Pembroke Hill tops Bulldogs 14-8

The Pembroke Hill Raiders managed to edge out the El Dorado Springs Bulldogs 14-8 on Senior Night to open the 2018 football season on the Bulldogs home field.

The Raiders began the game receiving the ball and after a good return, started their first drive from their own 45-yard line. On the first play of the drive, Defensive Back Senior Trey Babcock picked off a pass and returned it 21 yards to give the Bulldogs the ball at the Raider 40-yard line. The Bulldogs used the run and the pass effectively as they drove down the field in a drive that was finished with QB Babcock getting into the endzone from 1-yard out. Senior Running Back Tanner Witt added the two-point conversion to put the Bulldogs up 8-0.

On the first play of the next Pembroke drive, the Raider ball carrier appeared to have the ball stripped away and recovered by an ElDo defender but an official ruled that the runner was down ending the play before the turnover. Pembroke drove into Bulldog territory but as the ElDo defense stiffened forcing a 3rd-and-five situation, a 15-yard facemask penalty gave the Raiders new life and Pembroke tied the game up at 8-8 four plays later, which is how the first quarter would end.

In the second quarter, the Bulldogs failed to get much going on offense and was forced to punt the ball to the Raiders who took over at the 50-yard line. Pembroke used 13 plays to cover the 50 yards needed and went ahead 14-8 in the game.

ElDo was able to respond by marching down the field and got the ball to the Pembroke 20-yard line before a costly holding penalty backed the Bulldogs up and stalled the drive.

Both teams would trade punts once again as the half came to a close with the Raiders leading El Dorado Springs 14-8.

In the third quarter, the Bulldogs first possession failed to produce much, leading to a punt. Pembroke took possession of the ball at their own 39-yard line and 3 plays later, ElDo forced a fumble that was recovered by Brayden Housh. After ten plays the Bulldogs were in the endzone before an illegal shift penalty took away the score and backed the team up. ElDo failed to recover from that point, and despite being able to put a few drives together, neither team threatened to score resulting in an 14-8 win for Pembroke Hill.

After the game, Coach Scroggins said, “I felt like we had too many penalties out there tonight that cost us on both sides of the ball. Coming into the game we knew that Pembroke Hill was going to be a pretty good team. They went 8-3 last year as a Class 3 school and only lost four starters. I felt like our boys brought the fight to them. I was very impressed with the way that Trey Babcock led the team on both sides of the ball, and felt he did a great job taking command of the new offense.”

“I was also impressed with Senior Cameron Hargrove who is a new starter this year. Cameron was matched up against a Division 1 recruit for a lot of the game, and Cameron controlled him while leading our team in pancake blocks.”

QB SCORES – Bulldog Quarterback Trey Babcock was a nightmare for the Pembroke Hill Raiders intercepting a pass on their first play from scrimmage, then later carrying the ball across the goal line to score the TD. Running Back Senior Tanner Witt added the two-point conversion. But that ended the scoring for the home team.

“Defensively, I thought our kids played very fundamentally sound and our tackling was excellent. That is a testament to the work Coach Carpenter and the rest of our defensive staff do getting our players ready. While this loss hurts, I was proud of the attitude and effort that was displayed on the field tonight and feel that if we fix some of the mistakes that we made and build on the positives that we saw, we have the makings of a pretty good football team.”

El Dorado Springs will next begin play in the newly formed Ozark Mountain Conference as the Bulldogs host Sherwood at home on Friday, Aug. 31 starting at 7 p.m.