Photo courtesy of Becky Staples.
The Ashville Bulldogs stunned the Oneonta Redskins Friday night after trailing at halftime. The first half was dominated by the Redskins as they put up two quick touchdowns in the first quarter, and held Ashville's offense scoreless. The Bulldogs went to the locker room down 14-0, and it looked as if the game had already been decided.
Coach Trey Pike and his team would have none of that. Ashville's halftime adjustment corrected their offensive struggles. They passed the ball only two times in the game’s last two quarters, and worked almost exclusively out of a power back formation. The Dawgs scored twice in the third quarter to take a 15-14 lead. After a touchdown to start the fourth quarter, the defense handled the rest. The Redskins were shutout in the final three quarters of the game. The Bulldog defense also came up with a huge stop to put the game away after Oneonta had the ball at the Ashville 35 yard line.
"We just came out and played smash mouth football, and came out and got it done in the second half," Coach Pike said after the win. "Defense came out and played great, the offense started clicking, and we just had some fun."
QB Landon Cornutt was limited in the running game tonight with only 41 yards on 15 carries, but contributed 78 yards and a touchdown in the air. RB Ty Armstrong led the way tonight on the ground with 137 yards on 17 carries.
Ashville will travel to Saks next Friday, September 27th. "When we play a team like Saks that’s super athletic, we have to be disciplined and go back to playing crisp football. We can't have an emotional let down, we have to get back on the grindstone first thing Monday," Pike said.
Perkins Carden is a junior at Ashville High School and Senior Writer for www.AshvilleAthletics.com