Win Ozark Mountain Conference

Bulldogs defeat Warsaw 26-14

The El Dorado Springs Bulldogs played four quarters of hard-nosed football to top the Warsaw Wildcats 26-14 on Friday night wining the Ozark Mountain Conference.

ElDo won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. Warsaw opened the night with a seven-play drive that was finished off with a 36-yard touchdown pass putting the Wildcats up 6-0.

The Bulldogs put together a drive that managed to get down to the Warsaw 32-yard line but the drive stalled and the ball was turned over on downs.

On the next Warsaw drive, the ElDo defense stood strong and forced the Wildcats to punt. The Bulldogs took over on their own 24-yard line and strung together a seven-play scoring drive that was highlighted by a Tanner Witt 21-yard run and finished with a 34-yard touchdown run by Witt to pull the Bulldogs even with Warsaw at 6-6.

Neither team’s offense managed to get anything else going in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Warsaw went on a 12-play scoring drive to jump out to a 14-6 lead.

The Bulldogs responded as Trey Babcock had a 35-yard run to start the series and also capped the drive off with a 2-yard touchdown run to make it a 12-14 game with three minutes left in the first half.

On the ensuing kickoff, Dylan Gallette delivered an excellent tackle on the Wildcat return man. Four plays later, Trey Graves had a hard tackle on the Warsaw running back and with the two physical plays, momentum had shifted to ElDo’s side. The Wildcats were again forced to punt and the ball was downed at the ElDo 23-yard line.

With time running out, the Bulldogs ran their hurry-up offense and in ten plays, found the endzone on 3-yard touchdown run by Witt. Babcock added the 2-point conversion to give the Bulldogs the 20-14 lead with only a few seconds remaining in the half.

The Bulldogs began the second half with the ball and took it down to the Warsaw 41-yard line before turning it over on downs.

ElDo’s defense again remained strong and managed to stop the Wildcats who came up short in four downs.

The Bulldog offense then went on a 9-play drive that was capped off with a Babcock 21-yard touchdown run, giving ElDo the 26-14 lead as the third quarter neared its end.

The fourth quarter did not see any more scoring from either team. The Bulldogs put together another drive that appeared to score but a holding call brought the touchdown back and ElDo was not able to make up for the lost yardage. Defensively, the Bulldogs remained strong and Haiden Overton added a late interception to help seal the victory for the Bulldogs.

Coach Derek Scroggins said, “I’m incredibly proud of the effort and attitude that our boys displayed tonight. They played hard from whistle to whistle and didn’t let up until the game was over. I thought that our physicality set up apart tonight and that was on display in each phase of the game. Offensively, our backs did a good job of finding the holes and running with tenacity, and our line battled all night long. Defensively, we tackled well and with force. This was a great way to finish off conference play and I believe we took a step in the right direction.”

With the win, El Dorado Springs wins the Ozark Mountain Conference Championship with a 5-0 conference record and improves to 6-1 on the year. The Bulldogs next host Skyline (5-2) for Homecoming at 7 p.m. on Friday night.

McKINNEY ON DEFENSE – Senior Bullddog Defensive Lineman Shelby McKinney, No. 32, made his presence felt in the Bulldogs 26 – 14 win over the Warsaw Wildcats Friday night in Warsaw. Shelby tallied 13 tackles (tied for the lead) of them 1.5 tackles for a loss. On the other side of the ball, Shelby was the leading receiver with four passes for 40 yards. (Photo courtesy of Benton County Enterprise).

JV DOGS BITE WARSAW WILDCATS – In a good omen for future football seasons, the JV Bulldogs literally ran circles around the JV Warsaw Wildcats Monday evening on their home field. Here you see No. 10 Wide Receiver Daniel Minehardt running half the length of the field to score his first of two touchdowns. He was joined in the track meet by Running Back Preston Robison and Running Back Hunter Boyles in the track meet that had the JV Dogs up 40 – 8 at the half. QB Clayton Collins was deadly with short passes to his speedy back that put them in position to run around the end of the defenders’ line. The coach must have taken his foot off the pedal which let other players get some game time because the final score was 40-14.