Slow start bites Bulldogs in Troy
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
TROY — You would think the Bulldogs would’ve been chomping at the bit to play the Trojans.
It was their first conference game and they were coming off a huge season-opening victory against Boulder, but for some reason in Troy Friday, the Bulldogs played uninspired the first five minutes, spotting the Trojan’s 16 points during this span, and never fully could recover in a 40-21 District 7-B loss.
“The kids didn’t seem excited to play. We came out a little flat and I don’t know why, maybe it was the long bus ride, I don’t know, but I called a timeout and we started to move the ball after that and they started to have fun,” Mission coach Peter Hamilton said.
Both of Troy’s scoring drives in the first quarter started inside the Bulldogs’ 10-yard line. On the Bulldogs’ opening drive they fumbled the ball on the 6 and the Trojans returned the Bulldogs’ punt after their second possession down to the 10.
“We made a lot of mistakes. We are a young team, so we’re going to make mistakes, we just made four or five too many,” Hamilton said. “When you’re a young team it’s hard to comeback from mistakes.”
But to the Bulldogs credit, they did comeback from their opening mistakes. Nikko Alexander, who had nine tackles, sparked the Bulldogs’ revival by blocking a Trojan punt, Zane Foster pounced on the loose ball and rumbled about 30 yards to give Mission a short field. Mission quarterback Dylan Evans capped the short drive with a 1-yard run to get the Bulldogs on the board.
Scotty Gilleard, who finished with 100 yards on 21 carries, made it a 16-13 game with a 6-yard TD run. It looked like the Bulldogs would only go into the locker room trailing by three, but Trojan Trent Cratty had a 83-yard kickoff return in the final three minutes of the half.
“That really takes the wind out of your sails. You expect to go into half with it only 16-13 and all of sudden they score a touchdown,” Hamilton said. “They deserve to win, they played better than we did, but our mistakes killed us.”
The long kickoff return was one mistake too many for the Bulldogs and they never could recover. The Trojans scored 18 unanswered points in the second half, before a Chris McKay 3-yard TD run in the fourth quarter made it 40-21.
The Bulldogs rushed for 259 yards with both Gilleard and McKay hitting the century mark. McKay rushed for 100 yards on just 12 carries.
The Bulldogs (1-1) travel to Deer Lodge Friday.
Summary
Troy 40, Mission 21
Mission 0 13 0 8–21
Troy 16 6 6 12–40
T - Kody Hoffman 9 run (Hoffman run)
T - Hoffman 5 run (Hoffman pass from Mike Ormiston)
M - Dylan Evans 1 run (run failed)
M - Scotty Gilleard 6 run (kick good)
T - Trent Cratty 83 kickoff return (pass failed)
T - Hoffman 2 run (pass failed)
T - Hoffman 21 run (run failed)
T - Corey Orr 3 run (kick failed)
M - Chris McKay 3 run (Chris McKay run)
