by Head Coach Derek Scroggins

The El Dorado Springs Bulldogs limited the Sherwood Marksmen to under fifty yards of total offense and created seven turnovers in a 43-0 win to open play in the Ozark Mountain Conference last Friday night on the Bulldogs’ home field.

The Marksmen elected to begin the night with the ball and Haiden Overton set the tone for the Bulldogs on the opening kickoff with a vicious hit on the Sherwood returner after an 8-yard run. On the 4th play of the Marksmen drive, the Bulldogs stripped the ball from the Sherwood ball carrier giving ElDo the ball.

The Bulldogs drove the ball to the Sherwood 25-yard line but the Marksmen picked off a pass on 1st and 10 to stop the ElDo drive.

Sherwood’s next drive only lasted one play as the Bulldogs again created and recovered a fumble. Three plays later, Overton ran into the endzone from 12-yards out giving ElDo a 6-0 lead. Neither team managed to get anything going on offense the rest of the quarter, which came to a close with the Bulldogs up 6-0.

In the second quarter, ElDo’s offense came out at their own 45-yard line and put together a nine-play drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Trey Babcock to Gaven Morgan. Tanner Witt added the two-point conversion to put    ElDo up 14-0.

On the next Sherwood drive, the Bulldogs forced their third turnover of the game as they recovered another fumble. The Bulldogs drove down to the 10-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.

ElDo’s defense caused their fourth fumble two plays later and recovered the ball at the 9-yard line. Babcock found Shelby McKinney in the endzone on the next play for a touchdown and Brayden Housh kicked the PAT to put ElDo up 21-0. On the ensuing kickoff, the ball was mishandled by the Marksmen and Derek Hayes ran down the field to recover the ball. The Bulldogs would fail to capitalize on the possession and the 2ndquarter came to a close shortly after with ElDo leading 21-0.

The Bulldogs began the 2nd half with the ball and drove down to the Sherwood 20-yard line, before a caught pass was stripped and recovered by Sherwood.

Two plays later, the Bulldog defense forced and recovered another fumble giving ElDo the ball at the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Witt dashed into the endzone with Housh adding the PAT to give the Bulldogs the 28-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, ElDo pinned Sherwood down at the Marksmen 10-yard line. Three plays later, the Bulldogs forced another fumble that was jumped on by Sherwood in their own endzone for a Safety.

On the ensuing kickoff, Derek Hayes returned the ball 28-yards before being brought down at the Marksmen 25-yard line. The Bulldogs failed to get the offense going with the short field and Sherwood regained the ball.

Three plays later, a mishandled pitch was recovered by the Bulldogs at the Marksmen nine-yard line. On offense,    ElDo ran two plays, both passes from Babcock to Donovan Collins to cover the nine yards and took a 36-0 lead.

On the next Sherwood drive, Morgan picked off a pass bringing the Bulldog offense back on the field. Two plays later, Overton went untouched for a 43-yard touchdown run. Housh added the PAT to put ElDo up 43-0 with three minutes left in the third quarter.

From this point,    ElDo got a lot of younger kids in the game as the Bulldogs secured the shutout victory.

Coach Scroggins said, “For the second week in a row, I was very impressed with the attitude and effort that our boys showed out there. Defensively, this was the second week in a row where our players did a great job of pursuit and tackling. I felt that we did a tremendous job of taking the ball away. Offensively, we made some mistakes that we need to clean up and improve on but, all in all, we did the things that we needed to in order to come away with a win.”

The Bulldogs (1-1) next host Buffalo (1-1) in an Ozark Mountain Conference game in  El Dorado Springs on Friday night at 7 p.m.

HARD FOUGHT TD – From the football stands, it may have looked like Bulldog Senior Tight End Shelby McKinney caught the nine yard pass from QB Trey Babcock (32) in the end zone to make the score 20-0 , but Junior Bulldog Wide Receiver (2) Derek Hayes had  a ring side view when McKinney caught the ball on the three yard line, then launched himself into sophomore Marksmen defensive back Justin McIntire (11) bowling him over and back into junior Marksmen defensive back Marshal Whitham (16) taking them both into the end zone.

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