline put together an 11-play drive to strike first blood and take a 7-0 lead. The Bulldogs were forced to punt on their second drive of the night while the Tigers turned the ball over on downs for their second drive.

On the second play of ElDo’s next drive, the Bulldog ball carrier fumbled the ball and the Tigers fell onto it as the first quarter came to an end, with Skyline up 7-0.

The Tigers drove down the field and facing 4th and 1 from the ElDo 2-yard line, Skyline attempted a field goal that bounced off of the crossbar and through the uprights to pull Skyline up 10-0.

The Bulldogs responded by marching down the field on the next drive, highlighted by a 44-yard pass from Trey Babcock to Jake Schieffer. Tanner Witt capped off the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run. Trenton Hardie added the two-point conversion to make it a 10-8 game.

Skyline responded with a 70-yard drive to pull ahead 17-8.

On the next ElDo drive the Bulldogs drove down to the Skyline 29, where a holding penalty negated a 9-yard run. On the next play, Shelby McKinney caught a 32-yard touchdown pass before an offensive pass interference call took those points off the board and put the Bulldogs into a 2nd and 26 situation. Unable to gain the required ground needed, ElDo punted the ball down to the Tigers 26 with the half nearing a close.

Skyline put together an 11-play drive but fell 2 yards short of the goal line as the clock expired sending the Tigers in at half up by 9 points.

The Bulldogs opened the second half with an onside kick that was recovered by Clayton Collins giving ElDo the ball. The Bulldogs put together an 8-play drive that was finished when Hardie ran into the endzone from 24-yards out to trim the Skyline lead to 17-14.

On the next Skyline drive, Schieffer picked off a pass and returned it for 40 yards to the Skyline 34-yard line. ElDo drove down to the 21-yard line where Brayden Housh kicked a 38-yard field goal to tie the game at 17-17.

Skyline answered with a 9-play drive to take a 24-17 lead as the third quarter ended.

The Bulldogs responded with a 7-play drive that included a 50-yard pass from Babcock to Schieffer and an 11-yard touchdown pass from Babcock to McKinney. The PAT was blocked and the Bulldogs trailed 23-24.

Skyline was forced to punt on their next drive and the punt bounced down to the ElDo 4-yard line.

The Bulldogs managed to make it to the Skyline 48-yard line where they faced 4th and 9, when Babcock was flushed from the pocket and hit McKinney on the sideline at the 32-yard line. Hardie found his way to the endzone on the next play to finish 14-play, 96-yard drive. Colton Collins added the 2-point conversion to give ElDo the 31-24 lead with 3:06 left in the game.

Skyline responded by going 65 yards in 6 plays to bring it to a 30-31 game. On the ensuing PAT, Dylan Gallette blocked the kick preserving the one-point lead.

ElDo brought their hands team in for the Skyline onside kick and Schieffer fielded the ball clean. The Bulldogs kneeled the ball out of the victory formation to end the game 31-30.

With the win, the Bulldogs move to 5-4 on the year and secured the 3rd seed in districts. The Bulldogs next take on Versailles at home on Friday night at 7 p.m. in post season play.

On the stat sheet where every point was needed, on offense, Trenton Hardie gained 101 yards on 15 carries and scored two TDs and a total of 14 points. Tanner Witt ran the ball 13 times for 68 yards and one TD scoring 6 points. Jake Schieffer  rushed nine time for 15 yards and caught two passes for 94 yards.  Trey Babcock ran twice for seven yards. Keilen Jaques  carried twice for two yards. Passing Trey Babcock completed five out of nine attempts for 127 yards and one TD. Seth McKinney caught three passes for a total of three yards and one TD.

On defense, alphabetically, Trey Babcock made seven tackles. Colton Collins made five. Dylan Gallette had six tackles, one a TFL, tackle for a loss. Jordan Gallette made one as did Trey Graves, Trenton Hardie and Cameron Hargrove. Wyatt Graves had six tackles. Blake Holder had six tackles and half a TFL. Brayden Housh made four tackles. Ricky Huff and Lance Smith had two tackles. Keilan Jaques made eight tackles. Dakota Long had seven and one TFL. Dagan McIntire made two tackles, one of them a TFL. Shelby McKinney had six tackles, 1.5 TFLs. Kaleb Raff had one tackle and half a TFL. Jake Shcieffer made six tackles and one interception. Tanner Witt had five tackles one of them a TFL.